Bohdan-Ihor Antonych

Bohdan-Ihor Antonych

Bohdan-Ihor Antonytsch ( Ukrainian Богдан-Ігор Антонич , scientific transliteration Bohdan-Ihor Antonyč ; born October 5, 1909 in Nowica , Uście Gorlickie , Galicia , Austria-Hungary ; † July 6, 1937 in Lviv , Second Polish Republic ) was a Ukrainian poet and prose writer .

Officially banned, the writer did not become widely known in Ukraine until the mid- 1960s . His philosophical-religious poetry , enriched with comedy, folkloristic and pagan symbols , had a great influence on contemporary Ukrainian literature. In his work, influences from Omar Chajjam , Walt Whitman and Gabriele d'Annunzio can be seen.

biography

Antonych was born in Nowica in the Gorlice district ( Lesser Poland Voivodeship ) into the family of a clergyman. The father's name was actually Wasyl Kot. The family changed their name before Bohdan-Ihor was born. This was first taught at home by a private teacher and then attended the Queen Sophia High School in Sanok . Even in middle school he wrote poetry in Polish, as this was the language of instruction and he lived in a Polish-influenced environment.

In 1928 Antonytsch enrolled at Lviv University . The following phase of life was formative for the development of his creative personality. For although the university was a Polish one, the majority of its students were recruited from the Ukrainian bourgeoisie. This encouraged the young poet to write in Ukrainian and learn the Ukrainian literary language. The author read the first poems created in this way with his fellow Ukrainian students. He immersed himself in the literary world of Lviv, the capital of Galicia . He found material for his exploration of the Ukrainian language not only in dictionaries, but also in the verses of the poets of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic . In 1931 his first published poem appeared in the magazine Wohni ( Вогні ). Further publications in periodicals and edited volumes followed. Despite his enormous creative productivity and the difficult process of acquiring literary language, Antonytsch still found plenty of time to work in other fields. In lectures he promoted the foreign Ukrainian literature and translated it. He wrote reviews under the pseudonym Sojl ( Зоїл ), but stayed away from politics. He published satirical texts and parodies in which he showed a biting sense of humor. He also tried epic and dramatic forms.

He left the unfinished novella “Three Mandolins” ( Три мандоліни ) and a fragment of a story entitled “На другому березі” . Antonych wrote the libretto for the opera "Довбуш" by Anton Rudnicki. He was also the editor of the magazine "Dazbog" and together with Volodymir Gavryliuk of the magazine "Karbi" , he painted, played the violin and composed. These branches of art, especially painting, influenced his poetry.

Antonych died at the age of twenty-eight of appendicitis that spread to the pleura and was buried in the Janivskyj Cemetery in Lviv.

Works

• Autobiography (Автобіографія)
• The Green Gospel (Зелена Євангелія). Lviv, 1938
• Book of the Lion (Книга Лева). Lviv, 1936;
• На другому березі (unfinished)
• Greetings to life [Привітання життя] . Lviv, 1931;
• Song about the indestructibility of matter ( Пісня про незнищенність матерії )
• rotation ( Ротації ). Lviv, 1938.
• Three rings (Три перстені). Lviv, 1934;
• Translation of Rainer Maria Rilkes into the Ukrainian language

Web links

Commons : Bohdan Ihor Antonych  - Collection of images

• Stefan Simonek, poems by Bohdan-Ihor Antonyč in German translation (a chronological outline) [8. January 2016]. https://uscholar.univie.ac.at/view/o:423487
• Літературні вечори в Українському Інституті Модерного Мистецтва Чикаго, 1973-2006 // Укладачі: Віра Боднарук, Володимир Стефанович Білецький Володимир Білецький. - Донецьк: Український культурологічний центр, 2006. - 140 с.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 75 years since the death of the great poet Bohdan-Ihor Antonytsch on radiosvoboda.org of July 6, 2012; accessed on August 17, 2020 (Ukrainian)