30 Days of Ukrainian Poetry - Day 3 - "Sunblood"

Hello again! Day 3 of my 30 Day Ukrainian Poetry Challenge has indeed proven challenging. I found a poem that struck me, but as it is about the sun I decided to leave it for tomorrow and record at sunrise. Next I found a beautiful poem filled with a wanderlust that resonates with me. It is about the water, so I tried to record it down by the the river, but the river is a busy place on summer evenings, and it is virtually impossible to record without catching the sounds of somebody else's children, conversation, or music. I can't say that my unfulfilled search for a quiet spot was in vain, because at least I got in a fair bit of wandering.

I am determined to not miss a day, so I returned to the first poem, but had to work around the sounds of the very loud karaoke bar next to my apartment building. They started up right as I was mid-poem, but luckily took an extended break that allowed me to get something done. Now as I write I am listening to drunk karaoke and the hoots and hollers of the audience - a classic Friday night. Although I didn't get to record at dawn as I had hoped, I still very much enjoyed reading this poem with the last glimmers of the sunset coming through my balcony window.

Perhaps I needed to earn my right to this poem. The man who wrote it, Mykhaylo Semenko, is known as an iconoclast who broke from the cult of Taras Shevchenko. One of the most well-known stories about him tells of his symbolic burning of a copy of Shevchenko's famous book, Kobzar - an act viewed by many as sacrilege. Yesterday's poem is from Kobzar, and an entire museum in my city is virtually dedicated to the book. Mykhaylo Semenko, however, was not afraid to set a new direction in poetry. He became the leader of futurism in Ukrainian poetry before he was executed in 1937, a victim of Stalin's "Great Purge" of the Ukrainian intelligentsia. His poem "Sunblood" seems to capture the fiery spirit I imagine he must have had.

Сонцекров

Михайло Семеренко 

Без сонця жити я не хочу 
Стерпіть не можу я холодних ліхтарів 
Я сонцекров люблю і в крові сонце 
І знову сонце в кровофарбах малярів 
А як затулить хмара моє сонце 
Ще не холоне моя кров тоді 
Вона горить палає й рве охоче 
Щоб не коритися ні палу ні воді 
Вона бере мене і линем разом вгору 
І сонце зустрічаєм знов 
І кричимо: 
Сонце 
Драстуй — 
Шле тобі привітання бунтливий Семенко!

Sunblood

Mykhaylo Semenko

Without the sun I don't want to live
I cannot stand cold lanterns
I love sun-blood; it runs in mine
And in the blood-colors of artists
The clouds may cover up my sun
Yet even then my blood will not cool
It blazes, it burns and wants to burst
To defy the will of both fever and water
It carries me and together we fly
To meet the sun again
And we cry
Sun
Hello -
Greetings to you from rebellious Semenko! 

This is another one I went ahead and translated into English myself. Perhaps there is an existing English version out there somewhere, but I haven't yet found it. Anyway, I very much enjoyed reading this poem - and I hope you enjoy it, too!

If you'd like to hear from a native speaker, listen to this reading by Ukrainian fashion designer Ivan Frolov, part of the "I Read Semenko" (#ячитаюсеменка) campaign carried out for the 125th anniversary of the poet's birth.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for listening!




This blog reflects my personal views and experiences only, and is not indicative of the views of Peace Corps or of the US or Ukrainian governments.