In Lithuanian, the saying “It’s just some little flowers” means that the event in question has not reached its full extent, that it is only the beginning, nothing to be taken too seriously. However, sometimes the things that, at first glance, seem simple and superficial are anying but. Sometimes, hidden depths and additional meanings lie […]
The Little Flowers of Saulytis Read More »
i like you i like you but i tell my friend that i like patricia and thank my brother at his wedding for seating me next to giedrė but really i like writing to monika because she has this pink jacket and she never meets up with me because really i like to lie in
CORNFLOWER SKY In the middle of sky’s temple blooms a flower Kabir A BIRD CALL pierces first flicker of light sun hides its gold in the trees * HOW BEAUTIFUL are the beginnings of things I watch the pale of the moon in the
It is a pleasure and a privilege to be here this evening, participating in the Australian launch of Lidija Šimkutė’s new book, Mintis ir uola / Thought and Rock. The book is published in Lithuania and earlier this year there was a parallel launch in Vilnius. I speak of Lithuania as a far-off land. That may be true,
Lidija Šimkutė, Thought and Rock Read More »
A few minutes shy of 10:00 pm, I rolled into the parking lot of Hotel Aviv in Dresden, after thirteen hours of driving from Lithuania, through Poland, and into East Germany, the former DDR. At the reception desk, I made the linguistic shift to German from Lithuanian, before that English in the United States, and
Nostalgia: A Meditation on East and West Read More »
Midday Rome Did that old rogue from Dresden, Germany tell the truth when he said the dead stroll the streets of Rome and their souls spoke to him in a Trastevere trattoria? They were a pleasant elderly pair who came from the cold seas above. His briefcase meant enough stuffed with the dusty scores of
Antanas A. Jonynas Read More »
Saulius Tomas Kondrotas is an exceptional phenomenon in Lithuanian literature. In 1977, when Brezhnevian stagnation was in its second decade, he made his debut with the memorable short story collection Pasaulis be ribų (A World Without Boundaries). He inspired and taught his own and subsequent generations to trespass boundaries and expand them. “To shed off the harness
A Collection That Has Changed the Notion of Literature Read More »
The recent years have given us an increased number of poetic debuts by authors from varying age groups. Even though the reader with a pulse on the Lithuanian poetry scene will find little to surprise them, it must be said that the young generation of poets, who were born in the Lithuanian independence era, are
Naivism and Nihilism: The Young Poets Read More »
Since after the release of your latest book you have been frequently interviewed, I’ve been wondering how to begin our conversation. I am interested in your habits, rituals, and daily life as a poet. Is your usual schedule structured and shaped, like a sonnet, or is there room left for improvisation and spontaneity? To be
Antanas A. Jonynas: “As you go through life, you see the world repeating itself.” Read More »
On a beautiful hot day in early July 1941, at a bend in the village road that leads out of Panemunėlis towards Kavoliškis, the white armbanders—local Nazi collaborators—arrived on bicycles. They left their bicycles in the forest across the road from an isolated farmstead that belonged to the farmer, Petras Šarkauskas, and began digging a
