Kurds'komu bratovi

"Kurds'komu bratovi" (Ukrainian: Курдському братові,[1] transl. To a Kurdish Brother)[2] is an aesopian[3] poem written by Ukrainian Vasyl Symonenko in March 1963 and disseminated clandestinely in samizdat until 1965 when it appeared posthumously in the German journal Suchasnist.[3][4][5][6] "Kurds'komu bratovi" has been described as one of Symonenko's greatest works[7] and made Symonenko a national hero and one of the most important figures in Ukrainian literature.[4] The poem appeared during the height of the First Iraqi-Kurdish War in which the Soviet Union was involved.[8]

In 1968, an agricultural college lecturer named Mykola Kots was sentenced to seven years in camp and five years in exile after disseminating copies of the poem wherein the word 'Kurd' was replaced with 'Ukrainian'.[3]

Summary

The poem has six stanzas and begins with a description of chauvinists invading the land of the Kurds. In the first four stanzas, Symonenko addresses a Kurdish friend and encourages him to fight the invader and oppressor who aims at eradicating the Kurdish language and the Kurdish people. By the end of the fourth stanza, Symonenko introduces the word 'our' and asserts that chauvinism and its deceits are the worst foes of both Kurds and Ukrainians.[4]

Analysis

Svitlana Kobets of the University of Toronto argues that the poem became "a symbol of national resurrection and resistance to Soviet oppression".[4] When the poem was secretly disseminated, it became associated with the aspirations to liberate Ukraine from the Soviet Union, and Symonenko's take on the Kurdish liberation movement gave the Ukrainian liberation movement a universal meaning.[4][9] Symonenko himself asserted that historical parallels were needed because the common denominator was chauvinism,[10] and argued that Ukrainians would end up in the same situation as the Kurds regarding statelessness if they did not fight the Soviet regime.[11]

Nataliya Romanova points out the similarities between the writing in "Kurds'komu bratovi" with the poem "Kavkaz" (Кавказ) by Taras Shevchenko, arguing that by using Shevchenko as a prototext (source text), Symonenko echoed the sentiments of resistance against Russian rule which were prevalent in the works of Shevchenko.[12] The inspiration is seen at the first stanza:

Into the fragrant valleys, scarred and wounded,
Comes the invader, hungry chauvinism.[2][12]

See also
  • "The Bards of Wales", a poem about Welsh bards used as a symbol of Hungarian resistance to the Austrian Empire

References
  1. Vasyl Symonenko (2008). Вибране (PDF) (in Ukrainian). Kyiv: Biblioteka skil'noï klasiki. p. 22. ISBN 978-966-661-585-8. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 June 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  2. Vera Rich (1972). Ukrainian Herald Issue IV (PDF). Munich: ABN Press Bureau. p. 86. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 June 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  3. Victor Swoboda (March 1973). "Cat and mouse in the Ukraine". Index on Censorship. 2 (1): 81–90. doi:10.1080/03064227308532203. S2CID 144457388.
  4. Svitlana Kobets. "Vasyl Symonenko - Ukrainian poet 1935-1963". Archived from the original on 16 March 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  5. Ivan Koshelivets, ed. (January 1965). ""Суча́сність" — літератури, мистецтва, суспільного життя" (PDF). Сучасність (Suchanist') (in Ukrainian). Munich (41): 9–10. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 February 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  6. Василь Симоненко - Ти знаєш, що ти - Людина (PDF) (in Ukrainian). Kyiv. 2005. p. 146. ISBN 966-00-0316-1. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 July 2019. Retrieved 28 July 2019.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. "Симоненко В. - поет, народжений з любові. Літературний портрет". librportal.org.ua (in Ukrainian). 2002. Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  8. Oleg Pokalchuk (27 December 2017). "Про братерство по розуму". DT.ua (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 17 June 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  9. "О курде, бережи свої набої". Svoboda.fm (in Ukrainian). 10 April 2014. Archived from the original on 16 June 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  10. Ігор Мельник (8 January 2015). "Василь Симоненко: Львове, хоч трішки мене зрозумій Збруч". zbruc.eu (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 16 June 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  11. Андрій Печарський (2015). "Поезія Василя Симоненка у світовому контексті: минуле і сучасне" (PDF). Слово і Час. (in Ukrainian). 1: 32. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  12. Наталія Романова (Nataliya Romanova) (2010). "Поезія Тараса Шевченка як прототекст у віршах Василя Симоненка" [Taras Shevchenko's poetry as prototext in Vasyl Symonenko's poems] (PDF) (in Ukrainian): 151–159. Retrieved 16 June 2019. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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