Vasyl Symonenko ( ; January 8, 1935 - 1963) a well-known Ukrainian poet, journalist, activist of dissident movement. He is considered one of the most important figures in Ukrainian literature of the early 1960s. By the opinion of the Museum of dissident movement in Kiev, the works and early death of Vasyl Symonenko had an enormous impact on the rise of the national democratic movement in Ukraine.

The poet was born in a peasant family in the village of Biyivtsi (Poltava Oblast).

After graduating from Kiev State University in 1957, Vasyl Symonenko worked as a journalist in several newspapers in Cherkassy oblast.

The debut book of poems "Tysha i hrim" ("Silence and thunder") came in 1962 and made clear the talent of Symonenko among the young poets, though he had only one year to live (cancer of kidneys was diagnosed later). His literary environment included the poets Mykola Vinhranovsky, Ivan Drach and Lina Kostenko, the publicists, critics I. Dziuba, I. Svitlichny, Y. Sverstyuk and other "shestydesyatnyky" (the sixtiers) .

During his last year of living Vasyl Symonenko wrote his second book – "Zemne tyazhinnya" ("Earth’s gravity"), the verses from which were quoted, written out (adding what the censor had omitted), learned by heart and compared with the poetry of Taras Shevchenko.

In 1962, Symonenko together with his friends A.Horska and Les Tanyuk found the burial places of NKVD repressions in Bykivnia, Lukianivskyi and Vasyslkivskyi cemeteries near Kyiv.

His works had been translated into English and published mostly among the Ukrainian diaspora in the Americas and Western Europe.

The fullest collection of Symonenko’s works was published abroad under the title "Bereh chekan" ("Shore of anticipation") in Munich (1963).

The publishing house "Smoloskyp" was named after Vasyl Symonenko in 1967.

Examples of Vasyl Symonenko works

"...Gray-haired L'viv! The capital of my dreams,

Epicenter of my joy and hope!

My heart bursts - I understand you

But, L'viv, you have to understand me a little.

I came to you with admiration of a son

From the plains where Slavuta composes its legends

To have your desperate lion's heart

Shed a drop of power into my heart."

(extract from the poem "Ukrainian Lion", 1962)

"Billions of beliefsare buried in the black soil,billions of happinesseshave been scattered into dust..."

References

External links

• Poetry of Vasyl Symonenko, in Ukrainian