“I Wanted to be a Human Being”: Vasyl Holoborodko is 80

8.4.2025

On 7 April, Vasyl Holoborodko, Ukrainian poet, representative of the Kyiv School of Symonenko and M. Trublaine, and the Oleksandr Dovzhenko Medal.

The future poet was born on 7 April 1945 in the village of Andrianopil in the Luhansk region. Since childhood, he was fascinated by the beauty of the Ukrainian language. He started writing poetry at school. His passion for literature determined the fate of the village boy: in 1964, he became a student of the Ukrainian Department of the Faculty of Philology at Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv. He met Ivan Svitlychnyi, Ivan Dziuba, Vasyl Stus, Lina Kostenko, distributed banned literature, and wrote works in which the beauty of the Ukrainian steppe, man, and the universe were central. It was with Vasyl Holoborodko that the Kyiv School began, with Viktor Kordun, Vasyl Ruban, and Mykhailo Hryhoriv also becoming representatives. The authorities used the usual methods: refusal to cooperate with the KGB resulted in expulsion from the university, a ban on publishing poetry collections, and forced oblivion for many years in his native village. The artist was able to complete his higher education only in 2001 at the Faculty of Ukrainian Philology at Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University.

In Ukraine, Vasyl Holoborodko’s works were not published, but abroad his works were known. In 1970, a collection of his poetry, «The Flying Window», was published in the United States, and in 1983, an anthology of world poetry, «From Rabindranath Tagore to Vasyl Holoborodko», was published in the then Yugoslavia.

The Ukrainian reader became acquainted with the works of Vasyl Holoborodko only in 1990, when the collection «Icarus on Butterfly Wings» was published, in 1992 – the collection «Kalyna at Christmas», and in 2002 – a unique collection of poems «Ukrainian Birds in the Ukrainian Landscape». The artist revealed his creative idea as follows: «I am actually writing a kind of book of the imaginative life of the Ukrainian people, but its heroes are birds, that is, all the folk names of birds, proverbs, sayings, beliefs, customs associated with birds. After all, we have a Ukrainian landscape, and there are birds living there that were named by Ukrainians». In 1999, he published his poetry collection «Words in Embroidered Shirts». Vasyl Holoborodko is the author of about 20 poetry collections, including «The Sower» (2002), «The Cuckoo Churns Butter» (2010), «White Indoor Plants» (2013), and «Permitted Fun» (2016).

He writes poetry for children: «A Glove Full of Poems» (2010), «Forest Poems» (2020).

Vasyl Holoborodko is engaged in the study of Ukrainian folklore, which he researched in his master’s thesis. He has published works on this topic: «Mythological Transformation of the Ukrainian Matchmaking Rite in Ukrainian Folk Tales» (2002), «The Content of Ukrainian Folk Tales» Volume I (monograph) (2020).

When asked in an interview why there are no poems dedicated to miners’ labour and Donbas, he answers: «There was a critic named Leonid Kovalenko, who always asked me why you don’t have any poems about Donbas, about the mine, since you work there. But I work in the Ukrainian language, and I don’t care whether I live in Rostov, Luhansk, or Rio de Janeiro. I live in the Ukrainian language».

In 2014, the poet was forced to leave Luhansk because he could not imagine living under the Muscovites. He is concerned about the preservation of archives and libraries. Now Vasyl Holoborodko is in the House of Creativity in Irpin.

The delegation from the Educational and Research Institute of Philology and Journalism, headed by its director, Doctor of Philology, Professor Viktoriia Dmytrenko, congratulated the hero of the day on behalf of the friendly staff. Sincere smiles, warm memories and Ukrainian folk songs performed by Doctor of Philology, Professor Kateryna Glukhovtseva created an unforgettable positive atmosphere and a sense of celebration in these difficult times.

We wish the jubilee creative inspiration and health for many years to come! We are proud that such a person graduated from our university!

Our language

every word
of our language
is sung in Song
so with song words
with our brothers
in company we talk

every word
of our language is recorded in the Chronicle
so let the enemies know
with what words
alone we are silent

Vasyl Holoborodko

Educational and Research Institute of Philology and Journalism