Lina Kostenko addresses Ukrainians once more
The launch of the new edition of Lina Kostenko’s historical novel Berestechko at the Ukrainian Home on March 22, could well be described as the cultural, literary, and social event of the year.
Some of the poet’s colleagues and devotees are convinced that Kostenko’s “silence” was quite eloquent, but the Ukrainian readers have been looking forward to her re-appearance on the literary arena since the 1990s.
“Yes, I decided to return to literature and culture because my time has always been one of ordeal,” said Kostenko addressing a packed and eagerly attentive audience at the Ukrainian Home.
All things considered, the new episode of the poet’s dialog with society will follow a tight schedule. Her new collection of verse Hiatsyntove sontse (The Hyacinth Sun) will come off the press on March 28. Like Berestechko, this collection will be published by Lybid. It includes poems sung by Olha Bohomolets.
In addition, A-BA-BA-HA-LA-MA-HA Publishers is preparing Kostenko’s story Diary of a Ukrainian Madman, although the date of publication remains to be chosen. Lina Kostenko proofreads her pages very carefully.
The launch of Berestechko was organized by the Lybid Publishers (Kostenko had insisted on there being no fanfare, even though three days earlier she had marked her 80th birthday) and Oxana Pachlovska, who had to master bureaucratic diplomacy as an intermediary between the publishers and the author.
More than three hours had passed before the emcee Volodymyr Panchenko (well known to The Day’s regular readers) gave the floor to Lina Kostenko, concluding the soiree.
The celebrity was greeted only by her closest friends: Ivan Dziuba and Yurii Shcherbak (both Shystdesiatnyky — Sixtiers — the literary generation whose worldviews are close to Lina Kostenko’s), Petro Boiko (who reads Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s lines on the audio disc attached to the hard copy of Berestechko), Olha Bohomolets and Larysa Kadyrova (who offered music and drama versions of Kostenko’s poetry), Olena Boiko and Serhii Yakutovych (contributors to the new edition of the novel), her daughter Oxana Pachlovska, writer Maria Matios, The Day’s editor in chief Larysa Ivshyna, and Dmytro Drozdovsky. The poet appeared to pay special attention to the members of the cultural and ethnographic expedition to Chornobyl’s Excursion Zone, in the course of which she experienced her inner migration. In a word, none of the official syrupy pomp, although there were words of praise, of course.
“Lina Kostenko has outlined the cultural sovereignty of this nation,” said Yurii Shcherbak, and proposed to nominate her for the Nobel Prize. It should be noted, however, that such grandiose plans ought to be preceded by certain practical measures, like the English translations of her verse. Shcherbak also broached both personal and global subjects, particularly the challenges once again facing Ukraine.
Dropping beneath standards appears to be one of them. That something we have no right to allow, considering that we have such a living benchmark of our deeds embodied in the person of Lina Kostenko. As simple as that, and so very natural. One is reminded of the Moscow Suburb Study: “…so simple, so natural… there is light in Dovzhenko’s window.”
