Four Ukrainian Writers on Literature, Solidarity, and the Future of Justice
-
Loading... - Farish Danial
- 13 Mar 2023
- 68 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
“I believe in our truth, and the truth is on our side.”
“Words and Bullets” is a project launched by the Ukrainian independent publisher Chytomo and PEN Ukraine with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). It is a series of interviews with authors and journalists who became soldiers or volunteers following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Chytomo’s editorial team remains in Ukraine, with no stable electricity and internet connection, as the country is attacked—all to keep informing the world about what is happening in Ukraine.
What follows is an edited selection from Chytomo’s interviews with writers on how they are coping with the invasion. You can read the full interviews on Chytomo’s website.
Halyna Kruk (poet, translator, and literary critic)
Does poetry provide salvation during war? Is trying to convince Western skeptics worth the effort? When will dialogue with “old friends from the Russian federation” be possible and what things will the world be forced to reconsider after the war in Ukraine? Poet, translator, literary critic and professor Halyna Kruk answers these questions.
In Denmark, I performed at one of the largest music festivals in Europe: Roskilde, which is kind of like Woodstock in the US. Some 120,000–30,000 people attend the festival each year. They organize a very important stage where they discuss socially important information that aims in one way or another to change something in the public consciousness. This year it was information about the war in Ukraine, and I’m very glad that I was able to speak at this event.
When I got to the festival, I felt a large dissonance with what’s happening in Ukraine. I saw young, carefree people listening to music, having fun, celebrating life. It’s not that I was jealous that they have all this while young people in Ukraine are dying. It was just too strong a contrast; it was emotionally difficult. I understood that it was going to be very hard to explain to them the fragility of this world, the fragility of peace, which until now we also thought was absolute and irreversible. There was even a point when I started to doubt whether there was any point in talking about war here. But once I started reading my poems, suddenly there was silence, and there was a lot of attention in this silence.
Then, I had a personal meeting with Danish Culture Minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen about the humanitarian issues Ukraine faces because of the war: the war is ruining people’s lives, destroying material and non-material culture. I tried to show the human dimension of war. These types of stories are a good way to complement dry reports and statistics and help to focus on the most sensitive aspects of war. Read More…
