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HELEN MURAL, junior Vice-President UNIVLA, Contributing Editor, OUR LIFE The value of translating Ukrainian literature into English Although it is devotedly to he desired from an idealist;' point of view, the fa-ct still remains that the majority of our Amer ican-Ukrainian youth ■'?jmot read adequately in the Ukrainian lan guage. Many of us cannot 'ad Ukrainian at all. in my mind, there are two primary reasons why we should do all that we can to translate into English and to publish Uk rainian literature of all types, the first and obvious reason fol lows Irom the fact that most of us second generation Ukrainians cannot react -enough to digest [Ukrainian well a Ukrainian poem 01 * story with ease and pleasure. And yet the inspiration derived from the works of such .great Ukrainian poets and writ ers as Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko and Lessya Ukrainka are invaluable in strengthening the link between the land of our birth, the U.S.A., and the land of our heritage, the Ukraine. The second reason, which is not quite so obvious, is the great he eel to put into the English language the details and, the in tricacies of Ukrainian culture both in the field of literature as well as in the field of art and musk for the benefit of the non- Ukrainian public as w-ell as sec ond generation Ukrainians. Much interest has been dis played on the part of non-Uk rainians in our “pysanky, em broidery, folk dancing, etc. Much information has been handed down by our parents and scat tered articles have been written time a lid again oil these sub jects. However, to the best of my knowledge, not a single book in the English language is in existence which even begins to do justice to the treasures of the Ukraine for non-Ukrainians. It was not until last year when it was necessary for me to com pile a few facts^ on Ukrainian embroidery that I. learned how little has been written in Eng lish on our a'rts. After checking suggestion after suggestion from interested Ukrainians, in despe ration I turned to the Cleveland Public Library for assistance. Surely the library would have something! I was directed to the “Home Branch’’ of the Uk rainian collection"'oil t’lie 'sbuth side in Cleveland. s soon as I introduced myself as Ukrainian the librarian in charge of the Ukrainian section began be moaning the fact that every ef fort slie had made to collect ar ticles and books on Ukrainian subjects in English had met with failure. She -could not understand wThy we Ukrainians with such a rich culture were doing so little by written word to “pass along” our culture to other'nationalities. I was very discouraged when she showed me the pitifully, few ar ticles on Ukrainian Easter eggs that were yellow with age and frayed from handling. This experience may or may not be indicative of conditions in your town or city. Whether it is greater or less is not as import taut as that we do as much as possible through organizations and individually to further the cause of translations. A very good beginning has been made with the translations of some of our poets and several Ukrainian novels. What has been, done is good, but a lot more remains to be achieved. Subscribe to Our Life JR. LEAGUE HOLDING PlCNlt-bAftCE Cleveland, Ohio Spring is here and in Cleveland twenty young women, members of the Ukrainian Jr. League Br. 60, are hustling about in prepa ration for their June 5th -Picnic- Dance to be held at St. Peter &: Paul Ukrainian Grove. Co-chairmen of the affair are Helen Budowanec and Stella Popowicz. A Ukrainian embroi dered linen luncheon-cloth and napkins received from Head quarters in Philadelphia will be. raffled at the affair. The Picnic-Dance will end Jr. League activities in Cleveland for the summer months. NEW BRANCH PLANS MEETING—PICNIC Newark, N. J. combination meeting-pi-chic of the newly organized Jr. League Br. 50 in Xeark is be ing planned for early June. The charter members, along with new menl'bers, will meet at Di ana Nastmk.'s home to discuss plans for the group. The girls have already agreed that activities will be postponed until after the summer months since members will be coming; and going on vacations. Culture — not without politics By JULIA DOBRIANSKY Address delivered at the Ukrainian Women’s World Congress, held in Philadelphia, NbVeirtber 12 fend 13, 1948 Communist theoreticians speak at least one iota of truth when they insist upon the undivoreeability of culture and politics. Al though the two are distinguishable, yet in reality they are insepar able. Too ofteii, unfortunately, speakers treating of the culture of any society or nation or of the proverbial “cultural contributions” of this or that people pursue this line of distinction to the unrealistic point 'of ignoring the necessary relation of politics to cultural ac tivity. Until recently, the very term “politics” seemed to carry some .stigma iii the minds of many Americans. Among Europeans, how ever, the political elements of -life have for long been regarded as intrinsic and even determining parts of the cultural form. It is a measure of significant progress that seemingly everywhere in the civilized world a growing consciousness of this ihseperable relation between culture and politics is seizing the minds of men. To speak of one without the other is only a half-speech. The culture of any people is its soul. It is a-broader concept than politics for it encompasses the political. It is that integrating force of essential thought and practice which makes into an intelli gible whole the multitude of particular activities of any group of people. In brief, it gives forhi, unity and meaning to the countless aspects of life. It summarizes the past, counts the present, and pre dicates the future. In it, the achievements of the past are amply re- hected, the operations of the present ar understood, and the hopes and aspirations of the future are magnified. Without it, social ex istence becomes meaningless. On the other hand „the politics of any people manifest the ends of life offered by the culture of that people. And in this manifesta tion, it aims specifically at the creation of wholesome circumstances of political intercourse where the techniques of government and public rule are compatibly adjusted to the larger ends of expressive cultural life. To the degree that the political means are ill-adapted to the cultural ends, to that degree friction-.eiisues, wasteful con flict enhances, and the full realization of the cherished ends is miser ably deterred. In brief, this fundamental relationship of political means compatibly adjusted to cultural ends underlies basically all social phenomena and determines the growth, the flowering, and the general health of any social organism. Maladjustment between the two spells only cultural retardation, fruitless dissipation of energy devoted to the righting of this condition, and* in some unpersever- ing cases, even cultural death. These are its inevitable and inescap able results. With this working relationship in mind, one can efficiently in terpret the histories of all peoples and nations. But it is without any exaggeration that among the large nations in the world, Uk raine, with its national populace of 45 million, the second largest Slavic nation, presents a blood-ridden history that manifests almost in the extreme the condition of prolonged maladjustment between the political and cultural factors of our working relationship. Uk rainian history, as Voltaire well observed, may be summarized as a democratic history of unyielding struggle for national freedom. Except for its periods of independent existence, namely the Age of Kievan Ukraine from the 9th to the 13tli century, the period of the Kossack Republic from 1648 to 1709, and the brief span of the Ukrainian People’s Republic from 1917 to 1920, Ukraine has been the battlefield of a people’s persevering efforts to create for them selves, and against foreign aggressors and oppressors, that whole some relationship between the polical and the cultural. (To be continued)
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