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Iya Kiva

Iya Kiva was born in 1984 in the city of Donetsk, Ukraine. She graduated from the Donetsk National University with a degree in Russian, literature and cultural studies. She started writing poems at the beginning of the Ukrainian-Russian war, and her works have since been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. She published three collections of poems, the most recent, Witness of namelessness, last year. Her poems, prose and essays are held in high esteem, she is the winner of numerous awards and recognitions, and her poetry books are on the top lists of the Ukrainian branch of the international organization PEN. She is a guest of many Ukrainian and international literary events, both as a translator and a writer - this includes VEVE.

Iya Kiva.jpg

Ija a programról:

I arrived in Hungary in such an exhausted state of mind that the trip itself was a good occasion for an emotional reset. The opportunity to walk every day to Lake Balaton, traveling with the team of the residence and other poets around the country - all this gave a lot of new impressions and emotions.

 

It was very interesting for me to listen to what other resident poets were talking about, both during informal communication and during official events, to find out what topics they work with in poetry. So, for example, in Ukrainian poetry there is no such direction as ecoposition (Yvonne works with this), and no one occupies the sound of poetry in our country like Jaan Malin. It was also very interesting to participate in an acoustic performance of his texts in a cave. And of course, acquaintance with the Hungarian culture.

 

Usually, in order to write, I need silence and loneliness, so in the residence I watched and heard more, walked and tried to synchronize with the new reality for me and its people. This was my first trip to Hungary. But when I returned, I immediately wrote several texts. Although I usually write one text every 1-3 months.

 

This type of residence, with such a rich program of meetings, conversations and trips of a cultural and tourist nature, has become something new for me. And it's interesting as an experience.

 

In a sense, this residence looked as if I had become a child again and turned out to be with other people on a deserted island. Well, almost deserted :)

Do you already know what kind of poems you are going to write?

In short, the text is about how hard it is to leave and return home, to Ukraine, during a full-scale war. The memory of everything that Ukrainians had to endure over the past 9 years makes us heavy as a stone, depriving any trip abroad of charm and joy. And the reason for the text was the swallows, which I saw on the Hungarian-Ukrainian border, my bus stood there for quite a long time, and it seemed to me that these swallows are workers at the border point, and it depends on them that they will let my bus through the border (between peace and war) or not.

Az ukrán-magyar határon

ластівки-прикордонниці

листівку українського неба

розрізають навпіл

 

як дві обручки закоханих –

дорогу й повернення

 

як дві свічки на похованні –

окупацію й простір свободи

 

як два ока підбитих –

мир і війну

 

лише пам'ять стоїть непорушно

як сльоза скам’яніла від втоми

наче вчиться літати уперше.

06.05.2023

határőrfecskék

vágják félbe

az ukrán ég képeslapját

 

mint egy szerelmespár két gyűrűje

elutazás és hazatérés

 

mint két gyertya egy temetésen:

a megszállás és a szabadság tere

 

mint az agyonvertek két szeme:

béke és háború

 

csak az emlékezet áll mozdulatlan:

fáradtságtól kővé dermedő könny

mintha először tanulna repülni

2023. 05. 06.

Vonnák Diána fordítása

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