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NEXT STORY

Czesław Miłosz

RELATED STORIES

Friendship with Joseph Brodsky
Tomas Venclova Poet
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Ji taip pat, turėdama septym [sic] šešerius, rodos, metus mirė širdies liga, ir taip pat teko dalyvauti jos laidotuvėse. Dalyvavo laidotuvėse taip pat ir Brodskis – jos mėgiamas mokinys ir jos, kaip sakant, tiesioginis įpėdinis poezijoje. Na, o su Brodskiu mes tiesiog bičiuliavomės, aš tada rašiau eilių, na kaip ir visada, aš visą gyvenimą rašau nemažai, na ne taip kad nemažai, bet tam tikrą kiekį eilių per metus parašau. Brodskis tas eiles skaitė, tai jis lietuviškai irgi nemoka, bet jam buvo daromi pažodiniai vertimai. Net ne aš dariau tuos vertimus, o mano bičiulis, pereitą sykį minėtas, Romas Katilius, kuris buvo fizikas ir dirbo Leningrade, ir taip pat ir pas Brodskį dažnai užeidavo. Toks buvo kaip ir mūsų triumviratas, kompanija. Ir Romas Katilius man net nežinant, Brodskiui mano eiles pažodžiui vertė į rusų kalbą. Nu, Brokdskiui jos, atrodo, bent kai kurios, patiko. Jis yra pasakęs keletą tokių pagiriamųjų žodžių. Na ir... tiesa, dar vienas momentas tada buvo, kuris liečia lenkų poetą, labai žymų lenkų poetą, vilnietį, kilusį iš Vilniaus, gimusį Lietuvoje ir turintį labai daug ryšių su Lietuva – Česlovą Milošą. Arba kaip jis kartais lietuviškai vadinamas – Česlovas Milašius.

[Anna Akhmatova], also at the age of, I think, 76 died of a heart-related illness and I went to her funeral, too. [Joseph] Brodsky also went  – her beloved student and, so to speak, her direct heir in poetry. Brodsky and I stayed friends and I was writing verse then... well like always, I’ve written quite a bit all my life, well, not quite a bit, but I write a certain amount of lines over a year. Brodsky read those lines. He also doesn’t know Lithuanian, but literal translations were made for him. It wasn’t I who did those translations but my friend, the one I mentioned last time, Ramūnas Katilius, who was a physicist working in Leningrad, and he also used to visit Brodsky frequently. This was our triumvirate, our group. And Ramūnas Katilius, without my knowing about it, translated my lines into Russian for Brodsky. Well, Brodsky, it would seem, liked at least some of them. He has made a few complimentary comments. Well, and… there was one time then associated with a Polish poet, a very remarkable Polish poet, from Vilnius... coming from Vilnius, born in Lithuania and with a lot of ties to Lithuania – Czesław Miłosz, or Česlovas Milašius, as he is sometimes called in Lithuanian.

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: Leningrad, Vilnius, Lithuania, Anna Akhmatova, Joseph Brodsky, Ramūnas Katilius, Czesław Miłosz

Duration: 1 minute, 37 seconds

Date story recorded: May/June 2011

Date story went live: 20 March 2012