Description
In this sublime conversation, Ukrainian poet Natalka Bilotserkivets (Наталка Білоцерківець) speaks of her development as a poet in the former Soviet Union and following. She reads and discusses her poem, “We'll Not Die in Paris” in light of poets Apollinaire, César Vallejo, and Paul Celan, and considers the influence also of Ukrainian poet Pavlo Tychyna, Pasternak, Cavafy and T.S. Eliot, and Ukrainian folk culture generally. She talks about the role of political poetry, the writing of her long, acclaimed poem, “May”, on the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and how poetry functions in present-day Ukraine, including in the context of the current war.
This interview is fully bilingual (Ukrainian and English); interpreted by Svitlana Budzhak-Jones. Recorded at The Pennsylvania State University, February 2016.
Enjoy more poetry from Natalka Bilotserkivets, and a terrific sampling of other new Ukrainian literature, in Trafika Europe 7 - Ukrainian Prayer, free online: http://cld.bz/ks1JNyo
