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Ukrainian. After all I thought that Helena Kolody knew Ukrainian well enough to use it in her own poetry. I was saddened to realize that she wrote only in Portuguese. Yet the Ukrainian translations were strikingly beautiful, and I quickly realized that what had happened in Brazil was similar to what had happened in other South American countries, the United States and even Australia at the turn of the 20th century: Mastery of the local language (Eng lish, Spanish, Portuguese) was a prerequisite to citizenship. There are many accounts of people who in their youth were punished for using their mother tongue. Helena Kolody was probably one of these marginalized children. One poem depicts the young Helena listening to her grandmother praying before an icon. She recalls not understanding the words but being confident that God understands them even if a child does not and even if the words remain unexplained forever. An English-language translation is provided below (1980, unedited): The light was vacillating in front of the icon. The patient grandmother was teaching how to bow religiously And with three fingers together, make the sign of the cross And pray having joined both hands. Repeating the Slavonic prayer the little girl did not understand These words that her lips repeated But which God understood. Another poem presents an adult whose psyche is torn between life and death. The poet echoes the feeling that many adults of foreign background experience regardless of their origins. They grow up with the myth of a country (here, Ukraine) that they know only through church services, songs, and dances. Some will go further and explore history, literature, and the arts. They relate to a culture which finds itself buried in their souls while on the outside they relate to the local community, its language, and its culture. How do they feel? The pain is real. Some gifted people find solace in writing about their experiences in novels or short stories. Others write poetry. In one of her poems Helena Kolody portrays herself as a dead person walking (Short Life, 1966): Secret spring in the midst of soft life Death lives in the heart of life The most endearing poem by Helena Kolody is the one entitled “Saga” (Eternity, 1980) in which she retraced the past of Ukrainian people as well as her own past: In the secret flow of life I have livedfor centuries My ancestors are the Viking ocean sailors Who built the ancestral Kyiv My ancestors are from glorious Ukraine I belong to the immigrant wave I am from the forest cradle Happy barefooted little girl. Home is where people sing in “kolo ” Home is where children play “nebo іpeklo ” Home is where folk tale begins with “buv sobi raz” I landed, to throw the anchor In the heart of your foothills My beloved Curitiba! How many Helena Kolodys remain un known? Wherever there was an immigrant family with children, there was surely a little Helena Ko lody. If children are the flowers of Ukraine, many flowers have bloomed in many different worlds. In our 21st century we want to hear their voices—just like this woman’s voice from Brazil. Copyright June 2007 Helene Turkewicz-Sanko, Ph.D. John Carroll University Bibliography Cruz, Antonio Donizeti da. Helena Kolody, a poesia da inquietagao. Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio Grande do Sul. Porto Alegre. 1993. Kolody, Helena. Luz Infinita.. Museu-Biblioteca Ucranianos em Curitiba.da Uniao Agricola Instrutiva-Clube Ucraino-Brasileiro-Organizafao Feminina. 1997. Kubijovyc,Volodymyr, ed. Encyclopedia of Ukraine. University of Toronto Press. 1984.
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