Skopje, 10 June 2026 (MIA) — Matica Makedonska will publish the debut poetry collection by Greek poet and translator Sotiris Minas titled „Раскинување на договорот“ / «Λύση Συμβολαίου» (“Ending the Agreement”), exploring what it means for a Greek writer with no Macedonian roots to learn the Macedonian language on his own.

According to the publisher in a press release, the collection blends personal feelings with political themes. Minas translated the poems himself, highlighting his personal and artistic choice to show solidarity with the Macedonian people.

“If Macedonians have been made afraid to speak their own language, then a Greek person will learn to speak it — and be proud of it,” the author is quoted as saying in the release.

One of the book’s most powerful pieces, “They took away my language, Macedonian,” was inspired by the line “They gave me my language, Greek” by Nobel Prize-winning Greek poet Odysseus Elytis in his masterpiece “The Axion Esti,” a landmark 20th-century poem set to music chronicling the Greek soul and historical resilience.

Minas uses his poem to enter a sensitive cultural space, treating language as memory, as a wound, as resistance and as an inalienable right. By referencing regional landmarks like Kajmakchalan, Vardar, Prespa, Dojran, Voden, Lerin, Vicho and Negush, the verses connect personal poetry to collective memory and endurance.

In his author’s note, Minas wrote that “publishing this book in Macedonia is a deliberate act of justice,” the release said.

“I chose a bilingual edition because the coexistence of the Greek and Macedonian languages represents for me a practical recognition of the Macedonian identity,” Minas wrote.

“It is an act of solidarity that breaks down borders and requires mutual respect. I firmly believe that reconciliation begins only through the acceptance of the existence of the other.”

The publisher said the book’s title is a metaphor for rejecting forced rules and outside expectations. On the cover, reviewer Ivan Antonovski wrote that the collection turns personal pain into a voice of self-liberation that resists “the name that was taken away” and unfair standards.

“These poems should be read carefully: both in what they say and in what they leave unsaid,” Antonovski wrote.

Minas, during a previous visit to the country as part of a cultural exchange, said that poetry in the Macedonian language deserves to be heard “not only because for its aesthetic value, but because it embodies the soul of the people.”

According to Matica Makedonska, this new book opens the door for a long-delayed conversation, proving that true peace comes not from erasing differences, but from accepting them. mr/