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My Soviet citizenship is revoked

RELATED STORIES

My trip to Hawaii
Tomas Venclova Poet
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Na, ir po to dar atsimenu, nuvažiavau į Angliją su savo tuo tarybiniu pasu, gavau vizą į Angliją ir grįžti į Ameriką vėl gavau vizą, stovėjau Londone, atsimenu, eilėje, buvo milžiniška eilė, kadangi gauti vizą į Angliją nebuvo lengva, bet ją duodavo daugmaž automatiškai, bet jau tada prieidavo tavo eilės numeris. Tai man teko beveik visą dieną išstovėti eilėje. To aš irgi niekuomet gyvenime neužmiršiu, ir dar ant to tarybinio paso man uždėjo vizą, kad aš grįšiu į Ameriką. Na, ir baigęs dėstyti tą semestrą, aš uždirbau už savo dėstymą apie dešimt tūkstančių dolerių. Man tai tada atrodė labai dideli pinigai, kas gyvena Vakaruose gerai žino, kad tai nėra dideli pinigai, kad kelis mėnesius pragyvensi, bet turbūt ne ilgiau negu kelis mėnesius, ir tai labai kukliai. Na, jau vien dėl to, kad butai yra brangūs. Ir, bet aš sugalvojau, aš pagalvojau, kad jeigu jau aš, taip sakant, taip man sekasi, iš karto padariau pinigų, nemažų mano tuometiniu supratimu pinigų, padarysiu sau dovaną. Man nėra geresnės dovanos negu kelionė. Aš nusprendžiau nusipirkti turą, nusipirkti ekskursiją į Havajaus salas. Ir tos Havajaus salos nuo San Francisko ne taip jau toli, kelios valandos skridimo lėktuvu per Ramųjį vandenyną, tai yra Amerikos dalis, tai ten jokių papildomų vizų nereikia. Ir ten gali pamatyti polinezijiečius, jų gyvenimo stilių, gali pamatyti ugniakalnius, daug įdomių dalykų, ir aš aštuoniom dienom išskridau į Havajus. Atsimenu tas, ta ekskursija kainavo aštuonis šimtus dolerių įskaitant lėktuvą, šiandien, žinoma, tai kainuotų gerokai daugiau.

Well, I remember after that, I went to England on that Soviet passport. I got a visa to England and I got a visa to go back to America. I was standing in a queue in London... I remember, it was an enormous queue since it wasn't easy to get a visa to England, but it was issued more or less automatically, but then your number did come up. So I had to stand in a queue almost all day. That's something which I'll also never forget in my life... and they stamped a visa into my Soviet passport so that I could go back into America. Well, and at the end of lecturing that semester, I'd earned about $10,000 from my lecturing. To me that seemed like a great deal of money. Anyone who lives in the West knows perfectly well that it wasn't very much money, that you could live on it for a few months and very modestly at that. Well, because accommodation is very expensive. And, but I thought... I thought if I, as it were, if I was doing well – I'd made some money straight away, not a small amount of money as I understood it then – I'll give myself a present. For me there's no better present that a trip. I decided to buy a tour... to buy an excursion to Hawaii. It wasn't that far from Hawaii to San Francisco, several hours by plane across the Pacific Ocean, it was a part of America, no additional visas were necessary. And you could see Polynesians there, their style of life, you could see volcanoes, lots of interesting things, and I flew off to Hawaii for eight days. I remember that excursion cost $800, including the flight. Today, of course, it would cost a good deal more.

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.

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: Hawaii, USA, England

Duration: 1 minute, 56 seconds

Date story recorded: May/June 2011

Date story went live: 20 March 2012