Yuriy Yanovskyi — The Ship's Figurehead
Yuriy Yanovskyi (1902 — 1954) was a Ukrainian writer, poet, and screenwriter, born in Kherson during the period of the Russian Empire. He began publishing Ukrainian language poetry in 1924, with water functioning as a pervasive motif throughout his work. He spent time working as a screenwriter in the port city of Odessa, and the sea has even been described as his favorite literary subject. His fascination with the water is evident throughout much of his work, particularly in his first novel, The Ship's Figurehead (1928), and post-war novel Living Water (1947). The latter of which particularly reflects ideas of Ukrainian national identity reborn in the aftermath of conflict, and was subject to intense censorship under the then-Soviet regime. Yanovskyi is considered a canonical figure in the Ukrainian literary rebirth of the early 20th century.
Excerpt:
We left the Professor’s, warmed by him. The quiet streets of the City were filledwith the wind of the storm, crossing squares like a lord. The sea beat along the shore with ferocity and ire. I gazed into the eternally serene eyes of Tayakh. At intersections, we stopped because the wind felt as if it were dancing around us.
We kissed, not paying attention to any passerby, then went to another intersection.There we kissed again, and I whistled with pleasure against my fingers. But the wind whistled harder.
“Come in, dearest,” says Tayakh when we come up to her hotel, “this will be our last evening. Tomorrow I’m leaving for Genoa. It’ll be months before we next see each other.
Passing through the corridors of the hotel, we notice a note on Sev’s doors, Took Bohdan to the hospital. I’ll be back late. We write underneath, Goodnight. Then we enter Tayakh’s room. The room of a young, attractive woman always look like a ship’s cabin. Such fresh air can only come from a porthole! The cabin’s adorned with a rug, the walls are purple silk, and blue gauze hangs from the chandelier. The bed’s up high and looks cozy, a real berth. It can put a tired person to sleep.
Explanation:
Ukrainian author Yuriy Yanovskyi’s The Ship’s Figurehead (1928) explores the shoreline as a site across which impulses of desire manifest in their most untempered form. In this excerpt, forces of nature and the sea appear to facilitate bonds of human connection, as the two protagonists embrace upon the shore: ”then we kissed again, and I whistled with pleasure against my fingers. But the wind whistled harder.” Ideas of departure and severance are also explored via the littoral metaphorical frame, with Yanokovskyi suggesting that the passionate intensity of the coastal setting emerges from its inevitable, and structural confrontation with change.
Citation: Yanovskiy, Yuriy. Майстер корабля (Maister korablia), Trans. by Ian Ross Singleton, https://lcjh.bard.edu/april-2025-spotlight-resisting-russian-colonialism-the-ukrainian-avant-garde-of-1920s-odesa/#footnote-7)