This bilingual edition represents the poetic range of Ioanna Tsatsos during the last two decades. Her poetry, simultaneously personal and universal as most good poetry frequently is, considers such basic themes as love, passion for freedom, the grandeur of sacrifice, the burden and inspiration of duty, homeland, the inevitable passage of time, religious faith, and death. Educated in Paris and Athens, Ioanna Tsatsos has dedicated her life to public service and literary pursuits. The fate of Greece and of Hellenism “wounds” her as it did her brother, George Seferis, and this sensibility is reflected in both her writings and public service. She is the author of over ten volumes of poetry and prose, many of which have been translated into French, Italian and English, and for which she has received several literary awards. American editions of her works include The Sword’s Fierce Edge: A Journal of the Occupation 1941–1944 (1969); Athenaïs: A Humanist Empress of the Fifth Century (1974); and My Brother George Seferis (1982). Her poetry has appeared in the Yale Review (1973) and the Southern Humanities Review (1974). During the 1940s, she participated in the resistance against the German Occupation of Greece, and worked closely with several relief organizations set up after the Second World War. In the fifties, she was a leader in the struggle for female suffrage and for the training of women for political service. She presently lives in Athens, with her husband Constantine Tsatsos, former president of the Hellenic Republic.