Hryhorii Kochur
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Hryhorii Kochur | |
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| Native name | Григорій Кочур |
| Born | 17 November 1908 Feskovka, Russian Empire (now Feskivka, Ukraine) |
| Died | 15 December 1994 (aged 86) Irpin, Ukraine |
| Resting place | Baikove Cemetery |
| Occupation |
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| Period | c. 1914–1994 |
| Literary movement | Kyivan Neoclassicism |
| Notable awards |
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Hryhorii Porfyrovch Kochur (Ukrainian: Григо́рій Порфи́рович Ко́чур; 17 November [O.S. 4 November] 1908 – 15 December 1994) was a Ukrainian writer, translator and human rights activist. A polyglot, Kochur was one of the most prolific translators in the history of the modern Ukrainian language, translating over 600 different works of poetry and different works of literature from 25 various countries over six decades. Kochur was an important figure in the Ukrainian cultural revival that took place during the 1960s, and he was arrested and sent to the Gulag by the Soviet government.
Hryhorii Porfyrovych Kochur was born on 17 November 1908 in the village of Feskivka, in what was then the Russian Empire and is now in Ukraine's northern Chernihiv Oblast. His father, who taught him to read[1] at the age of three, was a descendant of Zaporozhian Cossacks; the surname "Kochur" is descended from "koch" (коч), an antiquated term in Ukrainian for a boat.[2] From an early age, Kochur frequently read the works of poet Taras Shevchenko. He additionally learned Old Church Slavonic from the Bible as a child,[1] and had an interest in the Niva magazine.[2]
Kochur's gymnasium education was conducted at the Polish Kalisz gymnasium. The gymnasium was based in the city of Mena (in modern-day Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine), evacuating from German advances during World War I. In this period, he began to publish his first poems and translations (from Russian) in a local handwritten journal, known as The Local Star. Kochur later claimed that he received no encouragement from his peers, who were not translators, instead translating the works of Semyon Nadson into Ukrainian.[3]
In 1928 Kochur began studying at the philological faculty of the Kyiv Institute of People's Education (now part of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv) in 1928. Kochur was educated in translation by several leading members of the Neoclassicists, a literary movement during the 1920s. Among his teachers were Mykola Zerov, Maksym Rylsky, Pavlo Fylypovch, Yuriy Klen and Mykhailo Drai-Khmara. He was also an assistant to Ahatanhel Krymsky, a leading Ukrainian Orientalist at the time. Kochur's teachers began pushing him to publish his translations from his first year as a student, and invited him to write translations of French literature as part of a 1930 anthology.[4]
From 1932 to 1936 Kochur taught foreign literature at the Tiraspol Pedagogical Institute (now the Shevchenko Transnistria State University). He later taught at Vinnytsia Pedagogical Institute from 1936 to 1941, heading the institute's department of literature.[5] He continued to publish his translations from French in this period, with works being published in 1935[4] and 1938.[5] At the same time Kochur was becoming increasingly accepted among the Neoclassicists, frequently meeting them at the flat of Stepan Savchenko in Kyiv and collaborating with them on works of poetry. At the time, he bonded with Klen over the writings of Rainer Maria Rilke; Kochur was a fan of Rilke, while Klen, an ethnic German, had translated Rilke's works into Ukrainian. Kochur later stated that this connection helped him to decide on translating as his life's work, saying in 1993, "They helped form me, helped me to become who I am. Their influence is undeniable. Without them, perhaps, it would have been harder for me to achieve this."[4]