Feb 21. 2016
LETTER BY ALBERT EINSTEIN
July 2nd, 1952
Mr Niko Kazantzakis
Villa Manolita
Antibe, France
Dear Mr Kazantzakis:
I thank you very much for sending me the German translation of your work. I can imagine that the tragic fate of your people is the source of its origin.
There was unspeakable suffering produced propably entirely by power politics, enacted by one big power after the other and no end of it is in sight.
It seems the inescapable fate of man to make each other’s life intolerable.
Thankfully yours
Albert Einstein
RESPONSE BY NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS
12/7/1952
Einstein, 112 Mercer Str., N.Jersey, U.S.A
Dear Master,
I was deeply moved by your letter. I always considered you to be the highest conscience of our time. Along with A. Schweitzer you have been for me the model of humanity. Your existence on this Earth, so bloodstained and sullied by humans, has always been a great consolation for me. Thanks to you I often be able to overcome my disgust and despair. And the book that I sent you, ‘’The Greek Passion’’, was written in the light of your presence…
Dear Master, please take the trouble to read it. Its original title is ‘’Christ Recrucified’’, improperly translated into German as ‘’The Greek Passion’’. It has nothing to do with the suffering of contemporary Greece. I tried to to enliven within it the effort made by man to find a Notausgang in the despair and injustice which surround and choke us.
In the hope that you will indeed read this book, which in fact should be dedicated to you, I beg you to accept, dear Master, my deepest admiration and gratitude.
Source: Le Regard cretois, (The Cretan Glance) no 42- Dec. 2015
Journal of the International Society of Friends of Nikos Kazantzakis