Autumn
Manuscripts was Tasos Leivaditis' last book, comparable
to Brecht’s Buckow elegies, Aragon’s Les Adieux and Ritsos’ last poems. Published
shortly after his death, it’s a book of sly fables and strange dreams, farewells
and departures, migrating birds and autumn leaves, embers
and ash. Reflecting on the political defeats of his generation, the imminent
collapse of the Soviet Union, the bitter divisions inside the Greek Communist
Party and the wider demoralisation of the European left, Leivaditis
contemplates the relationship between belief and doubt. ‘The old
comrades have not died but reside now at the far end of the roads – whichever
one you take you will run into them.’