Zuievsky, Oleh

Zuievsky, Oleh [Зуєвський, Олег; Zujevs’kyj; also Zujewskyj], b 16 February 1920 in Khomutets, Myrhorod county, Poltava gubernia, d 27 March 1996 in Edmonton. Scholar and poet. Zuievsky was educated at the Kharkiv Institute of Journalism. A displaced person after the Second World War, he emigrated to the United States in 1950. He completed his studies at the University of Pennsylvania (PH D, 1962) and taught Russian language and literature at Fordham University in New York (1960–3) and Rutgers University in New Jersey (1963–6) and at the University of Alberta (1966–90) in Edmonton, Alberta.

Two collections of his early poems were published as Zoloti vorota (The Golden Gates, 1947) and Pid znakom feniksa (Under the Sign of the Phoenix, 1958). He translated from French, English, and German poetry into Ukrainian and published (with Ihor Kostetsky) Vybranyi Stefan George po ukraïnskomu ta inshymy, peredusim slovians’kymy movamy (Selected Stefan George [translated] into Ukrainian and Other, Especially Slavic, Languages, 2 vols, 1968, 1971). His translation of Stéphane Mallarmé’s Poésies, with introduction and notes, was published in 1990, while his poetry collection Holub sered atel’ie (Pigeon in the Middle of the Studio) appeared in 1991 and Vybrane: Poeziï, pereklady (Selections: Poems and Translations) in 1992. Vasyl Yaramenko penned a 1992 literary study of Zuievsky as Vid ridnoï khaty kliuchi zberehlysia (I still have keys to the family home). A compendium of Zuievsky’s poetry, translations and essays as well as biographical materials, compiled and edited by Nataliia Kazakova, appeared in 2007 as Oleh Zuievs’kyi: ‘Ia vkhodzhu v khram’ (Oleh Zuievsky: “I am Entering the Temple”). Zuievsky’s archive is housed at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Marko Robert Stech

[This article was updated in 2014.]