Day 30, and what a journey it has been! Over the past month, the days have rapidly begun getting shorter, and the hot humid thunderstorms of summer have given way to crisper and mellower weather that hints at autumn. If we include today's post, we have read 30 poems and been introduced to 19 individuals from several generations of Ukrainian poets. Of those 19, a number were imprisoned or even killed for their work. Poetry is important everywhere, of course, but especially here in Ukraine. That is why our final two poems - 29 and 30 - are about poetry itself.
Time to meet this project's final poet: Bohdan-Igor Antonych. He grew up in the early 1900s in a mountainous region that spans parts of Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast. He studied in Lviv, where he was active in poetry, music, and the visual arts, and was very prolific given his short life, prematurely cut off by appendicitis and pneumonia at the age of 28. He came of age shortly after Ukraine became part of the Soviet Union, and his poetry was therefore banned and hardly known by anyone until interest in it resurfaced with the dissident-intellectual movement of the 1960s, which we have heard much about through delving into the works of poets like Vasyl Symonenko, Lina Kostenko, and Vasyl Stus. Lucky for us, much of Bohdan-Igor's work has been translated into English. It reminds me quite a lot of one of my favorite poets, Hafiz, because of its high-flying and joyous spiritual nature.
Without further ado, our final poem of 30 Days of Ukrainian Poetry:
ARS POETICA II, 1
Богдан Ігор Антонич
Я звичайний піїта,
кожний мене захоплює день.
Не розумію світа,
не розумію власних пісень.
Пити захват до краю…
Голос безжурний, немов цвіркуна,
От так собі співаю,
Тільки дзвенить на горах луна.
Захоплення початок,
релігії й сонетів;
захоплення нам родить
апостолів і поетів.
Не вмію писати віршів,
сміюся з правил і вимог.
Для мене поетику
складає сам Бог.
ARS POETICA II, 1
Bohdan-Igor Antonych
Translated by Michael M. Naydan
I am an ordinary poet,
each day fascinates me
I do not understand the world,
I do not understand my own songs.
To drink ecstasy to the brim...
A carefree voice like a cricket
this is the way I sing,
with just the echo still ringing in the mountains
The beginning of rapture,
of religion and sonnets;
rapture gives birth to our apostles and poets
I do not know how to write poems,
I scoff at the rules and standards.
For me it is God Himself
who forms my poetics
In 2009, in honor of the 100th anniversary of Bohdan-Ihor Antonych's birthday, there was a special performance put on in the Lviv Opera House that included music, dance, and readings of his poetry. Unfortunately the video footage of this event is rather poor, but it must have been amazing in person!
And that's a wrap! A huge thank you to everyone who has followed this project and sent encouragement. Through this dive into Ukrainian poetry, I've gotten much more meaning from the buildings and monuments that surround me. Now when I hear a name crop up on a walking tour, I often know something about the work and life of the person who has been mentioned.
I will be doing some thinking on how to continue exploring Ukrainian language and culture on this blog throughout the rest of my service - perhaps a poem of the month, or perhaps another poetry challenge come wintertime when I can finally enjoy all those verses about snow. I do also have some more material on contemporary Ukrainian music in the works, so stay tuned! Until then, it's time to return once again to more traditional modes of studying the language. After all the work that went into this month of blogging, I'm actually relieved at the idea of just doing tedious grammar exercises for a while!
The contents of this blog reflect my personal views and experiences only and are not indicative of the views of the Peace Corps or any other entity.
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