ვასილ მახნოს „ლექსები ომის შესახებ“

Abstract

The topic of war in the literature has probably not been foreign and neglected on the example of any country, including the experience of Ukraine. A lot of poems, short stories and novels were written about the First and Second World Wars, and who would have thought that the theme of war would take the leading place in modern Ukrainian literature... As always, poetry reflected current painful issues and described the reality seen through the eyes of different poets and perceived by emotions. Vasyl Makhno, a Ukrainian writer and publicist living in New York, dedicated about twenty poems to this topic and even published “Poems about War” in the form of a cycle. Vasil Makhno’s poems about war attract the reader’s attention by their titles: “War”, “To the Motherland”, “Exit”, “Shevchenko”, “From Mariupol”, “Sadness Psalm”, “Bucha’s Psalm”, “Morning Doves’ Cooing” are created about the current disaster in the homeland. Historical, cultural or religious motifs are noticeable in the poems, and naturally, each of them is distinguished by an abundance of artistic techniques and intense emotional charge. The author describes with documentary clarity the battle that took place on the approaches to Mariupol, the despair of people, the destroyed houses, at the same time he remembers Taras Shevchenko, brings to life his monument, which stands proudly on a pedestal in front of the university in Kyiv and is a reliable source of Ukrainian bravery, and portrays him as an ordinary soldier who will defend his homeland with his chest and strengthen his back. in battle and tribulation. Bucha calls it a city of pain and fear and asks: when will it all end? What will happen in the coming months? Will the cities go up in fl ames again? Where can you fi nd solace? It should be noted that Vasyl Makhno’s poems are aimed at the aestheticization of the issue of war, and from this point of view it will probably play a signifi cant role in the history of Ukrainian literature. This is poetry about death and life, good and evil, their intersection, and once again confi rms that the more diffi cult the existence, the more painful the current events, the more clear the infinite possibilities of literature.