Professor Zhytomyr State University named after Ivan Franko, ethnographer, one of the most well-known Medievists of Ukraine, Petro Bilous, told Zhytomyr.Travel about his love for medieval literature and how he managed to see the holy places with the story of a pilgrim, a traveler, a writer whose he studied the work
“I never dreamed of becoming a teacher. I always thought that after graduating from university, I would return to the village, build a house and work my whole life in school and in the garden. At university I really liked to do research work. I had a scientific interest in poorly-studied works, which is why during my postgraduate studies I decided to explore the work of the pilgrim and writer Vasyl Hrihorovych-Barskyi who traveled for 24 years to the holy places of Greece, Jerusalem. Thanks to the creative heritage that he left, I made my first steps on Mount Athos ”
“I was able to write a dissertation in 4 months – the time during which I was in advanced training courses in Lviv. The atmosphere of the city, its libraries, teachers inspired creativity ”
“One of the greatest scientific tests that fell on my fate is the translation of Vasily Grigorovich-Barsky from the Old-Ukrainian language. The Ukrainian Writers Publishing House offered to print it provided that the translation will be ready for the year. I studied and prepared for publication this edition in parallel: I had the task of working out about 1000 pages. This work received 80,000 orders, but the publishing house collapsed – and the book was not published. I felt disillusioned, I did not want to do any scientific work anymore. Typewritten manuscript was waiting in its time for 10 years. The anniversary 2000th attracted the attention of the public to the history of Christianity and the publishing house “Fundamentals” offered me to publish my translation – so the world saw the publication “Travel to the holy places”, which won the Grand Prix at the Lviv Forum. This was an important event in my life, which gave a creative uplift and gave impetus to further scientific creativity. Currently in my portfolio more than 300 scientific publications”
“In 2016, the representatives of the Fund” Heritage of Ukraine on the holy Mount Athos “appealed to me for permission to publish a part of my translation of Vasyl Hrihorovych-Barskyi’s work, which deals with Athos. I supported their initiative, but refused to pay. And over the course of the month, the fund offered me to visit Athos at their expense – such an incredible prehistory of my 5-day journey of holy places, which Vasily Hrihorovych-Barskyi wrote in his book almost three centuries ago. When my foot stepped on the holy ground, I mentioned the descriptions of the monasteries that I read, correlated them with what I had seen with my own eyes”
“When I was at Athos, I felt weighed. Sitting in a cell, watching the sun set in the Aegean Sea, listened to the silence and felt as if in a completely different world, in a world that did not care about trivialities and troubles … I felt the appeasement sought by those fleeing from our world to Athos”
“I have the pleasure of translating the phrase that the students do not count in the books, but their own judgments, inferences, all the thoughts that were born in the process of their own comprehension of the texts read. If you had told me: “Petro Vasiliovych, we are going to read a lecture now, I would go after you and without a piece of paper I would read a lecture. Speech to the audience for me is creativity, improvisation. I do not tell students the same year from year to year. Each time I give a different presentation about a topic ”
“Scientific creativity is a special process. The birth of an article or monograph is a pleasure, but when it comes out to the world, all the feelings and emotions that accompanied the study disappear. At such moments I feel the “death of the author”, which was spoken about in his writings by a French researcher Roland Bart. The author still works – he still lives. As soon as the process of reflection over the text ends, there comes “death of the author”: he alienates from what he has created, and himself becomes a reader of his own text. That’s why I sometimes scream my books, remembering how they were born. Returning to what I have written before, I feel like a reader”
“A few years ago, I met a scientist from Switzerland who married a Zhytomyr dweller. The subject of the study of a young post-graduate student is the Kiev Chronicle, which actually paved her way to me. When I bought from my bookstore my monograph “History of Ukrainian Literature of the XI-XVII centuries.”, She learned from the information about the author that I live in Zhytomyr, and came to me. During her study of the Kiev Chronicle, I acted as her consultant, which influenced her vision of the monument, because at the beginning of her scientific path, she perceived this work as a Russian heritage that had nothing to do with Ukrainian heritage. I tried to convince her that the monument, which appeared on the territory of Kievan Rus, has nothing to do with the cultural heritage of Russia. Recently, one of the articles of a Swiss researcher was published in the Ukrainian “Literary Studies”
“Teachers often have to deal with comic and tragicomic situations. I remember the case when a student wearing black dressed in the exam began to tell something that could not in any way be the answer to the questions that were in the ticket. I drew her attention to what she says is not what she needs. And she began to look so closely at me that it seemed to me that her pupils had expanded, and then … “Bach” – the student fell. I was scared, asked the girls to help me bring her up and cause “quick”. They hurried to reassure me: “Do not worry, Petro Vasiliovych, she always does it”, – they took her hand in hand and brought it to the corridor”
“One day he gave a lecture on the work of Ivan Velychkovskyi, in which he remembered his collection” Zegar with half-angel “. At the exam, one of the students, who at one time drew up the lecture, told me that Ivan Velichkovsky was the author of the book “Sun-tanning with half-naked hair”. When I asked about the name, she cut off unconsciously: “As you said – so I wrote down”
“I love walking in the fresh air. The main route of my hiking is through Malikov Street and the forest to the Holy Anastasia Stavropegial Monastery. I like to watch the nature live: as blueberries and raspberries mature in the forest, and mushrooms and beasts mow from the trees, as nuns feed their cows. When I come to my native village of Nikonovka, I enjoy walking through the woods, fields and meadows of my childhood”
“I like to rest with the book, I feel the need for reading. At different times, different books were beloved. Now with pleasure I read the works of Vasyl Shklyar, Luke Dashvar, Dan Brown, Umberto Eco. Television included occasionally: to watch football or news. And the cinema went so long ago that it seems that it was before our era”
“Intellectual elite – people who are visible to others … They are endowed with an aura that separates them from the crowd. These people are not selfish, because they work for others, for the benefit of society. The national elite can work hard to bring the country to a better life. Representatives of the elite in Ukraine are difficult, but each of the cohorts of those who, not only in words, dream of a better future for their state, does everything in its power to bring Ukrainian society to a qualitatively new level of organization”
“I have been in Zhytomyr since 1971 since I entered the local pedagogical institute. Zhytomyr did not become “my city”. He is very eclectic about architecture, there are few places that could boast before the city guests … But still I love to walk in the streets in the “old city”, something to imagine historical, while on the Castle Hill. I always thought that Zhytomyr is a place of my study and work, and I am in my native village of Nikonivka in Berdychiv district ”
Translated by Aliona Matushevich
