Four Ukrainian Poets
This bilingual edition of Four Ukrainian Poets, published in Canada by Quixote in 1969, brings together the poetry of four major Ukrainian writers: Ivan Drach, Vitaliy Korotych, Lina Kostenko, and Vasyl Symonenko. The poems are presented in both Ukrainian and English, translated by Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak and Danylo S. Struk, with an introduction by George S. N. Luckyj.
At the time of its publication, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, and this collection captured what was then a contemporary literary moment. The poets included in this volume belong to the generation known as the shistdesyatnyky—the “Sixtiers”—a group of writers and intellectuals who emerged in the late 1950s and 1960s during the period of the Khrushchev Thaw. Their work is often associated with a renewed interest in personal expression, cultural identity, and the Ukrainian language.
For many of these poets, literature became a space for subtle resistance. Without openly rejecting the system, they explored themes of human dignity, memory, and national consciousness, often pushing against the limits imposed by Soviet cultural policy. As the introduction to this volume suggests, their writing reflects both a shared disillusionment with Stalinist repression and a search for new poetic language and meaning.
-- Kate, Special Collections Graduate Art History Fieldworker
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