Yannis Ritsos (1909-1990), one of Greece's great poets, was nine times nominated for the Nobel Prize. In Secret gives the reader David Harsent's free versions, "re-imaginings," "adaptations"--a precious few of Yannis Ritsos' short lyrics. His books were publicly burned and he spent many years in prison or in island detention camps. Ritsos sometimes wrote at near-epic length, but much of his work consists of short lyrics: story-fragments, tiny psychodramas.

"Harsent has an unmistakable, endlessly adaptable style, able to hit every tone on the scale, from leer to lament . . . Pain and loss...