Oles Honchar (IV) — Shore of Love
Oles Honchar (1918 –1995) was a Ukrainian writer and public figure, born in the village of Lomivka, which was incorporated into the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk shortly prior to the second world war In 1938, Honchar enrolled into the Department of Philology of Kharkiv University, however, his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. In June 1941 he joined the army as part of a student battalion. After the war, he resumed his studies, and began to write. An early novel was noticed by Yurii Yanokovskyi (another author featured in this collection), who helped to facilitate its publication. He wrote widely about conflict and war, but also about ideas of a peaceful life and moral aspects of human relationships.
Excerpt:
The archeologist also fascinated Inna with his story about a recent find made by his colleagues on the other side of the Danube: they had found a bronze casting depicting a fantastic dragon, a nightmarish creature, the symbolism of which was still unclear and mysterious. It was an immense serpent, its body covered with scales, but with a lion's tail and the head of a sheep or a dog ... Now wasn't that a puzzle?
"And most importantly, its forelock and ·ears are human! And there's something like a strange and only just perceptible smile on its face ... How is one to understand it? Who can unravel the puzzle? Oh, there are still so many mysteries around! And aren't we even mysteries to ourselves?"
''Why do you believe that?"
"Is absolutely everything quite clear to you? If it is, then please tell me how come man came out of his caves to rise so steeply and rapidly, what steps he followed from those far-off ignorant times to his present heights? And did he always go up, never faltering or failing on the way? In what ways did he become better and richer and in what ways has he remained as he was then in prehistoric times? The thirst for knowledge, searching-perhaps that's the only thing thar has always been there. Deers' antlers have been replaced by tractors and galleys by spaceships but we are still just as restless: we long to solve the eternal mysteries. Has man ever satisfied that thirst?"
It was already late. The path of light shed by the moon had moved considerably, quietly disappearing in the distance. Perhaps that was the path by which Ovid once came to these shores ... The weightless path by which he departed from them again, leaving his legend behind him. The young men and women were already wandering off, looking for more secluded places: couples who wanted to be alone together could just be glimpsed beneath the towers and along the ramparts. At such times, in the warmth of such moonlit nights-Inna did love them so-the very air in the fortress seemed to be infused with love.If you were to walk through the fortress, you would hear warm whispers and see couples kissing unembarrassed by your presence. Eyes shine gently at other eyes. The glint of a young tear and the quiet laugh of happiness, the oblivion of tenderness - all is in the open there, on the ramparts, beneath the all-seeing stars.
It was on precisely one such night that the song The Shore of Love had been born.
Explanation:
Ukrainian author Oles Honchar’s Shore of Love (1976) articulates the littoral space as a site of magic, and connection in both realms of human relationships and long-lost past. This excerpt accentuates the connective, or supernatural qualities of the littoral border zone – situating the ancient fortress as a space where “you would hear warm whispers and see couples kissing unembarrassed by your presence.” This is a location where desire rises unabashedly to the surface: “Eyes shine gently at other eyes. The glint of a young tear and the quiet laugh of happiness, the oblivion of tenderness - all is in the open there, on the ramparts, beneath the all-seeing stars.”
Citation: Honchar, Oles. The Shore of Love. Trans. David Sinclair-Loutit, Progress Publishers, 1980, pp. 29.
