Today at 10:22
Among these is poet and translator, Mirch Lyutyk.
“Our village was near the Ukrainian village of Velykyi Kuchuriv. There is a forest between Yordan Eshty and Velykyi Kuchuriv,” Lyutyk said. “We met in the forest and said ‘Dobryi den!’ And Ukrainians replied ‘Buna Ziua’ They knew a few Romanian words and we knew some Ukrainian. We were happy to meet our neighbors and friends.”
Lyutyk was born in a Romanian settlement in Bukovina. He learned Ukrainian as a child and today writes poems in Romanian. He also translates Ukrainian poetry and prose into the Romanian language and vice versa, for instance translating the works of Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu into Ukrainian. Together with other representatives of the Romanian community, Lyutik came to lay flowers by a memorial statue honoring Eminescu in the center of town.
“Eminescu was a man of the universe,” Head of the Bukovina Center of Romanian Culture Yuriy Levchuk said. “A man who did a lot for Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian civilization through his art, articles, and philosophical works. He studied the history of the Dacians and Romanians. He devoted all his life to this. And his poetic heritage is unmatched in Romanian culture.”
The Semko family live in the village of Oprysheny, in Bukovina, on a street named after Mihai Eminescu. The couple has been together for 45 years. Before retiring, they worked at a Romanian-language school and at home, they speak Romanian.
“My father was a musician, he played the trumpet. There was a brass band in our village, and he managed it. Dances were held. Not modern dances. We preserve our cultural traditions,” Valeriya Semko said.
Nearly all of the villagers of Oprysheny share a Romanian heritage. In ancient times a road connecting Western Europe and the Balkans passed through their village. Today, the story of that road is often told at the local museum of history, which opened just about fourteen years ago.
“There are few villages with such ancient history as our Oprysheny. We are proud that it’s been 600 years since our village was first mentioned in writing,” said the founder of the local Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, Mykola Bodnaruk.
Here too, you can find a monument honoring Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great, whose military camp was located nearby in 1497.
Oprysheny residents preserve their traditions in traditional Romanian folk dance. They can choose between a dozen newspapers in the Romanian language and the local radio stations and TV channels have Romanian editorial offices.
“It’s very important to listen daily about the main events in Ukraine in one’s native language – Romanian. We now broadcast online and via satellite,” said the producer of the Romanian Service of “Radio Ukraine,” Vasyl Karlaschuk.
Viorika Vysotska, from the Romanian Service of “Radio Ukraine,” said that she also listens to Romanian radio, and finds that it doesn’t have a correspondent delivering news about Ukrainian events. Many people in Romania don’t know about the conflict in eastern Ukraine, about the social, political, and cultural situation there. That is why, in her opinion, “Radio Ukraine” has a very important mission, to inform its Romanian audience.
In June, a new center of Romanian culture opened in Chernivtsi. There, the school of traditional Romanian art is a welcome sight for all those wishing to learn more about Romanian history and traditions.
