Oleksandriv, Borys

Oleksandriv, Borys (Окександрів, Борис; pseudonym of B. Hrybinsky), b 21 July 1921 in Ruzhyn, Skvyra county, Kyiv gubernia, d 21 December 1979 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Writer. A postwar displaced person, in 1948 he settled in Toronto. There he founded and headed the Toronto branch of the Slovo Association of Ukrainian Writers in Exile and was chief editor of the youth magazine Moloda Ukraïna (Toronto) (1951–60). He wrote five collections of lyrical poetry: Moï dni (My Days, 1946), Tuha za sontsem: Poeziï 1945–1965 (Longing for the Sun: Poetry, 1945–65, 1967), Kolokruh (a neologism, literally ‘Circle-Round,’ 1972), Kaminnyi bereh: Poeziï pro liubov, pro zhyttia i pro smert' 1972–1975 (The Rocky Shore: Poems about Love, Life, and Death, 1972–5, 1975), and Povorot po slidu: Vybrani poeziï 1939–1979 (Retracing the Path: Selected Poems, 1939–79, 1980). Under the pen name Svyryd Lomachka he also wrote humorous and satiric sketches and poems; they appeared in the émigré press and as the collections Svyryd Lomachka v Kanadi (Svyryd Lomachka in Canada, 1951) and Liubov do blyzhn'oho (Love for One’s Neighbor, 1961). He also translated foreign poetry into Ukrainian; notable examples are his translations of Anna Akhmatova’s Requiem (1973) and of Quebec poetry in the anthology of translated literature Poeziia/Kvebek (Poetry/Quebec, 1972).

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