L’Arbre de la prison et les femmes

Published in Paris in 1963 by the discreet Éditions Revue d’Art, this volume constitutes the first French-language publication of Αθήνα, έκδοση Επιθεώρηση Τέχνης, an essential work by Yánnis Rítsos. Born in the Greek prisons of the military regime, this collection gives voice to female political prisoners through a sequence of stark visions and inward images, in which the tree becomes memory and resistance. Rítsos wrote these poems between 1956 and 1960, largely during his imprisonment in Greek concentration camps, notably Makronissos and Yaros.

The French poetic adaptation, entrusted to Charles Dobzynski, a committed poet and skilled translator, admirably captures the sobriety of the original text.

Four engravings by Zizi Makris, two of them signed and in color, underscore the tension between confinement and the liberation brought by poetry. Makris, herself of Greek origin, brings a visual resonance of grave intensity, perfectly attuned to the text.

An edition by Jacques Lacarrière, a passionate and faithful translator of Rítsos, would follow in 1967 from Éditions Gallimard.

An important and rare publication.