Details of an Hourglass
2021, Translation-in-Progress Grant Recipient
Details of an Hourglass
«Деталі піщаного годинника»
Author: Mykola Horbal
Translator: Myroslava Stefaniuk
About the project: This is a translation of poems and song lyrics written by Mykola Horbal — a poet, musician, and human rights activist, who was repressed by the totalitarian Soviet regime and imprisoned three times in the Gulag for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda." Relatively unknown outside of Ukraine, Horbal’s poems, published in Ukraine in 2008, are a unique example of creativity and fortitude in captivity and deserve their rightful place among the writings that laid the foundations for the modern Ukrainian national renaissance and independence, and paved the way for contemporary Ukrainian literature.
As a political prisoner, Horbal spent sixteen years in the camps of the Soviet Gulag, where he suffered harsh labour, deprivation, and humiliation. His miniature poem-reflections chronicle this anti-world. The verses are brief and terse with multi-layered metaphors. Alongside anger, emptiness, irony, and absurdity, the poet juxtaposes beauty, hope and faith. Horbal describes his cruel reality as a “freeing spiritual journey". He distances himself from falsehood, servility, and despair, by seeking solace and peace in his inner world, in universal truths, nature and in God’s grace.
While the old Soviet system has collapsed, this collection of poetry shows the reader that bearing witness to that past is vital, because repression of human rights continues, using subtle and sophisticated methods. Horbal’s poetry is an aphoristic testament to his belief that you can imprison the body but not the human spirit.