Article
Welcome to Ukrainian poetry - May 2004
January 18, 2006
Quite a few poets – among them {id="5521" title="Ivan Malkovych"}, our new poet of the quarter – have chosen their own “third way”. They stopped writing poetry. Apparently, the discord between the external world and their inner frame of reference became too strong, and the common discourse between the poet and the world disappeared. One has to be very brave to accept this fact. Malkovych has not written any poetry at all in the last seven years. Yet he publishes the best children’s books in Ukraine. Maybe kids, growing up with his books, will appreciate the times that made their parents face the necessity of choice. And in a few years time, they might not know anymore what ‘politically incorrect’ art is. The Ukrainian domain is supported by the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Ukraine, and the International Renaissance Foundation
What should a poet do during critical political disturbances in his or her country? Should he or she stick to subtle lyricism despite the upheavals of ‘external’ life? Sacrifice lyricism to his or her position as a citizen? Should he or she create a marvelous recipe for combining the tribune and the metaphysician in the poet, for example, or the mythmaker and the autist? Or go the radical way: just quit writing and find another calling in life?
It is only natural that Ukrainian poets, being struck by such questions for the first time since Ukraine became independent in 1991, have found very different answers to them. At the same time, critics have started a crucial debate about the purity of art and the public role – and hence the responsibility – of writers, and specifically poets. It is interesting to note that the two most prestigious Ukrainian book awards – the grand-prix of Lviv Publishers’ Forum and the award for the best poetry book in “The Book of the Year Award” – went to {id="5525" title="Oleh Lysheha"}, a songster of archaic harmonization who lives in a world “without Microsoft and McDonald’s”, and to “surpublicist” {id="5526" title="Serhiy Zhadan"}. In the meantime, {id="5528" title="Yuri Andrukhovych"}, who in 1991 abandoned poetry and concentrated on prose, but after about ten years returned and wrote the cycle Songs for ‘The Dead Rooster’ (a popular Ukrainian rock-group), speaks about the self-censorship of some respectable Ukrainian publishers. Unlike the Ukrainian media, publishers are not under any external pressure, but still cut politically ‘incorrect’ fragments from poetry, translations or forewords.Quite a few poets – among them {id="5521" title="Ivan Malkovych"}, our new poet of the quarter – have chosen their own “third way”. They stopped writing poetry. Apparently, the discord between the external world and their inner frame of reference became too strong, and the common discourse between the poet and the world disappeared. One has to be very brave to accept this fact. Malkovych has not written any poetry at all in the last seven years. Yet he publishes the best children’s books in Ukraine. Maybe kids, growing up with his books, will appreciate the times that made their parents face the necessity of choice. And in a few years time, they might not know anymore what ‘politically incorrect’ art is. The Ukrainian domain is supported by the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Ukraine, and the International Renaissance Foundation
© Kateryna Botanova
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