Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene: Two Colors Of The Soul: The Selected Poetry Of Dmytro Pavlychko

Two Colors Of The Soul:

The Selected Poetry Of

Dmytro Pavlychko

Cervena Barva Press

Edited and with an introduction

by Michael M. Naydan

Somerville, Massachusetts

Softbound, 90 pages, $17

ISBN: 978-0-9883713-0-9

Review by Zvi A. Sesling

When reading a translation of poetry, usually one poet has translated. In this volume of Dmytro Pavlychko’s verse the Ukrainian-to-English is accomplished by eight translators.

One would think that eight different people bringing a Ukrainian poet to the English speaking word would result in an uneven, choppy book. However, the opposite is true in this presentation by Cervena Barva Press. The eight translators have made a unified collection, bring to English readers a Ukrainian poet who deserves wider recognition.

In the poem I Must, translated by Dzvinia Orlowsky he presents us with what Americans would refer to as a “bucket list” but is more like a self-awakening:

I Must

I must read books

so that I won’t become blind.

I must speak

so that I won’t grow mute from grief.

I must hear a song

so that I won’t fall deaf with silence.

I must fall in love

for joy to move toward me.

I must see my friend

for the day to become brighter.

I must write a poem

for my heart not to break.

I must work

to feel worthy of bread.

I must die at midnight

so the in the morning I may rise again!

In a poignant encounter with the Chernobyl dead zone, Pavlychko tells us how a possession once owned by someone might feel about no longer being owned.

The Plaything

(translated by Aliona Sydorenko)

In the Chornobyl dead zone

in a hut on a bench

there sits a man

sculpted of clay

the likeness of a god

unafraid of the radiation

He has been sitting for fourteen years

looking at the door with sadness

waiting for it to be opened

by his maker

the blond-haired boy

But the boy does not come

does not open the door

and the clay man

continues to sit and wait

A number of Pavlychko’s poems have built in irony, none more ironic than Too Late Too Soon in which we discover how unnecessary we are:

Too Late Too Soon

(translated by Aliona Sydorenko)

In whatever century

you’re born,

it will always be too late and too soon!

Too late, because everything most important

in this world

has already happened without you,

too soon, because everything most important

in this world

will happen without you too.

Pavlychko’s poetry is truly in the Eastern European mold which if you have not discovered you should. The photograph of him on the back cover is one of a stern, hard person who has lived through a lot, seen even more. Graying, balding with thick eyebrows and deep set blue eyes, Pavlychko looks more the stern politician than poet.

However, make no mistake his poetry is deep, accessible and worth a reading – and to be sure you enjoy its fullness, read it twice.

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Zvi A. Sesling

Reviewer, Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene

Author, King of the Jungle and Across Stones of Bad Dreams

Editor, Muddy River Poetry Review

Editor, Bagel Bards Anthology 7

Editor, Bagel Bards Anthology 8