Poetry and time

Lina Kostenko’s new book, River of Heraclitus, is to be launched on Februa­ry 2. This is the third joint pro­ject of the Lybid publishers and the prominent Ukrainian poetess, the two previous ones being Berestechko and Hyacinth Sun.

“The poet and time is the leitmotif of Lina Kostenko’s new book,” says Yurii Mediuk, senior editor at the Lybid publishing house. “Indeed, the fi­­gu­re of the ancient Greek thinker always comes up on the book’s pages, each time approaching us, the people of today. A human perhaps feels the course of time best of all in the change of the seasons, and this turnover of nature is presented in the book as four poetic cycles. And what begins this extravaganza is not the customary winter but autumn, the inspirer of the poet’s heart. But can one enter the same autumn twice?

“The time, which an outstanding personality feels in every fiber of their being, reveals its hidden features to us. An impetuous time of love, a frozen time of Chornobyl, a reverse time of memory, a divine cosmic chronology that breaks through ordinary time… In this multilayered structure, the human ideas of the past, present and future look rather relative. And what scientific thought is still struggling to fathom, a poet can do almost intuitively. Under his or her pen, a barely audible ‘cry’ of the heart can overcome Earth’s gravitation and approach, in the best oeuvres, a prophetic revelation…

“What is perhaps the linchpin of the book is the voice of the author herself — surprisingly penetrating and full of dignity and confidence. And this confidence suggests something more exalted and invincible. This shows the tenacity of the 1960s dissidents, which years cannot erase: an eternal thirst for the truth, an unspeakable nagging pain, a gracious self-irony, and more than eloquent pauses… This must be listened to and read. For this is about our thoughts to which poets only add the most adequate word.”

Svitlana Holovko, director of the Lybid publishing house:

“The River of Heraclitus comprises over 200 previously published favorite poems and about 60 new ones. The collection is also unique because it comes out simultaneously with a disc, where Lina Kostenko herself recites her ‘brainchild.’

“Our project embraces three dynasties. One of the representatives of these famous families is Myroslava Kotorovych, the daughter of Bohodar Kotorovych; her violin accompanies the poems. The second is Oxana Pachliov­ska, the daughter of Lina Kos­tenko; she compiled the book. And Serhii Yakutovych has created a fantastic design. One more participant is literature researcher Dmytro Drozdovsky whose afterword is a profound study of Kostenko’s poetic oeuvre.

“The title did not emerge at once. At first it was The Seasons (the reader will see that this publication really seems to be composed of four sections corresponding to the seasons). But we, first of all, the poetess, had a far deeper feeling: it is, so to speak, a poetic and philosophical confession, an account of the time of a poet who cares about the present day, absorbing every nerve of it. And, as it was said above, the four seasons symbolize the times and conditions of a woman. This is why the artist illustrated the book with images; all his fantasies are vested in female attire. They are as multidimensional as the book is. The readers are sure to feast their eyes on them.”