Pursuits
‘Great No’ From Tsipras: Poetic Principle or Dragging Him Down?
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens, Greece, on June 17, 2015.
Photographer: Ayhan Mehmet/Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
When Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Wednesday that he was prepared to declare the “great No” to creditors, he used one of Greece’s best-known lines of verse.
It comes from a 1901 poem by Constantine Cavafy, “Che Fece...Il Gran Rifiuto,” which describes the consequences for those who stand up to pressure and still say no when it is the right thing to do.