Motives of Nostalgy in Poetry by Li Bo ( 李白 ) and Lesya Ukrainka: From Antuquity to Nearby Past

Abstract

Narrative peculiarities of motives of nostalgy in poetry by Li Bo and Lesya Ukrainka which belong to distant dissimilar cultures of East and West. Chinese and Ukrainian artists’ oeuvre stands out with incredible simplicity of style and unique sincerity. Mostly it’s suggestive lyrics and picturesque principle of construction of poems. Lesya Ukrainka and Li Bo – masters of “pictures of experience”, and their imaginary type designs simply impress. After all both artists were beyond the country for a long time, this caused common motives in their poetry, generated first of all by problems of community, person and nature. Images of Li Bo’s and Lesya Ukrainka’s picturesque lyrics reflects the primordial human striving to rise above the vanity of own life, to comprehend personal superior spititual mission. Comparative researchs of Ukrainian and Chinese artists’ oeuvre in dissimilar cultural paradigm of East and West show that their philosophically thematic horizons are equally similar and different. In that way famous “prometheism” of Lesya Ukrainka’s oeuvre is related with Li Bo’s “prometheism”, whose image became one from the symbols of patriotism in Chinese culture. If Li Bo traditionally is considered as the most “lunar” poet of China whom planet of still night inspires nostalgic moods, then Lesya Ukrainka in this context can be considered as the most “starry” poetess of Ukraine. In imaginary interpretation of Chinese and Ukrainian artists “painful nostalgy” is first of all philosophic ontological category, our “Me”, measure of human essence. Such completeness of Lesya Ukrainka’s and Li Bo’s poetry in one literary face is motivated by imaginary dependence which is demonstrated in absorption of state-building hopes and nostalgic feelings. After all in “philosophic dialogue” of both artists image of motherland appears not only as a concrete territory, native land or guardian but also as spiritual location of human – Kingdom of Heaven or Path of Heaven ( 道 ). However more grounded reception of sacral images of Verity, mysterious incompleteness and understatement which must be unraveled by reader in process of his thinking is appropriate to Taoist Buddhist Li Bo’s outlook unlike Christian.