THE WAVERING SCALES by Yannis Ritsos

The silence here is ambiguous, full of postponements and repentances
the lamp's flame wavers in the dark
like the tongue in a mouth that can't decide whether to kiss or to speak.

from 'The Inexhaustible' in The Wavering Scales by Yannis Ritsos

Yannis Ritsos (1909-1990) is increasingly recognized as the greatest talent of Greece's remarkable twentieth-century literary renaissance. George Seferis and Odysseas Elytis received Nobel Prizes; Ritsos surely deserved one. The problems---his steadfast adherence to communism and the huge bulk of his output---have receded because the Cold War ended and because we now understand that his immense productivity derived not from sloppiness or deficient self-criticism but from an unquenchable compulsion to express.

from 'Introduction' by Peter Bien

110 copies printed using Eric Gill's Joanna metal printing type cast by Michael Bixler. Van Krimpen Open Kapitalen was cast at our foundry. The decapod ornament is by the French typographer Crous-Vidal. The text paper is Zerkall Book and the printed wraps are Khadi Cotton.