24th annual conference on Shevchenko held in New York (03/21/04)

24th annual conference on Shevchenko held in New York

by Dr. Orest Popovych

NEW YORK - The 24th annual scholarly conference dedicated to Taras Shevchenko was held at the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh) headquarters here on March 6, co-hosted, in accordance with established practice, by the NTSh, the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S. (UVAN), the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) and the Harriman Institute of Columbia University (HICU). It was chaired by Prof. Vasyl Makhno, who, as an expert on Ukrainian literature, enriched the program with his commentary.

After a brief welcome by Dr. Larissa Onyshkevych, the president of NTSh, the opening speech was delivered by Dr. Olexa Bilaniuk, the president of UVAN. Dr. Bilaniuk described Shevchenko as an indestructible symbol of the Ukrainian people, their language and culture as well as their aspirations for an independent state with a Ukrainian face. Without the influence of Shevchenko's word, Ukrainians today would be just another Russified, subjugated ethnic group, said Dr. Bilaniuk.

However, in celebrating Shevchenko here, continued Dr. Bilaniuk, we are preaching to the converted. What is necessary is to stage appropriate Shevchenko conferences throughout the Russified cities of Ukraine in order to raise the Ukrainian national consciousness there, concluded Dr. Bilaniuk.

The first of the featured speakers was Dr. John Fizer (NTSh), a professor of literature at Rutgers University, whose topic was "Shevchenko Studies in the 1990s." One would have thought, said Dr. Fizer, that after decades of the distortion and criticism of Shevchenko's works by the Marxist-Leninist ideologues under the Soviet regime, the bard of Ukraine would finally enjoy a period of belated reverence in his independent Ukraine. Instead, Shevchenko's heritage has been subjected to re-evaluation in accordance with certain deconstructive ideologies, according to Dr. Fizer.

He was very critical of those Shevchenko scholars who in their analysis have ventured outside the boundaries of philology, into psychological and sexual areas, and according to him have resorted to this approach for its shock value. On the positive side, Dr. Fizer mentioned a fundamental work, "The Shevchenko Encyclopedia," whose preparation has been progressing in Ukraine since 1993. He also mentioned a four-volume collection of Shevchenko's works.

The next speaker, Giovanna Siedina, sent a mild shock wave through the audience when she first spoke in Italian. However, she quickly translated what was her greeting and then proceeded to read her presentation in excellent Ukrainian. Ms. Siedina is a Ph. D. candidate in the department of Slavic languages and literatures at Harvard University, where her mentor is Prof. George Grabowicz of HURI.

Translations of Shevchenko's poetry into Italian date back to 1919-1920, when they were authored by Mlada Lypovecka, later revised by Cesare Meano. There also are translations by Mario Grasso, but those were made from a French-language translation and not from the original Ukrainian, which diminishes their reliability considerably, according to Ms. Siedina.

The speaker described in great detail the complexities and pitfalls facing a translator who is trying to retain the spirit of the original. In translating Ukrainian poetry into Italian, it is usually a mistake, according to Ms. Siedina, to render literal translations, because precious nuances are likely to be lost. Shevchenko's poetry being a reflection of most things Ukrainian, a translator must become profoundly aware not only of the poet's own philosophical conception of the world, but also of the history, mythology and metaphors of the Ukrainian people, as well as the numerous biblical quotations that permeate Shevchenko's text. To illustrate her points, Ms. Siedina recited some excerpts from Shevchenko's poems in several different translations into Italian.

The Italian translations of Shevchenko's works available today are neither complete, nor of good quality, concluded Ms. Siedina. Evidently, the objective of her doctoral work is to remedy the situation.

"Foreigners on Shevchenko" was the topic tackled next by Dr. Eugene Fedorenko of UVAN. He quoted German, Austrian, Danish and Swedish critics from the 19th century who extolled Shevchenko's poetry in superlatives, calling him a genius, an artist of boundless talent, unique in the world of literature, a poet reflecting the soul of the Ukrainian people, but also a luminary of universal significance to humanity.

There was mention of the lone dissenting voice of the Russian critic Vissarion Byelinsky, a notorious Ukrainophobe, who denied the very existence of the Ukrainian language. Byelinsky, however, was more than offset by two of his Russian colleagues, Alexander Pypin and Apollon Grigoriev, who thought the world of Taras Shevchenko. Pypin maintained that Shevchenko was more representative of the Ukrainian people than any other poet was of his people. Grigoriev flatly declared that Shevchenko's poetry was superior to that of both Aleksandr Pushkin and Adam Mickiewicz, arguably the best Russian and Polish poets, respectively.

The last speaker was Rory Finnin (HICU), a Ph. D. candidate in comparative literature at Columbia University. Mr. Finnin became interested in the works of Taras Shevchenko while serving in the Peace Corps in Ukraine. His talk was titled "Shevchenko's Poem 'Kavkaz' and Jacob De Balmen." The ancestors of count De Balmen stemmed from Scottish nobility who served as mercenaries in the Russian tsarist armies. Jacob De Balmen was himself a general in the Russian army, but was "Ukrainized" and a friend of Shevchenko. In 1845 he was killed in the Russian war of conquest in the Caucasus, and it is his death that gave birth to Shevchenko's grand poem "Kavkaz," which he dedicated to his friend.

Since the subject matter extended beyond his usual area of experience, Shevchenko prepared for that poem with lengthy research about the Caucasus. In reference to the poem "Kavkaz," Mr. Finnin pointed to a double paradox: De Balmen, who loved Ukrainian culture and probably held anti-imperial views, nevertheless did serve the Russian empire in its war of aggression in the Caucasus; once De Balmen died in the service of the empire, Shevchenko dedicated to him his most anti-imperial poem.

In her closing remarks, Dr. Onyshkevych observed that three of the four presentations at this conference had a common theme: the involvement of non-Ukrainians in Shevchenko studies. Two of the lectures by non-Ukrainians here were presented in the language of Shevchenko, which could serve as an example for many in Ukraine on the usage of the Ukrainian language, concluded Dr. Onyshkevych.

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