Ukrainian poet Lysheha and his translator receive PEN Literary Award (05/28/00)

Ukrainian poet Lysheha and his translator receive PEN Literary Award

by Olena Welhasch
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

NEW YORK - In the small world of American literary intellectuals, a barely known Ukrainian poet and his dear friend and fellow translator shine like rare gems on stage. Poet Oleh Lysheha and Dr. James Brasfield sat among renowned playwrights, essayists, novelists, poets and translators awaiting the presentation of the prestigious PEN Literary Awards at the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center.

"The Selected Poems of Oleh Lysheha," a book translated into English by Mr. Lysheha and Dr. Brasfield and published by Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute Press, was this year's winner of the 2000 PEN Literary Award for Poetry in Translation. On May 15 Mr. Lysheha and Dr. Brasfield accepted their joint $1,000 award among fellow nominees and winners, including writers John Updike and Annie Dillard.

PEN, an international membership association of prominent literary writers and editors, is a major voice of the literary community. Since 1921 the organization has been working to advance literature, to promote a culture of reading and to defend free expression wherever it may be threatened. It annually recognizes literary achievements with the PEN Literary Awards.

Literary translation is often a cornerstone of communication and understanding between nations, and the 2000 PEN Literary Award for Poetry in Translation celebrates a distinguished book-length translation of poetry published in 1999. Besides Mr. Lysheha's book, nominees for the award included poetry translations from Greek and French. Two other awards presented also recognized poetry in translation, however, Mr. Lysheha's success is unique in that, of all of the translated poetry nominated, he is the only living poet.

Rachel Hadas, the judge of the books of poetry in translation, presented Messrs. Lysheha and Brasfield their award as she expressed her praise of the achievement: "Of all the translations of poetry I took pleasure in reading as I judged this contest, 'The Selected Poems of Oleh Lysheha' was the strangest, most elegant, and most familiar. Strange: Lysheha leads us into a nocturnal world where dark trees, icy ponds and buried beings betoken an alternative universe where you may lose or find anything. Elegant: the translations, confident, fluent, dignified, are in eloquent and graceful English, providing a clear map to a murky world. Familiar: the loneliness, fear, and sublimity that is the native land of Lysheha's poetry is a region lovers of poetry will have visited before, for these original lyrics are also avatars of a strong poetic tradition."

Mr. Lysheha's poetry is indeed influenced by literary giants. His poetry's breath units (the expression of a thought in the time of a breath) resemble those of D.H. Lawrence and Ezra Pound, whose poetry Mr. Lysheha has translated into Ukrainian. Other translated works include those of poets John Keats, Henry David Thoreau, Robert Penn Warren and Sylvia Plath. He is considered the "poets' poet" of contemporary Ukraine. In Mr. Lysheha's work, questions of life, death and reincarnation reflect his Buddhist and Taoist influences, and shamanic undercurrents in his autobiographical compositions. He has an innate understanding of nature and many of his poems offer realistic personifications of animals.

In the poem "Swan" he joins the moon in a dance as he walks through the woods. His identity is unclear. He may be man or wolf, or both, however, it is his song that keeps the rain falling and nature one.

"Swaying, he kept on singing..
Otherwise, he would have fallen
And the rain stopped..
He danced his own rain
Under that tree..
I can't do such things..
Perhaps it was a wolf?"

Mr. Lysheha was born in 1949 in Tysmenytsia in the Carpathian region. He played an integral role in the Lviv Bohema, a late 1960s dissident group of writers, painters, sculptors, musicians and critics. During this time, just one semester short of completing his degree in American and English literature at Lviv State University, Mr. Lysheha was expelled for publishing poems and an essay in the "samvydav" literary almanac "Skrynia" (The Chest). His work was neither nationalistic nor one of protest, yet Communist Party officials felt that it violated official aesthetic and ideological dictums.

Shortly after his expulsion, Mr. Lysheha was drafted by the Soviet army and was eventually exiled to Buryatia, where he served as a schoolteacher. He continued to teach there even after being discharged from the army in 1974. A region in which many of the people had converted to Tibetan Buddhism in the 18th century and strongly resisted a Russian presence, Buryatia has influenced much of his work.

Mr. Lysheha returned to Tysmenytsia in 1975; in 1977 he published his first collection of poetry, "Winter in Tysmenytsia." More of his poetry appeared in a journal, a poetry collection and an anthology in the 1980s. His first book of poetry, "Velykyi Mist" (Great Bridge) was published in 1989. Additional works were published in the 1990s, including essays on poetry, the play "Friend Li Po, Brother Tu Fu" and his translations from Ezra Pound and D.H. Lawrence.

Mr. Lysheha spent a year in the United States as a Fulbright scholar in 1997-1998 at Pennsylvania State University.

Still jet-lagged from his flight from Ukraine the previous day, Mr. Lysheha prefaced his thank you to the PEN American Center with an autobiographical note. Overwhelmed by the honor of the award, Mr. Lysheha felt he could not fully express his gratitude to American society due to his self-described poor English. However, on the contrary, the poet's characteristically impromptu, stream of consciousness speech was quite poetic and made quite an impression on the assembled guests. He modestly stated that his appearance was that of "an old man in springtime, worn out by verses." Yet the handful of silver strands in his auburn beard barely hint at the 51-year-old poet's age. He smiled radiantly as he thanked PEN for honoring him and concluded his enthusiastic comments with the pleased proclamation: "You now know that Ukraine exists!"

Dr. Brasfield, a poet and lecturer of English at Pennsylvania State University, has been collaborating with Mr. Lysheha on translating the latter's poetry since 1993. As he accepted the award, Dr. Brasfield briefly informed the audience of Ukraine's political, linguistic and literary history. "To many Americans, Ukraine was a place in Russia, a region called 'the' Ukraine. Many Americans do not know that the Ukrainian language and thus its literature were forbidden. For a large audience now, 'The Selected Poems of Oleh Lysheha' will be a further step for Ukrainian culture from the dark of the Russian and Soviet shadow.

Dr. Brasfield thanked Michael Naydan of Pennsylvania State University, the Fulbright program, and Robert De Lossa and Daria Yurchuk of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute for their faith in this book and for their work and their vision.

Dr. Brasfield lived in Ukraine where he was a lecturer in American literature. He completed his first Fulbright assignment in Kyiv at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in 1993-1994 and the second in Chernivtsi during the 1999 spring semester. He describes himself as a Ukrainian nationalist and explains that the mandatory Ukrainian in schools is necessary to Ukraine's emerging democracy. In an interview with Research Penn State, Dr. Brasfield expressed his respect for Ukrainian artists: "Artists don't make a place in their lives for art. Art is their life, despite all the difficulties." In 1993 Dr. Brasfield first traveled to the Carpathian Mountains and Lviv with Mr. Lysheha. In turn, Mr. Lysheha was a visiting Fulbright scholar on Dr. Brasfield's home turf, Penn State.

The following evening, May 16, the duo read their work in Ukrainian and in English at an evening sponsored by the Shevchenko Scientific Society. Unlike the older crowd that usually attends Shevchenko Scientific Society events, about half of those attending the poetry reading were quite young, according to Nadia Svitlychna, a former dissident author and now editor-in-chief of the international Ukrainian Orthodox magazine Vira (Faith). Ms. Svitlychna had only compliments to offer of the two-hour program and noted with pleasure Dr. Brasfield's eloquent reading of the English translation of Mr. Lysheha's poetry, which was followed by Mr. Lysheha's reading of his poetry and prose in the original Ukrainian.

Ms. Svitlychna described the poetry as untraditional and very metaphorical, at times difficult to understand, but the challenge proved worthwhile. She said that Mr. Lysheha's reading influenced her as music does and many of the topics were very close to her heart. She wanted to hear more, and this, she noted, is the best indicator of good poetry.

In the next several weeks Mr. Lysheha will return to Penn State and will revisit his beloved forests in central Pennsylvania. He plans to write a book about his experiences, titled "America," which will also include Ukrainian translations of Robert Frost's poetry, as well as prose depicting his impressions of the American world.

At a formal gallery reception following the PEN award presentation, Mr. Lysheha's eyes twinkled as he confided that his friend and colleague, Ukrainian comic author Yuri Andrukhovych, predicts "America" will be his best work yet.

Mr. Lysheha's straightforward language creates an intricate web in its organization, and this premonition of greatness is not beyond his breadth. One could expect that some of the subject matter will be very reminiscent of Henry Thoreau's and the prose much more engaging. Mr. Thoreau's philosophy has greatly influenced Mr. Lysheha's life; in fact, Mr. Lysheha visited Walden Pond during his first visit to the United States.

During his 10-month Fulbright fellowship, Mr. Lysheha lived in isolated circumstances similar to Thoreau's at Walden, in a cabin in the woods of Lemont, Pa., as he contemplated his nascent masterpiece. However, from his gentle and benevolent demeanor in New York City among sophisticated, international authors, one should hardly expect a condemnation of the United States comparable to the one in the conclusion of "On Walden Pond."

Dr. Brasfield will continue teaching at Penn State, and may extend his interest in translation to create a new English course. He also plans a return visit to Ukraine.

HURI also present at Lincoln Center

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