The Essential Poetry of Bohdan Ihor Antonych
Ecstasies and Elegies
By Bohdan Ihor Antonych [1909-1937]; Translated by Michael M. Naydan; Introduction by Lidia Stefanowska
Bucknell University Press
Lemko-Ukrainian poet Bohdan Ihor Antonych (1909-37) is not as well-known as Slavic modernist poets Mandelstam, Pasternak, and Milosz, or their Western European counterparts Eliot, Rilke, and Lorca, but he unquestionably should be. Sometimes compared to Walt Whitman and Dylan Thomas, Antonych, who described himself as “an ecstatic pagan, a poet of the high of spring,” created during his brief lifetime powerful and innovative poetry with astonishing metaphorical constructions. Born in the Lemko region of Poland, Antonych adopted Ukrainian as his literary language when he moved to Lviv, and virtually transformed the Ukrainian poetic landscape. This essential collection introduces Antonych’s work to new audiences, and includes a biographical sketch by the translator and a comprehensive introduction by Lidia Stefanowska, one of the world’s leading experts on this remarkable poet.
About the Author
BOHDAN IHOR ANTONYCH (1909-37) was an early twentieth-century Lemko-Ukrainian poet. He received a degree in Slavic studies at Lviv University and published five books of poetry before his untimely death at age 28.
About the Translator
MICHAEL M. NAYDAN is the Woskob Family Professor of Ukrainian Studies at The Pennsylvania State University in State College. He is the translator or co-translator of over 40 books, including Zelensky: A Biography, with Alla Perminova.
About the Introduction Author
LIDIA STEFANOWSKA is a professor of Slavic literatures at the University of Warsaw in Poland. She is the author of Antonych, Antynomii [Antonych, Antinomies], a deep analysis of Bohdan Ihor Antonych’s work.
BOHDAN IHOR ANTONYCH (1909-37) was an early twentieth-century Lemko-Ukrainian poet. He received a degree in Slavic studies at Lviv University and published five books of poetry before his untimely death at age 28.
About the Translator
MICHAEL M. NAYDAN is the Woskob Family Professor of Ukrainian Studies at The Pennsylvania State University in State College. He is the translator or co-translator of over 40 books, including Zelensky: A Biography, with Alla Perminova.
About the Introduction Author
LIDIA STEFANOWSKA is a professor of Slavic literatures at the University of Warsaw in Poland. She is the author of Antonych, Antynomii [Antonych, Antinomies], a deep analysis of Bohdan Ihor Antonych’s work.
Acknowledgments
A Note on the Translation
MICHAEL M. NAYDAN
A Biographical Sketch of the Poet
MICHAEL M. NAYDAN
Between Creation and the Apocalypse: The Poetry of Bohdan Ihor Antonych
LIDIA STEFANOWSKA
Part I: From the Collection
The Grand Harmony (1932–1933)
Musica Noctis
De Morte I
Ars Poetica II, 1
Liber Peregrinorum 3
Part II: From the Collection
Three Rings: Long Poems and Lyrics (1934)
Self-Portrait
Three Rings
An Elegy about a Singing Door
An Elegy about the Keys to Love
An Elegy about the Ring of a Song
The Wedding
The Country Tavern
To the Wind
A Landscape from a Window
Goblets
A Prince
Maples
The Village
Christmas
Kolyada
The Green Gospel
Primordial Summer
The Snake
The Forest
An Elegy on the Ring of Night
The Night
A Late Hour
Morning
The Arrow
Bitter Wine
A Bitter Night
A Night on St. George’s Square
Part III: From the Collection
The Book of the Lion (1936)
The Sign of the Lion
Daniel in the Lion’s Den
Ballad about the Prophet Jonah
A Song about the Light before Time
The Samaritan Woman by the Well
Six Strophes of Mysticism
Roses
Carnations
Peonies
Tulips
Violets
A Monumental Landscape
The Square of Angels
Apocalypse
Starlion; or The Constellation of the Lion
Magicopolis; or How Myths are Born
Sands
The Round Dance
A Song on the Indestructibility of Matter
A Prayer to the Stars
Red Taffeta
The Tale of a Black Regiment
Part IV: From the Collection
The Green Gospel (1938)
FIRST CHAPTER
An Invitation
To the Beings from a Green Star
An Ecstatic Eight-Strophe Poem
FIRST LYRIC INTERMEZZO
The First Chapter of the Bible
Two Hearts
A Portrait of a Carpenter
The Fair
SECOND CHAPTER
The Sign of the Oak
Duet
The Garden
SECOND LYRIC INTERMEZZO
A Bird Cherry Poem
A Sermon to the Fish
Carp
Spring
Cherry Trees
THIRD CHAPTER
Goldsea
The Fleece
A Prayer for the Souls of Drowned Girls
Ambassadors of the Night
To a Proud Plant, that is, to Myself
The Lady of Diamonds
The Home beyond a Star
Part V: From the Collection
Rotations (1938)
Rotations
Cities and Muses
Ballad of the Alley
Forever
A Ballad on Azure Death
The Bottom of Silence
The End of the World
The Concert from Mercury
Dead Automobiles
Trumpets of the Last Day
Ending
Part VI: From Poetry not Published in Collections
A Lviv Elegy
Green Faith
A Prayer
Part VII: From the Collection
A Welcome to Life (1931)
The Mad Fish
The Stratosphere
The Bee
Autumn
About a Strophe
Autobiography
A Welcome to Life
General Index
Index of Poem Titles in English
Index of Poem Titles in Latin and Ukranian
A Note on the Translation
MICHAEL M. NAYDAN
A Biographical Sketch of the Poet
MICHAEL M. NAYDAN
Between Creation and the Apocalypse: The Poetry of Bohdan Ihor Antonych
LIDIA STEFANOWSKA
Part I: From the Collection
The Grand Harmony (1932–1933)
Musica Noctis
De Morte I
Ars Poetica II, 1
Liber Peregrinorum 3
Part II: From the Collection
Three Rings: Long Poems and Lyrics (1934)
Self-Portrait
Three Rings
An Elegy about a Singing Door
An Elegy about the Keys to Love
An Elegy about the Ring of a Song
The Wedding
The Country Tavern
To the Wind
A Landscape from a Window
Goblets
A Prince
Maples
The Village
Christmas
Kolyada
The Green Gospel
Primordial Summer
The Snake
The Forest
An Elegy on the Ring of Night
The Night
A Late Hour
Morning
The Arrow
Bitter Wine
A Bitter Night
A Night on St. George’s Square
Part III: From the Collection
The Book of the Lion (1936)
The Sign of the Lion
Daniel in the Lion’s Den
Ballad about the Prophet Jonah
A Song about the Light before Time
The Samaritan Woman by the Well
Six Strophes of Mysticism
Roses
Carnations
Peonies
Tulips
Violets
A Monumental Landscape
The Square of Angels
Apocalypse
Starlion; or The Constellation of the Lion
Magicopolis; or How Myths are Born
Sands
The Round Dance
A Song on the Indestructibility of Matter
A Prayer to the Stars
Red Taffeta
The Tale of a Black Regiment
Part IV: From the Collection
The Green Gospel (1938)
FIRST CHAPTER
An Invitation
To the Beings from a Green Star
An Ecstatic Eight-Strophe Poem
FIRST LYRIC INTERMEZZO
The First Chapter of the Bible
Two Hearts
A Portrait of a Carpenter
The Fair
SECOND CHAPTER
The Sign of the Oak
Duet
The Garden
SECOND LYRIC INTERMEZZO
A Bird Cherry Poem
A Sermon to the Fish
Carp
Spring
Cherry Trees
THIRD CHAPTER
Goldsea
The Fleece
A Prayer for the Souls of Drowned Girls
Ambassadors of the Night
To a Proud Plant, that is, to Myself
The Lady of Diamonds
The Home beyond a Star
Part V: From the Collection
Rotations (1938)
Rotations
Cities and Muses
Ballad of the Alley
Forever
A Ballad on Azure Death
The Bottom of Silence
The End of the World
The Concert from Mercury
Dead Automobiles
Trumpets of the Last Day
Ending
Part VI: From Poetry not Published in Collections
A Lviv Elegy
Green Faith
A Prayer
Part VII: From the Collection
A Welcome to Life (1931)
The Mad Fish
The Stratosphere
The Bee
Autumn
About a Strophe
Autobiography
A Welcome to Life
General Index
Index of Poem Titles in English
Index of Poem Titles in Latin and Ukranian
Related Titles
Testimony
Found Poems from the Special Court for Sierra Leone
By Shanee Stepakoff; Foreword by Ernest D. Cole
