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Lithuanian social life in America

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Children and grandchildren
Tomas Venclova Poet
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Well, I can also say that my wife and I have three sons, but not from our own marriage. She has a son from an earlier marriage, I have a son and a daughter from an earlier marriage. My son lives in St Petersburg, my daughter in Florida, she’s married. My wife’s son, my stepson whom I regard also as my son, lives in Washington. Well, all of them live good lives, they have families, they… they have children of their own. I have four grandchildren. It’s very interesting, the oldest grandchild is five years old, then there’s a girl of four, another girl of three, and the last grandchild, the youngest, who lives in Russia in St Petersburg – Motiejus – is a year-and-a-half. That’s the order: five, four, three and a-year-and-a-half. I hope to be in St Petersburg soon and to visit my youngest grandchild, but as it is we see our grandchildren often. So... so that even life from a family point of view has turned out relatively well.

Na, dar galiu pasakyti – su žmona turime tris vaikus bet, reiškia, ne iš mūsų dabartinės santuokos. Ji turi sūnų iš ankstesnės santuokos, aš turiu sūnų ir dukterį iš ankstesnės santuokos. Sūnus mano gyvena Peterburge, dukra gyvena Floridoje, yra ištekėjusi. Žmonos sūnus, mano posūnis, kurį aš irgi laikau savo sūnumi, gyvena Vašingtone. Nu, visai, taip sakant, tvarkingai gyvena, yra sudarę šeimas, turi patys, jau turi vaikų. Turiu keturis anūkus. Taip labai įdomiai, reiškia, vyriausias anūkas penkerių metų, paskui mergaitė ketverių, dar viena mergaitė trejų, ir paskutinis anūkas, pats jauniausias, gyvenantis Rusijoje, Peterburge, Motiejus yra pusantrų metų. Taip ir eina: penki, keturi, treji ir pusantrų. Dabar netrukus tikiuosi būti Peterburge ir tą savo jauniausiąji anūką aplankyti, o šiaip anūkus dažnai matome. Taip, kad net ir ta, šeimynine prasme, gyvenimas palyginti neblogai susiklostė.

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: Saint Petersburg, Florida, Washington

Duration: 1 minute, 19 seconds

Date story recorded: May/June 2011

Date story went live: 20 March 2012