Unpublished foreword by Olena Gerasimyuk

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I wrote this text during June-July 2019 at the request of the poet Olena Gerasymiuk, as a preface to her new book "Prison Song", the manuscript of which Olena kindly sent me.

Later, Olena's father, the poet Vasyl Gerasymiuk, with whom I have friendly relations, contacted me, recommending that Olena not publish this "pretentious" preface, in his opinion, of course, if I "didn't mind." I politely didn't mind. But the special database history of Ukrainian literature was against it, as time has proven. So, the original of the unpublished preface, sent to the publisher:

We have known each other for a little longer than Olena quit her job and went to war. Later, in a letter to her, I will write: “Don’t take it too close to heart, that’s how you get your drafts.” Apparently, important steps are taken exactly like this, when in response she hissed, like a cat being asked to move from its bed. I don’t know for sure from which country you will read the preface (and the book!) in a hundred years, I hope – from Ukraine.

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Today I am writing this text on the ruins of the Parthenon in the very center of historical Athens. Perhaps Homer is the most outstanding author who described war. Obviously, Odysseus is the most outstanding warrior who managed to return from war. I think that for Olena Gerasimyuk, war can become an orchestra pit for poetry and will inspire her in her work - to the extent that the dictators of the last four hundred years are inspired students of Machiavelli. But we must understand that the Acropolis of Athens was built in honor of the victory of the Greeks over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. In my country and Olena's, taverns are built on the site of a great victory.