Description

A Violin from the Other Riverside is a dual-language collection by outstanding Ukrainian poet of the post-World War II generation, Dmytro Kremin (1953-2017). It is a philosophical bow strung with a Ukrainian timeline arrow: its nock in the prehistoric Pontic steppe, its fletching made of Scythia, Ancient Greece and Rome, its shaft of the Cossack lore. The arrow's sharp point is aimed at the warfare which Ukraine has been subjected to by Russian occupants since 2014. Passionate yet impartial, the Violin performs a complex tune of elements and temperaments, epic and drama, love and hate, universal and personal, wisdom and folly. Each poem is akin to a dictionary entry on Ukraine composed in complex and intellectually laden, yet colourful and virtuosic, light-footed verse. Kremin proved to be prophetic in his harbingering of Ukraine's martyrdom and glory as the world battlefield of darkness and light.