Exercises 1950–1960 by Yannis Ritsos, translated by Spring Ulmer Pablo Neruda These poems explore nothing less

These poems explore nothing less than the life-process

an elephant and a cathedral come face to face on the frozen Thames

Selby meets the reader with candour and subtle

I looked out at the rushing homes and fields and cried

Exercises 1950–1960 by Yannis Ritsos, translated by Spring Ulmer Pablo Neruda These poems explore nothing lessPublished 1st November 2025. Yannis Ritsos wrote Exercises 19501960 after being tortured and detained during the Greek Civil War. Incredibly, the poems are filled not with bitterness but with amazementat a solitary leaf, a rope ladder, rose and grey light. Alongside such tenderness, of course, the nation state stretches out in the sun, teeth bared. What to say about the human condition? Not long after completing these poems, Ritsos was again