“When you are going to talk about this creative personality, then you begin to hesitate who he is first and foremost: a poet or translator …” – so begins the story of Oleh Zuevsky famous Ukrainian literary scholar Mykhailo Slaboshpitskyi. And he continues: “In Zuyevsky’s poetry all that is to be said is said. If he does not say anything to the reader, then the poet and reader speak different languages​​”

In May 1996, Oleh Zuyevsky, a distinguished writer, a bright representative of the circle of symbolists, the most original Ukrainian poet, a surrealist of the twentieth century, was buried in the presence of a few people in the Zhytomyr cemetery. Here, his mother, Theodosia Shostak-Zuevska (1900-1989), has never found his last rest, which during his life did not wait until a meeting with her son.
It is sad to mention, but there was nobody at the funeral of the Union of Writers of Ukraine, none of the Zhytomyr poets, cultural figures. Disaster. Oleh Zuyevsky’s works proved the world that Ukrainian poetry is worth the world ranking. His translations of Ukrainian poetry by well-known European poets provided an opportunity to read Stefan Mallyarem, Arthur Rambo, Guillaume Apollinaire, William Shakespeare, Novalis, Rainer Rilke, Oscar Wilde, and others. Not every nation has the native language of the property of these authors. We have! Thanks to Zuevsky.
Oleh knew the language of the poets well, the works of which he translated, filigree possessed good command in Ukrainian – was noted by his thin connoisseur. He was a wonderful interlocutor and true intelligent, had elegant manners, a nice open look and aristocratic posture.
Oleh Zuevsky was born in 1920, on February 16, in Poltava, in the town of Khomutets. In 1936-1938 he studied at the Kharkiv newspaper college, which was soon reorganized into the Institute of Journalism. It was here that the first poems of Zuevsky appeared on the pages of the Institute’s almanac and in the Literary Magazine. By the beginning of the Second World War, he had time to finish 2 courses. One of his teachers was a famous linguist, historian of Ukrainian literature Yurii Sheveliov.
The future writers acquired the knowledge simultaneously with Oleh: Oles Honchar, Vasyl Berezhnyi and poet Valentyn Tkachenko.
They achieved significant creative success and popularity in Ukraine and abroad.
During the war, Zuevsky was forced to be taken by German invaders to Germany, where he worked as a factory worker and in a rural farm. Upon completion of hostilities, Oleh with his wife Liudmyla remains in Germany, but later in search of a better destiny goes to America.
It is a mistake to assume that the emigrants from the USSR were welcomed there: at first it was difficult for everyone. For several years, Oleh was engaged in unscrupulous physical work, and in the evenings he attended the Pennsylvania University, Faculty of Slavic Studies.
Upon completion of the studies, he defended his doctoral dissertation and received an offer to teach Russian language and literature at the University of Fordham and Rutgers. After gaining a pedagogical experience in 1966, he moved to Canada, where he was Professor of Slavic Studies at the University of Alberta, for almost 30 years.
The first poetic book by Oleh Zuyevsky “The Golden Gate” came out in Munich in 1947, the next, more significant “Under the Sign of the Phoenix” – in 1958, and then many others. Having its own style and originality, the poet is under the influence of symbolists, such as Oleksandr Oles (Oleksandr Kandyba, the father of Oleh Olzhych). In his work, there is the presence of Pavlo Tychyna.
Poetic and translation activities of Oleh Zuyevsky have always raised the interest of fans and critics and were hotly debated in literary circles. Over time, the creativity of the “poet from God” becomes elitist. “A symbolic poet, to whom the mystic opens in everyday life”, Yuriy Sheveliov will say about it.
Ihor Kostetskyi’s poet, who admires and “loves” Zuyevsky, concludes: “His poetry exists primarily for poets, that is, for those who are seeking poetry in poetry, regardless of whether they themselves create it or only perceive it. This is a creativity to a certain address. ”
Zuevsky’s poems require another literary and reading experience. Violation of the syntactic inertia immediately stops the reader, and he starts helping helplessly in words, not pushing for the first stanza – this is for him something like charades. Even reading the poem twice sometimes one does not understand him …
Oleh Zuevsky has had numerous literary awards in the US and Canada, has become a laureate of the Hryhorii Skovoroda Award in Ukraine. At the end of his life he came to Kyiv, lectured at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, acted at the Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences, visited Zhytomyr. And all his life he was endlessly devoted to the Ukrainian national idea, the native land.
The poet went to a better world on March 27, 1996 in Edmonton, Canada. He was commanded to bury him in Zhytomyr, where his mother, Theodosia, lived.
P.S.
Zuyevsky’s poetry has meaning for the elect, mysterious, and requires effort for understanding. The meaning and essence of it are understood only in comparison, only in the connection to a complex game, which is called the Art …

Serhii Sobchuk
Member of the National Union of Local History of Ukraine
Anna Sobchuk, co-author
The materials used were M. Slabospytsky, I. Kostetskyi, V. Ablytsov.
Translated by Aliona Matushevich