‘We’ll Be a Banana Republic’ – Unless…

In 1942, my teenage father was taken from Ukraine to work as forced labor in Germany, a fate his father had predicted would only end when Ukraine was free. I arrived in Ukraine shortly after the Soviet Union collapsed, initially perceiving it as a mythical land, but soon discovering its reality was quite different. A friend, the artist Roman Hrab, and I traveled to Ukraine together, following a path through the Carpathian Mountains to Lviv and eventually Kyiv. However, border controls and cultural divisions made crossing into Ukraine extremely difficult.

We eventually found refuge with an ethnic Hungarian family across the border who welcomed us into their home. From there, we visited my family in the countryside outside Lviv, eventually meeting Ihor Rymaruk, a well-known Ukrainian poet, who invited me to join him in Kyiv as a guest translator to experience the city's literary revival. Upon arriving in Kyiv, we met many of the most active poets of the early 1990s, including Mykhailo Hryhoriv, Viktor Kordun, Vasyl Herasymiuk, and Volodymyr Tsybulko.

One of my first surprises was that few people spoke Ukrainian, and most of them understood me when I spoke it, but responded in Russian. Despite not speaking Russian, I found myself immersed in the city's vibrant literary scene, befriending poets and actors, and sharing meals with them in cafeterias and outdoor bars. The conversations were often surreal, filled with references to famous poets and a shared love for literature.

Despite the challenges, this experience in Kyiv allowed me to understand the country's literary revival and the rich culture that thrived there.