Full Description
Set in the Stalinist era, when Lithuaniaís farmers lost everything ñ their villages, their land, and even their way of life ñ to the process of collectivisation, this book documents the life of the village idiot/anarchistic trickster Kukutis. Incapable of understanding or following the laws and rules of the totalitarian regime, and knowing nothing of strictures or borders, he says and does what he likes, thus becoming a potent symbol of freedom until the downfall of communism in Lithuania. Together these poems form a black comic riposte to the horrors of occupation and totalitarian rule.
"It is of the essence of the trickster that he is playful and seems to be talking - whispering, acting - about something else, and that this something else has an innocence about it, a lack of central concern. No politics here! It worked, we are told; of the few books that got through the layers of official censorship, this one - or in its separate publications - did."
Stride
"To describe these poems as ballads is not to say they are written in regular verse or have recourse to narrative structures punctuated by refrains, but they nonetheless penetrated the consciousness of the people of Lithuania to the extent that they were chanted by crowds demonstrating as the Soviet grip on the country was released. Kukutis is clearly of those characters who escape from their creator and belong to all."
The Warwick Review
Marcelijus Martinaitis, author of fifteen collections of poetry and five collections of essays, was born in 1936 in western Lithuania. After an education disrupted by first Soviet then Nazi occupation, he graduated from Vilnius University and worked as a journalist, editor and university tutor until he retired in 2002. In 1998 he received the Lithuanian National Award in Literature, the highest honour bestowed upon a Lithuanian writer. During the late 80s and early 90s, he actively participated in Lithuaniaís struggle to regain its independence from the Soviet Union.
Laima Vince is a graduate in Creative Writing from Columbia University. Her other translations include Martinaitisís poetry collection K.B. The Suspect (2009).
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Contents
Introduction: Kukutis as a Trickster Character / 8 Spending the Night at Kukutis's Farm / 15 The World's Pain in Kukutis's Lost Amputated Leg / 19 Kukutis's Barren Bread / 21 Kukutis's Lament Under the Heavens / 25 And Earth Went Up to Heaven / 27 Kukutis in Forced Labour / 29 Kukutis's Words / 31 Instructions for Kukutis Released from Forced Labour / 33 How Kukutis Regained His Senses / 33 The Story I Came Up With to Cheer Up Hanged Kukutis / 35 The Confusion of Tools, Words, People in the Kukutyne / 39 Kukutis's Swallow's Hymn / 41 Kukutis's Application for Temporary Relief Aid / 43 Kukutis's Sermon to the Pigs / 47 Kukutis, Where Did You Put Your Kukutis? / 51 Many Kukutises and One / 53 Kukutis Wants to See His Homeland / 57 Kukutis Opens His Eyes / 59 Kukutis Drives Fast / 61 How Kukutis Became Estranged from His Consciousness / 63 Forbid Him! / 65 Kukutis's Might / 67 An Experiment / 69 Morning in Kukutis's Cottage / 75 Kukutis and the World's Fair / 77 Kukutis at His Funeral / 83 Kukutis Tells About His Cottage / 85 Night at Kukutis's Farmstead / 89 Kukutis's Last Day / 89 The Women of Zuveliskes Mourn Kukutis / 91 How To Bury Kukutis / 93 Kukutis's Testament / 97 Kukutis's Sorrows on a Dark and Stormy Night / 97 Kukutis Addresses His Life / 101 Kukutis's Sinful Soul / 103 Kukutis Teaches a Child How to Pet a Moose / 107 A Pony in Kukutis's Ear / 109 Kukutis's Old Man with a Tin Awl / 111 Kukutis's Song / 115 Unhappy Kukutis in the Potato Patch / 115 Kukutis Needs a Woman / 117 Kukutis Mourns the Loss of Threshing Machines / 121 Kukutis Avoids Responsibility / 123 Kukutis Gazes at a Stewardess / 125 Kukutis Tells About His Woman / 127 Kukutis's Trip on the Samogitian Highway / 129 Kukutis's Visit to Vilnius / 131 Kukutis Rides a Full Trolleybus / 133 Kukutis Dreams Up Zuveliskes Village in the Cathedral Square / 137 Kukutis's Diagnosis / 143 Kukutis Beats the Agent's Dog / 145 Kukutis's Appeal to the Alphabet / 147 A Last Farewell to Kukutis / 149 Translator's Notes / 152 Biographical Notes / 154
