Lesych, Vadym

Lesych, Vadym [Лесич, Вадим; Lesyč; pseudonym of Volodymyr Kirshak; other pseudonyms: Yaroslav Dryhynych, Yaroslav Yary], b 25 April (in other sources February) 1909 in Ustia, Sniatyn county, Galicia, d 24 August 1982 in New York. Poet and essayist. After studying journalism at Warsaw University, he worked as a journalist and art critic. A displaced person after the Second World War, in 1948 he emigrated to the United States of America. He began publishing his poetry in 1929 in journals, such as Literaturno-naukovyi vistnyk, Dazhboh, and Nazustrich in Lviv and My in Warsaw. His early poetry, marked by a predilection for symbolism and dramatic lyricism, is written in strophes that are almost baroque in form. In his later works he stripped the structures of some of their formal elaborateness and incorporated elements of expressionism and narrative lyricism. He is author of nine collections of poetry—Sontseblysky (Sun Flares, 1930), Vidchyniaiu vikno (I Open a Window, 1932), Rizbliu viddal' (I Sculpt the Distance, 1935), Lirychnyi zoshyt (A Lyrical Notebook, 1953), Poeziï (Poems, 1954), Rozmova z bat'kom (Conversation with Father, 1957), Kreidiane kolo (The Chalk Circle, 1960), Kam’iani luny (Stone Echoes, 1964), and Vybrani poeziï (Selected Poems, 1965)—the narrative poem Naperedodni (On the Eve, 1960), and numerous essays and articles on literary and artistic themes.

Danylo Husar Struk

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]