Links Between Letters and Poems Written by Balys Sruoga

Український інформаційний простір. Число 4 140 Ukrainian Information Space. Issue 4 UDC 821.172-14.09 Gabija BANKAUSKAITĖ Links Between Letters doctor of the Humanities, Prof. and Poems Written Vilnius university, Lithuania e-mail: by Balys Sruoga gabija. bankauskaite @ knf.vu.lt ORCD ID 0000-0002-3276-8159 © Bankauskaitė G., 2019 The paper reviews personal letters and lyrics written by Lithuanian writer Balys Sruoga (1896–1947). The poet is distinguished for his unique writing style; his personal letters expose outstanding linguistic expression. It is not easy “to kill the author” in his poetry, to separate his lyrical subject from the poet himself. We can retrace the author’s friendship, the contrasts of his mood, and the same poetical images as well as symbols in Sruoga’s personal letters to his wife Vanda Daugirdaitė. Sruo- ga transmitted his own life situation of ethical value from reality into the aesthetic form, and individualized it. The valuable poetic relationship with reality and poetic thinking was expressed through the composition of the lyric confession poem. The Dionysian and Apol- lonian motifs in Sruoga’s poetic and epistolary texts were examined to show that the same motifs and even the same formulations appear in both. Consequently the study of parallels in Balys Sruoga’s personal letters and poetry opens a number of interesting research opportunities of fictive and non-fictive links: the construc- tion of the individual linguistic world view, the manifestations of personal identity, and the search of creative identity forms. Keywords: Balys Sruoga, personal letters, poetry, epistolary form, literature, Lithua- nian modernism. Зарубіжні ЗМІ і книговидання Foreign Mass Media and Book Publishing 141 ЗВ’ЯЗКИ МІЖ ЛИСТАМИ ТА ПОЕЗІЄЮ, НАПИСАНИМИ БАЛІСОМ СРУОГОЮ Габія Банкаускайте д-р гуманітаристики, проф. Вільнюь с кий університет, Литва У статті розглядаються особисті листи та лірична поезія литовського письмен- ника Баліса Сруоги (1896–1947). Поет вирізняється своїм унікальним стилем письма; його особисті листи розкривають видатне мовне вираження. У його поезії не вдаєть- ся «вбити автора», відокремити його ліричний сюжет від самого поета. Ми можемо простежити дружбу автора, контрасти його настрою, ті ж поетич- ні образи в творах, як і символи в особистих листах Сруоги до його дружини Ванди Даугірдайте. Сруога передав власну життєву ситуацію етичної цінності з реально- сті в естетичну форму та індивідуалізував її. Цінний поетичний зв’язок із дійсністю та поетичним мисленням виражався через композицію віршованої ліричної сповіді. Діонісійські та Аполлонські мотиви в поетичних та епістолярних текстах Сруоги були досліджені, щоб показати, що схожі мотиви і навіть однакові формулювання з'являються в обох жанрових варіаціях. Отже, дослідження паралелей в особистих листах і поезії Баліса Сруоги відкри- ває ряд цікавих дослідницьких можливостей вигаданих та невигаданих зв’язків: побу- дова індивідуального мовного світогляду, прояви особистої ідентичності та пошук форм творчої ідентичності. У самому базовому сенсі, писемність можна визначити як спосіб передачі інформа- ції. Коли і письменник, і читач існують, цей процес можна розглядати і як засіб спіл- кування. Написання листів — один із найдавніших методів спілкування. Цей жанр не обмежений передачею конкретної інформації, оскільки часто включає обмін досвідом, емоціями та настроями. Завдяки цьому цей жанр часто наближається до пое зії. Баліс Сруога був литовським класиком, визначним письменником завдяки тому, що його бібліографія відрізнялася насамперед різноманітністю жанрів. Він писав вір- ші, поеми, п’єси, займався критикою, а також перекладом. Сруога переклав на ли- товську мову твори Йохана Вольфганга Гете, Генріха Гейне, Оскара Вайлда, Генрі- ка Ібсена, Поля Верлена, Шарля Бодлера, Олександра Блока, Олександра Бальмонта, Анни Ахматової, Самуеля Бенеллі та інших письменників. Ключові слова: Баліс Сруога, особисте листування, поезія, епістолярна форма, література, литовський модернізм. Український інформаційний простір. Число 4 142 Ukrainian Information Space. Issue 4 In the most basic sense, writing can be defined as a method of trans- ferring information. When both the writer and the reader exist, this pro- cess can be seen as a means of communication as well. Writing letters is one of the oldest communication methods. This genre is not limited by the transmission of specific information as it often involves sharing experiences, emotions, and sentiments. Due to this, this genre often comes close to poetry. Naturally, emotionality is a feature of personal, not business correspondence. However, writing letters is a hobby of many writers. The object of the article are very especially emotional letters written by Lithuanian modernist poet Balys Sruoga (1896–1947). He was a Lithua- nian classic, remarkable among writers due to his bibliography being distinguished by the variety of genres, first and foremost. He wrote poetry, poems, plays, was engaged in criticism as well as translation. He transla- ted texts written by Johan Wolfgang Goethe, Heinrich Heine, Oscar Wild, Henrik Ibsen, Paul Verlaine, Charles Baudelaire, Aleksandr Blok, Aleksandr Balmont, Ana Achmatova, Samuel Benelli and other writers into Lithuanian. He was a great theorist of the theatre also. This research was based on the letters to his beloved woman and on two his poems. Balys Sruoga and Vanda Daugirdaitė have met in Moscow. After that they were working together for some time. Sruoga was editor-in-chief of the magazine named “Lithuania”, and Vanda was his secretary. They have felt in love with each other and were writing letters when they were not together. Sruoga used to love writing letters. He left almost 5,853 letters. And only a small piece of them were published. These letters were ar- chived in the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore in Vilnius. 142 letters were addressed to his loved one Vanda Daugirdaitė. The copies of these letters were kept in the museum of Balys and Vanda Sruogai in their home in Kaunas. The majority of these letters were written during his studies in Russia and Germany (from 1919 to 1924). At the same time, Sruoga was writing poetry actively. It was included in his anthologies “Sun and Sand” („Saulė ir smiltys“, 1920) and “On the Path of Gods” („Dievų takais“, 1923). Those poems were dedicated to Vanda Daugirdaitė. Sruoga created his first book when he went to St. Petersburg, and after that to Moscow to study philology. Vanda was in Lithuania at the time. They were friends for not long. And the early letters showed his extreme mood swings and feelings towards her very clearly. After that Sruoga and Vanda gave scholarships. Sruoga went to Munchen and worked on German studies and his dissertation. And Vanda went to Berlin and studied history. At that time they were engaged and were going to marry. The second book of poems was written in that period. Sruoga’s best known work was the novel “Forest of the Gods: Memoirs” („Dievų miškas: atsiminimai“, 1957) based on his own life experiences as a prisoner in the Stutthof Concentration Camp operated by Nazis where Зарубіжні ЗМІ і книговидання Foreign Mass Media and Book Publishing 143 he was sent in March 1943 together with forty-seven other Lithuanian in- tellectuals after the Nazis started a campaign against possible anti-Nazi agitation in the occupied Lithuania. Literature theorists have focused on this novel the most. Meanwhile, poetry studies first of all attempted to de- fine the place of Sruoga’s works in the context of Lithuanian literature and litera ry movements, for example, neo-romanticism and symbolism. Letters and other ego-documents were used in order to disclose the historical and personal details of Sruoga’s life. His letters have been studied without lin- king them to his poetry: the expression of salutations in personal letters and the cognitive model of ‘love’ in Sruoga’s letters to Daugirdaitė. Letters have been used when analysing the timeline of writing and edi ting no vel “Forest of the Gods: Memoirs”. Lyrical parallels have been discussed broad- ly but were not analysed in depth. This research unfolded the characteris- tics of Sruoga’s works by proposing an analytical method that merges ego- docu mentary with literature. There is the attempt to search the personal correspondence by Balys Sruoga for links that helped to construct the history of the author’s personality, to clarify the behind-the-scenes aspects and to unfold the story of his friendship with his beloved woman. The con- nection between epistolarity and fictional texts was very promising and interesting for research about Sruoga. The issues surrounding the links between the epistolary form and fiction The epistolary genre was one of ego-documentary genres. Ego-documentary (in short — ED) itself was understood as ‘the historic sources of personal nature where the subject and the writer was the same person. The author of an ED published the information about own interests, feelings, joyand concerns’ (Roszak 2013: 47). ED could also be defined as the written account of personal space, self-witnessing written testament or first-person written account. In addition to letters, autobiographies, memoirs, and diaries were also considered to be ED. Some researchers tended to view un- published poetry as ED as well. Such classification was based on the state- ment that ‘rough, often unprofessionally rhymed words also expressed their world views, personal intentions, the understanding of the contem- porary social life’ (Berenis 2013: 18). Lyrical digressions in ED as well as poetry written without intention to publish did not differ from the published material in their essence. Even the text, written without any intention to publish, could reach the public eventually and could be included into anthologies. Its artistic value was not evaluated in this case. But there was a question, why researchers were united in viewing poetry that was recognised as ED as the expression of the author’s world views or emotions while poetry recognised as literature and the intentions of their authors was so controversial. American anthropologist Clifford Geertz has defined the au- Український інформаційний простір.

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