Skip to content
Call Us Today! 212-533-4646 | MON-FRI 12PM - 4PM (EST)
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
Search for:
About Us
Publications
FAQ
Annual Report 2023
Annual Report 2022
Annual Report 2021
Initiatives
Advocate
Educate
Cultivate
Care
News
Newsletters
Sign Up For Our Newsletter
Join UNWLA
Become a Member
Volunteer With Us
Donate to UNWLA
Members Portal
Calendar
Shop to Support Ukraine
Search for:
Print
Print Page
Download
Download Page
Download Right Page
Open
1
2-3
4-5
6-7
8-9
10-11
12-13
14-15
16-17
18-19
20-21
22-23
24-25
26-27
28-29
30-31
32-33
34-35
36-37
38-39
40
Yara Arts Group in “ Virtual Souls”. In photo: Cecilia Arana and Tom Lee as the Hunter. rode to the lake we often stopped on a hill, or in a spot where the steppe suddenly opened up, to sprinkle milk and vodka and to thank the masters of the landscape. The Buryats say, "People ask us where is your church architecture, and we say we pray in a church where the dome is the sky and the foundations are the earth." Na ture is spectacular there, truly awesome. We rehearsed our show on the shore of Lake Baikal. In one scene the actors say their own addresses, starting with their present one and go back one by one. At each address they experience the place and themselves there. After reciting their place of birth, every actor stepped into the waters of the Baikal. We all floated in water before birth and life on earth began in the seas. On the way back from the Baikal we stopped to visit Tania's mother, who was easily in her 80s. As we sat down to a feast, Erzhena sang her a Buryat song in thanks. Then Cecilia, who is Armenia-Peruvian by heri tage, asked if she could sing. She sang the same song she had sung to her own grandmother -- "Forever Young." Erzhena and I translated. We had gotten good at English to Ukrainian to Buryat. We could almost do it si multaneously. The grandma wiped her tears and said that after that she had no intention of ever aging another day. Our bus driver was very appropriately named Bayar Timur, in Buryat "warrior of steel." Not only did he know how to get us out of incredible jams on the road, he actually managed to lift the bus without a jack to fix a flat. As we all stood in the freezing night, Tom and Andrew suddenly started performing a section of Lysheha's "Swan" poem to the moon: Moon, come here.. I come out from under the pines - you're hid ing.. I go back under the pines - you shine.. I start running - you're at my back.. I stop - you're gone.. Only dark pines.. I hide behind a pine - and you come out.. I come out -- you're not there.. Not there.. Not there.. There.. Not there.. There., not there.. I can’t move that fast.. Wait.. I want to Stand in your light..2 Lysheha must have been writing about this very moon, this very spot. I learned about Lysheha's connec tion to Buryatia only on the day I was leaving for Siberia. Serhii Proskurnia, who had produced our shows in Kyiv, arrived that morning and we talked as I tried to pack. At one point I asked him if he thought I was crazy for going off to Ulan Ude. "No," he replied, "it makes perfect sense. After all, Lysheha had been there and was very influenced by the art and philosophy." I couldn't believe my ears. Lysheha had been to Buryatia? "Yes," Serhii answered, "didn't you know that?" No, I didn't know that. It was only due to a ton of research that I happened upon the Buryat material. At first Serhii thought I was kidding. Then he realized that I had indeed made this connection on my own. He told me what he knew. In the 1970s Oleh Lysheha was involved with a college literary magazine called Skrynia (The Chest) that published translations of Western modernist poets such as Ezra Pound. During the purges of 1972 the police decided that this was a na tionalist publication and Lysheha was expelled from Lviv State University. He was forced into the Soviet army and sent to Buryatia. I don't think the actors knew about Ly sheha's stay in Buryatia, but obviously they too felt a 2"Swan" by Oleh Lysheha, translated by Virlana Tkacz and W anda Phipps 20 ’’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, СІЧЕНЬ 1997 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
Page load link
Go to Top