Mysik, Vasilii

Mysik, Vasilii Aleksandrovich 

(also, Mysyk). Born July 11 (24), 1907, in the village of Novopavlovka, in the present-day Mezhevskaia Raion, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast. Soviet Ukrainian poet.

Mysik, the son of a peasant, studied in the physics and mathematics department of the University of Kharkov (1956–57). He served in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45.

Mysik’s first verses were published in 1923. In 1927, Mysik published the collection Grasses, which is marked by a vivid, graphic style that exhibits classical integrity and a philosophical understanding of reality. A visit to the republics of Middle Asia enriched his poetry with new rhythms and moods (the collections The Four Winds, 1931; The Builders, 1933; and Turksib, 1933). After a long interruption in his literary activity, Mysik published the collections Furrows (1962), Summits (1963), Autumn Frost (1966; Russian translation, 1967), and The Field (1970). Frequent themes in these collections are man’s personal responsibility for peace on earth and the necessity of learning from past history and of preserving one’s national heritage.

Mysik has also translated the poetry of R. Burns, J. Keats, R. Tagore, Rudagi (Rudaki), Omar Khayyam, and Saadi into Ukrainian.

WORKS

Vybrane. Kiev, 1958.
Bereh. Kiev, 1972.
In Russian translation:
Izbrannoe. [Foreword by T. Gnedich.] Moscow, 1973.

REFERENCES

Adel’heim, Ie. “Poeziia chystykh dzherel.” Vitchyzna, 1962, no. 11.
Drach, I. “Tishina mudrosti.” Literaturnaia gazeta, Mar. 5, 1963.
Lupyi, O. “Sivach.” Literaturna Ukraina, May 5, 1970.
Pis’mennyky radians’koi Ukrainy: biobibliohrafichnyi dovidnyk. Kiev, 1966.

S. P. KNIAZEVA