Poetry Readings: "Hidalgo"

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Introduction to A Conversation in Winter

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Poetry Readings: Hidalgo

Tomas Venclova Poet

		Views	Duration
81. Poetry Readings: Hidalgo		106	02:05
82. Introduction to A Conversation in Winter		51	01:58
83. Poetry Readings: A Conversation in Winter		39	03:45
84. Poetry Readings: Night descended on us with a chill		42	03:36
85. Poetry Readings: Desist, desist		75	01:54
86. Poetry Readings: Before the middle of July, Paris	1	56	04:26
87. Poetry Readings: In the Fire		96	01:39
88. Poetry Readings: Variacija nubudimo tema		27	03:22

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English | Lithuanian

Fine, I now have a book in my hands which is called The Complete Poems. In fact, all of my poems are collected here. Of which, as I’ve said, I haven’t written many in my life, only about 200. Two hundred plus. Well, perhaps there’ll be some more before I die, but there certainly won’t be many more. I’ve been writing for over 50 years. I began writing in '56. I said that I wrote then about the Hungarian Revolution which I couldn’t, of course, get published. But people read those poems, sometimes they even copied them out, in the samizdat of those days.

Well, here’s the very first poem which I consider worthy of being published, about the Hungarian Revolution called Hidalgo. Hidalgo is [Miguel de] Cervantes’s hero in The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, who here represents the rebellious spirit of the revolutionaries and... The poem is short, youthful, I'd say, naïve, but nevertheless I had it published and the book begins with it.

Translation of this poem not available.

Gerai, tai čia dabar mano rankose knyga, kuri vadinasi "Visi eilėraščiai". Čia surinkti faktiškai visi mano eilėraščiai. Kurių, kaip sakiau, esu gyvenime parašęs nedaug. Tik apie du šimtus. Du šimtus su viršum. Nu, gal dar iki mirties atsiras dar daugiau, bet žymiai daugiau tikriausiai jau nebus. Rašau penkiasdešimt su viršum metų. Ir štai, pradėjau rašyti penkiasdešimt šeštaisiais metais. Sakiau, kad tada rašiau apie Vengrijos revoliuciją. Ko negalėjau, žinoma, išspausdinti. Bet žmonės tuos eilėraščius skaitė. Kartais net persirašinėjo tais laikais. Tuometinėje savilaidoje. Nu, ir štai pats pirmasis eilėraštis, kurį laikau galimu spausdinti, apie Vengrijos revoliuciją vadinasi "Hidalgo". Hidalgo tai Don Kichotas, Servanteso herojus, kuris čia atstovauja revoliucionierių maišto dvasią, sukilimo dvasią, ir... eilėraštis trumpas, toks jaunatviškas, sakyčiau, naivus, bet aš jį vis dėl to spausdinu, nuo jo pradedu knygą.

Duok man ranką, Sancho. Broli mano,

Aš pakilsiu. Negaliu. Tuojau.

Štai, aš čia. Iš pamiršto romano

Į nelygią kovą išėjau.

Koks apsunkęs ir bejėgis kūnas!

Niekad nesuvoksime, už ką

Mudviem skirtos aikštės ir tribūnos,

Tankų bokštai, virvė ir kulka.

Visas turtas – žodžiai neatsargūs,

Visas menas — mirti ir mylėt,

Visas atpildas — po didžio vargo

Purvina planetos pakelė.

Riteris, kalbėtojas, žaidikas,

Ženklintas kulkosvaidžio švinu,

Nebe pirmą kartą nužudytas,

Nebe pirmą kartą gyvenu.

Born in 1937, Tomas Venclova is a Lithuanian scholar, poet, author and translator of literature. He was educated at Vilnius University and later at Tartu University. As an active participant in the dissident movement he was deprived of Soviet citizenship in 1977 and had to emigrate. Between 1977 and 1980 he lectured at University of California, Berkeley, where he became friends with the Polish poet Czesław Miłosz, who was a professor of Slavic Languages and Literature at the school, as well as the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky. He is currently a full professor at Yale University.

Title: Poetry Readings: "Hidalgo"

Listeners: Andrzej Wolski

Film director and documentary maker, Andrzej Wolski has made around 40 films since 1982 for French television, the BBC, TVP and other TV networks. He specializes in portraits and in historical films. Films that he has directed or written the screenplay for include Kultura, which he co-directed with Agnieszka Holland, and KOR which presents the history of the Worker’s Defence Committee as told by its members. Andrzej Wolski has received many awards for his work, including the UNESCO Grand Prix at the Festival du Film d’Art.

Tags: The Complete Poems, Hidalgo, Hungarian Revolution, The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, Miguel de Cervantes

Duration: 2 minutes, 5 seconds

Date story recorded: May/June 2011

Date story went live: 20 March 2012