BOOK NOTES: Selected poetry by Lina Kostenko in bilingual Ukrainian-English edition (11/17/02)

BOOK NOTES

Selected poetry by Lina Kostenko in bilingual Ukrainian-English edition

"Landscapes of Memory: The Selected Later Poetry of Lina Kostenko." Lviv: Litopys Publishers, 2002. 127 pp., $14 (hardcover).

STATE COLLEGE. Pa. - "Landscapes of Memory: The Selected Later Poetry of Lina Kostenko," has come out as a bilingual Ukrainian/English edition published by Litopys Publishers in Lviv.

The book comprises selected works from Ms. Kostenko's lyric poetry from 1977-1989, with translation by Michael M. Naydan as well as his translator's introduction, and a guest introduction on Ms. Kostenko by Ukrainian literary scholar Mykola Ilnytsky. The edition is edited by Olha Luchuk.

"Landscapes of Memory," priced at $14 plus shipping, is available through the following bookseller: Webster's Bookstore; 128 South Allen St.; State College, PA 16801; e-mail, [email protected]; telephone, (814) 234-1507; website: http://www.websterbookstorecafe.com.

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A leading representative of the "Shistdesiatnyky," or the Poets of the Sixties - the literary generation that began to publish in the second half of the 1950s, during Khrushchev's "de-Stalinzation," and reached their literary peak in the early 1960s - Ms. Kostenko is one of the truly outstanding lyric poets of the modern period in Ukrainian literature.

Born on March 19, 1930, in the town of Rzhyschiv in the Kyiv region of Ukraine, she studied at the Kyiv Pedagogical Institute and graduated from the Gorky Institute of Literature in Moscow, which she finished with distinction in 1956.

Her first poems were published in the early 1950s in major Ukrainian periodicals and quickly garnered an avid following both in Ukraine and in the diaspora.

She published three collections of poetry early in her career: "Prominnia Zemli" (Rays of the Earth, 1957); "Vitryla" (Sails, 1958) and "Mandrivky Sertsia" (Wanderings of the Heart, 1961). Partly because of her enormous popularity among her Ukrainian readership as well as her unwillingness to compromise to Soviet authorities, she was forced into a lengthy period of publication silence.

Her next major collection appeared 16 years later, in 1977 - "Nad Berehamy Vichnoyi Riky" (On the Shores of the Eternal River). That was followed by the collections "Nepovtornist" (Unrepeatability, 1980), "Sad Netanuchykh Skulptur" (The Garden of Unmelting Sculptures, (1978), and "Selected Works" (1989).

She also published a children's book of verse titled "Buzynovyi Tsar" (The Lilac King).

In 1979 Ms. Kostenko created a great stir with the appearance of her masterful historical novel in verse, "Marusia Churai," about the legendary 17th century Ukrainian folksinger-songwriter.

Ms. Kostenko's most recent collection is a book-length historical poem "Berestechko" (2000).

Apart from lyric poetry, Ms. Kostenko has also excelled in the genre of the narrative long poem in such works as "Zorianyi Integral" (The Integral of the Cosmos), "Skytska Odyseya" (The Scythian Odyssey), "Snih u Florentsiyi" (Snow in Florence) and "A Duma about the Non-Azov Brothers."

Ms. Kostenko's poetry is pellucid and straightforward; she speaks directly from the heart to her readers. Her language is articulate, emotional and elegant, yet highly accessible to a wide readership.

A recipient of the Taras Shevchenko prize in 1987, she is truly a national treasure in terms of her contribution to the cultural revival of the Ukrainian language in the second half of the 20th century.

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Michael M. Naydan is professor of Slavic languages and literature at Pennsylvania State University. Books in Ukrainian studies that he has authored, edited or co-edited include "The Poetry of Lina Kostenko: Wanderings of the Heart" (Garland Publishers, 1990); "From Three Worlds: New Writing from Ukraine" (Zephyr Press, 1996), a translation of Yurii Vynnychuk's short stories "The Windows of Time Frozen and Other Stories" (Klasyka Publishers, 2000); "The Complete Early Poetry Collections of Pavlo Tychyna" (Litopys Publishers, 2000), and "A Hundred Years of Youth: A Bilingual Anthology of 20th Century Ukrainian Poetry" (Litopys Publishers, 2000).

He has recently completed a translation of Yuri Andrukhovych's novel "Perverzion," which will be published by Northwestern University Press in February 2002, as well as a translation of Russian writer Igor Klekh's prose on Ukrainian themes "A Country the Size of Binoculars," which is scheduled to be released in March 2003 by the same publishing house.

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