Yannis Ritsos: Selected Poems

Kimon Friar immigrated to the United States in 1915, becoming fascinated with the English language and poetry after reading Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn. He received his MA from the University of Michigan and went on to teach English at Adelphi University, New York University, UC Berkeley, and Ohio State University. Friar often organized poetry readings, running the Poetry Center at the YW/YMHA in New York City for a time and encouraging poets from all walks of life to join in. He is best known for his translation of Nikos Kazantzakis’ epic poem The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, but published a plethora of other translations including Sodom and Gomorrah (Nostos Books, 1982) by Nikos Kazantzakis, With Face to the Wall: Selected Poems by Miltos Sahtouris (Charioteer Press, 1968), and Selected Poems: 1938-1988 (BOA Editions, 1989) with Kostas Myrsiades by Yannis Ritsos. Friar won grants from the Ford Foundation and the National Foundation of the Arts.

Kostas Myrsiades is a professor of Comparative Literature and English at West Chester University. He is also a prolific translator and the first American to win a Gold Medallion from the Hellenic Society of Translators of Literature, given to a scholar by the Greek government. He is the editor of College Literature, which has been the recipient of seven awards from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals, including the Phoenix Award for distinguished editorial achievement. Myrsiades also co-edits the Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora. He has published three translations of poet Yannis Ritsos: Selected Poems: 1938-1988 with Kimon Friar (BOA Editions 1989), Scripture of the Blind (Ohio State University Press, 1979), and Monovasia and the Women of Monemvasia (Nostos Books, 1987).