Welcome to Ukrainian poetry - July 2003

January 18, 2006 There is not much known about Ukraine in the world. The prevalent stereotype would sound like this: "Probably it is a part of Russia with its own flag…" The same situation applies to Ukrainian poetry – there's hardy anything known about it abroad. But we won't be looking for the reasons of the existing state of affairs. This magazine will try to break stereotypes and, most importantly, to introduce readers to contemporary Ukrainian poetry.

We won't be drawing a composite portrait of a Ukrainian poet. The reason is quite simple: there are so many poets and so much poetry in Ukraine that this composite portrait can easily turn into a complex and intricate painting by Hieronymus Bosch. Yes, in this country one can find wise poets and buffoon poets, time-serving poets and martyr poets, bar-fly poets and poets-academics, poets-perverts and righteous poets. But there are "not enough suicide poets for great literature", as one poet said.

One of our poets has even become the national symbol and public icon. When our people were forbidden to pray to God, they prayed to him. It is frightful, but that is Ukrainian poetry. You should have heard about him. Well, if not about him, then about his football namesake. His name is Taras Shevchenko. Maybe the celebrated forward Andriy Shevchenko is his distant relative?
Ukrainian poetry – good and very good – is so abundant that there is a chance that in the 21st century it can flood the world. This is a bit of an exaggeration, of course. So let's start at the beginning – let's strike up an acquaintance.

The poets, chosen for the first issue, have been translated into several foreign languages and thus are the best-know to audiences abroad. They belong to different generations, but each of them manages to open up a new, striking page of Ukrainian poetry. Now it is also open to you.