Ігор Калинець. Ці квіти зі синцями…

Ігор Калинець

Work proposed for translation:

Ці квіти зі синцями…
Poems (1972–1973)
Length: 160 pp.
Copyright: Heirs: dzvinkamamchur@gmail.com

Ihor Kalynets (1939–2025) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, literary scholar, dissident, and honorary doctor of Lviv University. He studied at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Lviv. His debut poetry collection, The Fire of Kupalo, was published in 1966, but was withdrawn from sale for political reasons, and the printing of his next collection was banned. As a result, his works were distributed underground — in samizdat — and also appeared behind the Iron Curtain in translations into many foreign languages thanks to the Ukrainian diaspora. In 1972, he was sentenced to six years in prison camps and three years of exile. After returning to Lviv in 1981, he stopped writing poetry, focusing on works for children, research, and translations. In 1991, two volumes of Ihor Kalynets’ poetry were published outside Ukraine: The Awakened Muse (poems written before imprisonment: 1965–1972) and The Enslaved Muse (poems written in prison: 1973–1981). At the same time, for the first time in 31 years, a book by him was legally published in Ukraine — a collection entitled Thirteen Alogies. Ihor Kalynets has received many awards, including the Shevchenko Prize (1992).

The poems presented in the collection These Flowers with Bruises… illustrate the author’s experiences caused by the wave of political repression in 1972. His poems from that time recreate the atmosphere of intense pressure from the punitive authorities, while at the same time demonstrating the conviction of the moral righteousness of those who were repressed. The poems in this collection come from the author’s life “equator” — the diffuse border between the world “on this side” and “on the other side” of prison bars. It includes works from his collections Realities, the last written before his arrest, and Sviatovyt’s Worldview, the first written in prison. These texts are characterised by the conciseness necessary to fit only the most important words on small pieces of paper or other materials at hand, and to convey through walls and bars the information that the enemy seeks to hide at all costs. The living nerve and tension caused by the dangers that lurk everywhere for the poet are the leading features of the poems presented. And although constant interrogations, searches and, ultimately, prison have led to the gloomy mood of these miraculously preserved works, they often radiate a belief in the victory of light due to their deliberate childishness and naivety.