Igor Kaczurowskyj
Igor Kaczurowskyj was a Ukrainian poet, translator, writer, academic and radio journalist.
Early life and education
Igor Vasilyevich Kaczurowskyj was born on 1 September 1918 in Nizhyn, Ukrainian State to an Ukrainian Jewish family. Kaczurowskyj's mother, Yevgeniya Oleksandrivna Kachurovskaya, was a member of the Ukrainian nobility and graduate of the Women's Higher Courses. His father, Vasyl Antonovich Kachurovsky, held a law degree from Saint Vladimir Imperial University of Kiev and a economics degree in absentia from a university in Moscow. During the Ukrainian People's Republic Kaczurowskyj's father was a member of the Central Rada, serving as assistant state secretary and later as the financial officer of Nizhyn district.Kaczurowskyj first lived in the village of Kruty however, in order to avoid Soviet repression the Kaczurowskyj family initially moved to Nizhyn in November 1930 before settling in Mala Vyska in spring 1931. In 1932, the family relocated to Kursk, Russian SFSR.
In 1937 Kaczurowskyj completed his secondary education and began attending the Kursk State Pedagogical Institute, studying under and Petro Odarchenko. Kaczurowskyj graduated in 1941.
Career
Austria
The Kaczurowskyj family returned to Kruty in 1942 but later in 1943 escaped through Western Ukraine into the Slovak Republic. The family later relocated to Allied-occupied Austria and from 1945 onwards lived in Camp 373, a Displaced Persons Camp in Spittal an der Drau.In 1946, Kaczurowskyj's poem "How good it is that you are not with me" was published in Ostanni Novyny, a Ukrainian language newspaper in Salzburg. In 1947, Kaczurowskyj won an award for the short story "Passport" from the publishing house "Novi Dni", and began co-operateing with the magazine "Kettle-drums". In 1948, Kaczurowskyj's first collection of poetry "Over the Bright Source" was published.
During this period Kaczurowskyj was one of the founding members of the Salzburg based Union of Ukrainian Scholars, Writers and Artists.
Argentina
Towards the end of 1948 Kaczurowskyj and his family emigrated to Argentina and settled near Buenos Aires. Kaczurowskyj first worked as a labourer on a port railway repair crew and later as a port janitor, whilst studing Spanish in his spare time.During this period Kaczurowskyj edited the magazine "Porohy" , wrote for the periodicals "Ovyd", "Mitla", "Novi Dni". In 1958–62 he assisted the Instituto Grafotécnico ; 1963–64 he lectured on Ancient Ukrainian literature at the Pontifical [Catholic University of Argentina], in 1968 on Russian literature at the Universidad del Salvador, both in Buenos Aires.
Germany
In 1969 he moved to Munich, remaining nevertheless a citizen of Argentina. In the 1970–80s he wrote and broadcast over two-thousand scripts, as a literary commentator at the "Ukrainian Desk" of the broadcasting service Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. At the Ukrainian Free University, he obtained his PhD degree for his thesis "Old Slavic beliefs and their connections with Indo-Iranian religions"; from 1973 on he lectured at the UFU, from 1982 as an ordinary professor; at the Faculty of Philosophy he held lectures on Metre (poetry)versification, stylistics, theory of literary genres, history of the Ukrainian literature of the 1920–30s, History of Medieval European literature. He was a member of the Association of Ukrainian Writers in Exile "Slovo", the Union of Argentine Writers SADE, National Writers' Union of Ukraine.Poetry
Igor Kaczurowskyj is the author of the following books of verse: "Nad Svitlym Dzherelom", Salzburg 1948; "V Dalekiy Havani", Buenos Aires 1956; "Pisnya Pro Bilyi Parus", Munich 1971; "Svichada Vichnosty", Munich 1990; "Osinni Piznyotsvity". The last was published in one volume, along with the poem "Selo". The final collection of selected poems named "Liryka" was published in Lviv.As a poet Kaczurowskyj was a follower of the Kyiv neoclassicists, a literary disciple of Mykhailo Orest. Similar to Mykola Zerov and the poets of his literary school, Kaczurowskyj was a master in "poetry of the second degree" such a "poetry of culture" which is considered by Dmytro Nalyvayko as one of the major attributes of classicism as a type of artistic thought. At the same time Kaczurowskyj composed refined love poems, and poetry of nature. In general, Kaczurowskyj's poetry is marked by a painful disharmony between spiritualized beauty embodied in primeval nature, the masterworks of art of the past ages and the spiritual decay of modern civilization, between high human feelings and contrasts of social reality. His long poem "Selo" was the first great epic in Ukrainian literature depicting the tragedy of Ukrainian Holodomor of 1932–3.
The main characteristics of his poetical style, are a neoclassical clarity, achieved by open metaphors, a refined lexis, a select poetical language, free of every coarseness or vulgarism, the strict adherence to the accentual-syllabic verse meter, and the perfect dominion of canons ruling the poems' stanzas.
Kaczurowskyj's poetical parodies, epigrams, jests, and other humorous writings, used to be published, abroad and in Ukraine, under the pseudonym Khvedosiy Chichka.
As a writer for children, Kaczurowskyj is the author of the long poem "Pan Kotskyi", and the book "U svynyachomu tsarstvi".
Prose
His prose writings comprise the novel "Shlyakh nevidomoho", Munich 1956, which later was translated into English by Yuriy Tkach and into German by Lidia Kriukow ; the novel "Dim nad krucheyu", Munich 1966; these books consist of episodes, relating the adventures of a young Ukrainian intellectual during the Second World War, between two demoniac forces, the Soviets, and Hitler's nationalists, some reviewers, such as Caroline Egerton of "The Age", Melbourne, and Petro Soroka, Ukraine, remarking their anti-existencialist motives; a shorter story "Zaliznyi kurkul'", Munich 1959, Poltava 2005; a series of short stories, among which: "Po toy bik bezodni", published in English in: "Urania", Kanpur, India, vol. I, #I, 1987; "Krynytsya bez vahadla" ; "Ochi Atosa" ; "Tsybulyane vesillya", etc., all his prose writings being published, jointly, in one volume with the title "Shlyakh nevidomoho", Kyiv 2006. Kaczurowskyj's memoirs are published in his book "Kruty moho dytynstva", Nizhyn 2007, and the complete posthumous collection of his memoirs "Spomyny i postati".Translations
Kaczurowskyj was fluent in Ukrainian and Russian. Igor Kaczurowskyj's translations of poetry had primarily appeared as parts of his aforementioned books of verse. Also, separate books of translations were published, such as: Francesco Petrarca "Vybrane" ", Munich 1982; "Zolota haluzka", being a collection of Iberian and Ibero-American poetry, from Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan languages, Buenos Aires–Munich 1991; "Okno v ukrainskuyu poeziyu", Ukrainian poems in Russian translations, Munich–Kharkiv–Nizhyn 1997; "Stezhka kriz' bezmir", 100 German poems, 750–1950, Paris–Lviv–Zwickau 2000; "Pisnya pro Rolanda", from Old French, maintaining the original syllabic metre, Lviv 2008; "Choven bez rybalky" by Alejandro Casona, a theatrical piece, translated from Spanish, Buenos Aires 2000; "Nobelivs'ka lektsiya z literatury" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Neu Ulm 1973. The compilatory volume of his translations, "Kruh ponadzemnyi", Kyiv 2007 comprises approximately 670 poems and fragments of over 350 authors, translated from 23 old and modern languages, first of all from Spanish, from Italian, from German, from English, from French, Polish, Russian, and also from Ukrainian into Russian. Igor Kaczurowskyj considered himself a follower of Mykola Zerov's translating school, that is the translation of each verse with a maximum approach to the original, not only as regards the contents, but the metrical, and stylistic particularities as well. Sometimes, he recurred to prose interlinear translations made by Lidia Kriukow, who is familiar with many European languages.Scientific work
In literary theory, Kaczurowskyj's major aim was the development of the principles put forward by Boris Yarkho and Volodymyr Derzhavyn. He is the author of several textbooks of theory of literature, which was the main subject — along with History of Literature — of his lectures and scientific papers. They are:- "Novela yak zhanr", Buenos Aires 1958;
- "Strofika", Munich 1967;
- "Fonika", Munich 1984;
- "Narys komparatyvnoyi metryky". Munich 1985; second edition: Kyiv 1994;
- Stylistic: "Osnovy analizy movnykh form", 1. "Leksyka", Munich–Nizhyn 1994, 2. "Figury i tropy", Munich–Kyiv 1995;
- "Generyka i Arkhitektonika" : 1. "Literatura evropeys'koho serednyovichchya", a great work, with numerous translations into Ukrainian, analysis, etc., and an "Introduction" by Ivan Dzyuba, 380 pp., richly illustrated, Kyiv 2005, 2. "Zasady naukovoho literaturoznavstva" and "Zhanry novoho pys'menstva", Kyiv 2008.
Selected broadcasting scripts on arts and literature from "Radio Liberty" were compiled in a volume: "150 vikon u svit", Kyiv 2008.
Due to the aesthetic concepts and canons featured in his textbooks and other writings, Kaczurowskyj may be considered an outstanding advocate of the theories of Ukrainian neoclassicism. He participates in the conviction that Beauty "is the greatest welfare, as a definite artistic synthesis of Goodness and Truth", he advocates the autonomy of art, which, in his opinion, "is completely independent of social, political, climatic or any other circumstances", he defends the long duration of the traditions of artistic creativity, as a contrast and in opposition to the so-called post-modernism and its negation of past times artistic achievements.
Kaczurowskyj is the editor, together with Sviatoslav Hordynsky and Lidia Kriukow, as well as author of the "Forewords" of the volumes: "Khrestomatiya ukrayins'koyi relihiynoyi literatury. Knyha persha – Poeziya", Munich–London 1988, and the collection "Italiya v ukrayins'kiy poeziyi", Lviv 1999; he is also the editor of other editions, as well as the author of the introductions to the volumes: Mykhaylo Orest: "Pizni vruna", Munich 1965; "Ukrayins'ka muza", 2nd ed. by Oleksa Kovalenko, Buenos Aires 1973; and Yuriy Klen: "Tvory", part 1, New York 1992, etc.
Kaczurowskyj is the author of a popular essay on mycology: "Putivnyk dlya hrybariv" conjointly with V. Ya. Baranov: "Vid Kyeva do Kachanivky cherez Nizhyn", Kyiv 2011.
Personal life and death
On 20 June 1968, Kaczurowskyj married Lydia Kryukova-Kachurovskaya, a translator and art critic, with whom he had one son. Through his marriage to Kryukova-Kachurovskaya, Kaczurowskyj was the son-in-law of the artist Boris Kriukow and the painter Olga Gurski.On 18 July 2013 Kaczurowskyj died in Munich aged 94. Kaczurowskyj's ashes were buried in Kruty on 22 Novemner 2013.
Awards
- 1982 — Ivan Franko Fund prize, awarded for the translation of Francesco Petrarca's book "Selected".
- 1994 — Maksym Ryls'kyi Prize, for his work as a translator.
- 2002 — award of the SUCHASNIST magazine and the League of Ukrainian Patrons of Art, for his essay "Gothic Literature And Its Genres"
- 2003 — Volodymyr Vynnychenko Prize, for his outstanding intellectual contribution to the development of Ukrainian culture.
- 2006 — Volodymyr Svidzins'kyi Literary Award, for his activity as a poet and translator.
- 2006 — National Taras Shevchenko Prize of Ukraine, for his book "Promenysti syl'vety ", Munich 2002; 2nd ed. in the "Library of the Shevchenko Committee" series, Kyiv 2008.