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In photo: Andrew Colteaux in front, Olia Radchuk, Ian Wen and Richarda Abrams performing excerpts from Yeroshenko’s "Land of Dreams”. Photo: Taja Salam acha VIRLANA TKACZ YARA ARTS GROUP’S BLIND SIGHT I first heard of Vasyl Yeroshenko summer of 1988. We were in the Tokyo’s National Modern Museum, which is dedicated to oil paintings, an art form introduced in Japan only in the last century. The portrait gallery con tained a number of impressive studies of various Japa nese individuals and one stunning Impressionist can vas of a young blond man who seemed to radiate light. As I approached the painting, I noticed that the man portrayed seemed blind. The tension between the light and the blindness gave the portrait a great sense of dynamic energy. I asked about the work and was told that this was one of the most famous paintings of the Taisho Period (1912-25). It was painted by Tsune Na kamura and had won several awards in Paris. It was a portrait of Vasyl Yeroshenko, a Ukrainian poet. I was sure I misheard something. I had studied Ukrainian literature, how was it I had never heard of this man? They must be mistaken. No, I was reassured, Vasyl Yeroshenko was a Ukrainian poet who lived in Japan during the Taisho Period. My friend also told me that there was another por trait of Yeroshenko by Tsurta Goro in one of the famous old restaurants in Shinjuku, which to this day serves borscht in his honor. We decided to go there for lunch. The borscht, indeed was excellent. The portrait of Yero shenko by Goro is an interesting work, but it is more contained, and does not convey the excitement of Tsune Nakamura’s portrait. I learned that both paintings were painted at the same time. I also learned that Yeroshenko was very involved in Esperanto, an artificial language created in the 19th century with the hope that it would become the interna tional second language everyone would learn. A few days later, we were walking near Waseda University when I saw one of the few signs I could read in Tokyo. It said “Esperanto Club.” We walked in. There were sev eral people sitting in the club. I asked if any of them had ever heard of Vasyl Yeroshenko. “Yes, of course,” someone answered. “He’s a famous Ukrainian poet.” I was shown an encyclopedia entry in Esperanto on Yeroshenko and also several books about him. I bought a biography in Japanese and an anthology of his stories printed on one side in Japanese and on the other in Esperanto. I came home and put these books on my shelf and forgot about them. Then one day in January 1992 I had a dream about Yeroshenko’s portrait. The Yara Arts Group, the theatre company I head, had just finished the last performances of our piece EXPLOSIONS and people were asking me what would be our next project. I told Wanda Phipps, who writes with me all of the scripts for Yara’s projects, about my dream and what I could remember about ’’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ВЕРЕСЕНЬ 1993 17
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