Peace

In honour of International Peace Day, we are delighted to share the work of Yannis Ritsos - arguably the most prolific and celebrate poets of modern Greece. Ritsos published more than 115 volumes of poetry, translation, dramatic work and essays in his lifetime and leaves behind an indelible print on the canon of contemporary literature.

Peace
by Yannis Ritsos

The dreams of a child are peace
The dreams of a mother are peace
The words of love under the trees are peace

The father who returns at dusk with a wide smile in his eyes
with a basket in his hands full of fruit
and the drops of sweat on his brow
which are like drops on a jug as it cools its water on the windowsill,
are peace

When wounds heal on the world’s face
and in the pits dug by shellfire we have planted trees
and in hearts scorched by conflagration hope sprouts its first buds
and the dead can turn over on their side and sleep without complaining
knowing their blood was not spilled in vain,
this is peace.

Peace is the odour of food at evening
When an automobile stopping in the street does not mean fear
When a knock on the door means a friend
And the opening of a window every hour means sky
Feasting our eyes with the distant bells of its colours,
this is peace.

Peace is a glass of warm milk and a book before the awakening child
When wheat stalks lean toward one another saying: the light, the light
And the horizon’s wreath over-brims with light,
This is peace.

When jails have been made over into libraries,
When a song ascends from threshold to threshold in the night
When the spring moon emerges from a cloud
Like the worker who comes out of the neighbourhood barber shop
Freshly shaven on a weekend,
This is peace. 

When a day gone by is not a day lost
But a root that raises the leaves of joy in the night
And is a day won and a just sleep,
When you feel again the sun hurriedly tying its reins
To pursue and chase sorrow out of the corners of time,
This is peace. 

Peace is the stacks of sun-rays on the fields of summer,
It is the alphabet book of kindness on the knees of dawn.
When you say: my brother — when we say: tomorrow we shall build,
When we build and sing,
This is peace.

When death takes up but little room in the heart
And chimneys point with firm fingers at happiness
When the large carnation of sunset
can be smelled equally by poet and proletariat,
this is peace.

Peace is the clenched fist of men
it is warm bread on the world’s table
it is a mother’s smile.
Only this.
Peace is nothing else
And that ploughs that cut deep furrows in all earth
Write one name only:
Peace. Nothing else. Peace.

On the backbone of my verses
The train advancing toward the future
Laden with wheat and roses
Is peace.

My brothers
all the world with all its dreams
breathes deeply in peace.
Give us your hands, brothers,
This is peace.

First published in his collection Vigilance: 1938-1953, “Peace” perfectly embodies the spirit of the day. In it, Ritsos is able to frame those moments of inner peace against the broad backdrop of the world in all its dreams. It is equally inspired and revitalising, an encouraging reminder of our responsibility to protect and provide for those in need. Ritsos is not opining from a place of hopeful oblivion, especially as we consider the state of the world in 1953, during which “Peace” was written. The poem makes no overt mention of the two World Wars that precede it, or to the devastation they left behind. He is not reflecting back into the past, but rather looking to a future that is “laden with wheat and roses”. May his poem be the spark from which you step out on September 21st and on through the weeks and months to come.

Sean Morrissey