HUGO SKRASTIŅŠ
[This is the correspondence about a dispute with publisher Hugo Skrastins in Minneapolis. He was supposed to publish one of Erna’s books. She paid him the requested money, but partly because of delays, the costs went up. Eventually, the book did not get published, the money paid was not returned — and worst of all, her manuscript was not returned either. Erna was devastated by the loss of her manuscripts. Gordon Leaman, Inese’s husband, tried to help with writing letters to Skrastins, the press and lawyers. Erna could not afford to go to court and there was resolution to the dispute.]
[translation of correspondence for Action Line, a division of The Province, British Columbia newspaper.]
[letterhead]: Voyageur magazine
Box 7246, Powderhorn Station
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55407
February 27th, 1975.
Dear Mrs. Dzelme:
Already three days your letter is on my table but I still haven’t been able to decide what to answer. Since my letter of last October, the economic situation in this land has continued to worsen and no change for the better is foreseeable. Since there won’t be any change in the oil situation nothing will change in this economy. If in Palestine this spring will start a war then the economic situation in America will be still worse because Arabs will withhold their oils as in the past. If there won’t be a war the Arabs will raise the price of oil so high that America’s economy will suffer again.
All that has affected the book market on this continent so that in the last year I have dared to publish only two books.
I have typeset four books but I am afraid to print them because I don’t know if I can go through with the whole scheme. With the previous one I have gone in the hole.
In the previous letter I mentioned to you that I think the cheapest way to publish your book would be in Australia for your land doesn’t suffer so much and won’t suffer so heavily as this continent from inflation. I think also the Latvian book market in Australia will stay alive for some years yet.
As it is important for you to get this book ready in this year then the question of printing must be settled now. No matter where you print it, the job will take four to six months.
Now about the actual printing of the book. I have said to you before and will say again in this letter this and that what you can take as the Latvian book market information, but I say it for the reason that you could understand and realize all problems and that will help you decide. Friendship is much more difficult to keep than to get. What I have read from you in periodicals I have liked very much and, therefore, in cooperation with you I would like to take on only that which would maintain the confidence which has developed up until now. In case you find another possibility to print your book please keep confidential the figures mentioned in this letter and the market possibilities for the book as your personal information – it is not meant for the reader or other publishers.
First I will give you the cost of a 250 page book (hardcover). This calculation is based upon an 800 book edition. Besides the expenses are only approximate because the prices of paper, binding and sending can change. But if the book is published in the next six months then the price can rise only for the paper approximately 10 or 15% and it won’t make much difference for the calculations.
1.Wages for typesetting, proof reading, printing $1,600
2.Paper ………………………………………………………… $ 400
3.Binding in cloth cover……………………………………… $ 640
4.Dust cover……………………………………………………… $ 160 Total……………………………………………………………… $2,800
This is a reality which we have to face. The sum must be put in to get the book out. There are not mentioned yet the expenses for postage for it will depend on the weight of the book. Because of the setting up of colour printing facilities and the dwindling Latvian book market in this country (the last reason is the most important) for the time being I have decided to keep the printing of Latvian books to a minimum. As you can see from the note I have sent to the readers of that country. If you wish there will be two possibilities to publish your book in ‘TILTS’ edition.
First Possibility: You pay all expenses of publishing and all books are yours. I would be ready to find a Latvian bookseller to distribute your book. I have dealt with Mr. Kruklitis in the past because he is the only one who hasn’t descended to the level of a fishmonger. I have to pay 40 to 50% commission. At the moment it is not possible to distribute more than 300 books on this continent. Any unsold copies I would send to you in Australia where you could sell as many as on this continent again. You would sell much more if you sign your books.
Second Possibility: We will divide all expenses in half. I will have for this country 400 copies and you would have for Australia 400 copies.
If it wouldn’t be possible to pay all at once it would be sufficient if I got half the money together with the manuscript and the other half a month later so that I could buy the paper and materials for binding.
If you decide for me, then I would like to start the typesetting right away for typesetting and printing requires two months. The binding also 1-2 months. For mailing the books to Australia approximately two to three months. Together it makes six or seven months.
As far as content and the set up of the book is concerned, you shouldn’t rely on other people. The good critic does not always know how to lay out a book. If you put your money in, arrange your book so that you are satisfied. If we share half the expenses even then I would like to consider your wishes. However, I will have some technical advice which must be considered in the publication. This comes as the result of my experience and has nothing to do with the content.
If you decide for one of the two possibilities please let me know at once. In such a case my jobs must be arranged to typeset your manuscript right away.
With this letter I am sending you the new number of ‘TILTS’ devoted to Australia and the coloured sample is an example of our new coloured printing.
Many Greetings,
Hugo Skrastins.
————————————
[translation for Action Line]
May 29th, 1975.
Dear Mrs. Dzelme:
I am sorry you have had to wait so long on my letter. Since everything goes on without much problem I postponed the writing of the letter until the time I will be able to read your manuscript leisurely. In my opinion the manuscript is good and is meant for a high quality reader of whom there aren’t many among Latvian migrants. But don’t worry we will make the book in such a way that it unifies the content with the form. As regards the size or length it seems that it could be about 300 pages. Therefore, it would be advisable that you slowly read through your copies and send me a table of contents with your notes indicating what we might leave out if there were too much material. Although illustrations make the book much more expensive, from an aesthetic point of view, I have always tried to publish books with illustrations. But I don’t mean illustrations literally, they must speak for themselves. Linocuts and wood cuts with heaviness and pen drawings with light lines. For you book the best would be an interplay of strong lines and shapes for in your stories the heavy things are very delicately put. For those drawings there is time until the book will be typeset. It would be good to know how many drawings are intended. I received your book ‘Musu Kaimins’. Thank you for the inscription.
The linocuts are very good only they would look better if they didn’t have the titles under them and if the back of the page were white. They require a white space, which many people don’t understand, but feel if it is done in that manner.
If there won’t be any political catastrophes which would turn everything upside down then you can count on getting your book in November. Together with this letter I am sending you the rest of the magazines. Send me some rough outlines for the layout of the pages.
When I will have heard your wishes I will try to arrange them as you wish.
To make a book the number of the layout sheets is important. We use 32 page sheets because the binding for 16 page sheets costs the same.
Write everything that you wish. I will try to take notice of it in arranging the layout.
Greetings,
H. Skrastins
P.S. At the end of May I plan to buy the paper. If it is possible send me the remaining $400.
[apparently a fragment reprised in next section – No date – may or may not belong here]
—————————–
[translation for Action Line]
June 14th, 1975.
Dear Mrs. Dzelme:
On the 20th of May I sent you a letter in which there were some questions about your book. Till now I haven’t received your answer, therefore, I will repeat some of the questions.
1. What can we leave out from the text as my calculations show there will bet more than 300 pages and the estimate was for 250 pages. Without additional cost I could add one 32 page layout sheet to get 288 pages. I don’t mind printing a thicker book but then the additional costs should be shared. At the moment I cannot tell how much the costs would be until I have the layout and typeset.
2. It is important for me to know what kind of illustrations and how many there will be. Without that information I can plan nothing. It would be better if I could get in contact with your daughter who will draw the illustrations. Please send her address and tell me whether to write in Latvian or English.
3. Already now I have to know the type of layout, whether:
a) To start every story only on the odd numbered pages. To put the title on top of the page and to begin the text low on the page, or to begin the text on the top.
b) To begin the stories on odd and on even pages.
c) To put the title on the middle of the page or on the side of the page.
To be able to take note of your wishes it would be nice if you would make some sketches as to how you would like it. I can also work on my own but I would like to take note of your opinion.
From your letters I see that you are worried about the publication date of you book. There is no need for that. I have given my word that approximately 6 or 7 months from your paying of $1400 your book will be published. I will stand by this promise. Till now I have received $1000.
Greetings,
H. Skrastins.
P.S. Together with this letter I am sending the last magazine ‘Tilts’.
——————
Australian Post Office
TELEGRAM [stamp: Post Office, 23 June 1975. Cammeray, NSW 2062]
SOA1796 MINNEAPOLIS 40 1258HRS 20TH
MRS ERNA DZELME **** ST 2 CAMMERAY 2062
TO PUBLISH YOUR BOOK IN TIME I AM REQUESTING YOUR IMMEDIATE ACTION AND ANSWERS TO ALL POINTS MENTIONED IN MY JUNE 14 LETTER OTHERWISE I WILL BE FORCED TO DELAY PUBLICATION ….
SKRASTINS
9.10 A M
———-
[translation for Action Line]
March 31st, 1976.
Dear Mrs. Dzelme:
As I said on the phone, your book is typeset but not corrected yet. All the manuscript material has been put in and I would like to put it all in the book. The typesetting went very slowly as the manuscript wasn’t as I hoped it would be. The typesetter needs a properly rewritten copy to be able to do his work but it is not your fault. In order to know what a manuscript should be like you would have to work in a print shop. I will do everything to see that the final product will be pleasing to the author and the reader. To achieve that I need your cooperation.
1. To escape any errors in printing – which could easily happen because some correction in the manuscript had been done by hand which was hard to decipher. After correction I would like to send the proofs to you to read. Usually, the editors don’t do that because the authors want to correct too much. Last minute changes create the greatest problems. I will write to you on what you can do to escape those errors.
2. It would be good if the book would have some illustrations. The works of Dzidra’s that you have sent are great because she is very talented. Only from coloured drawings it is no good to make black & white illustrations for they lose much. Can she make similar ones with ink or charcoal.
3. In a hurry I have to know the name of the book or you can let me make it up. I would like it better if you did it yourself. I have to know the title of the book in a week’s time for I am announcing my new books and I would like to include yours.
4. Please tell me your phone number so that I may get in touch with you, if necessary.
Hugo Skrastins.
———————————
Canada Post/Postes Canada No. 906
Registration Receipt/Récépissé de recommendation
To/à name/nom Hugo Skrastins
Post Office/Bureau de Poste Minneapolis Mn [etc]
[Stamped]: Mission, B.C., 26 VIII 1976
———
August 26, 1976.
Mr. Hugo Skrastins
Powder Horn Station MINNEAPOLIS, MIN. 55407 U.S.A.
Dear Sir:
Re: Erna Dzelme
I am writing this letter at Ms. Dzelme’s request in order that we may expedite the publication of her book. There is apparently some confusion as to what is required in order to have the book go to press. To that end would you please reply by return mail and indicate point by point exactly what must be done by Ms. Dzelme to bring this publication to fruition. Please write in English.
If we do not have a reply to this letter by September 30, 1976, we will deem it necessary to refer the whole matter to our solicitor.
Yours truly,
J. G. Leaman,
Director.
JGL:e
Cc: L. Duignan, Barrister
Encl. 1
——————————
[stamped]: DEC 2 1976
Mission, B.C.
November 30, 1976.
Action Line
c/o The Vancouver Province,
2250 Granville Street, Vancouver, B.C.
Dear Sirs:
Here is a problem with international flavour which I hope you will be able to help me solve.
At the end of World War II my mother migrated from Latvia to Australia where she took up her life as a new Australian. While there my mother managed to write and publish magazine articles and small books for the Latvian community in that country. In recent time, the Latvian publisher in Australia died and my mother was unable to find someone in Australia to publish her books. She finally located a publisher/printer in Minnesota who knew of her writings and agreed to publish her most recently completed works. My mother, a pensioner, sent $1,400 to this publisher who agreed to: publish her book, send half of the first edition to her in Australia, and sell the other half to the Latvian community in the United States. Publication time was to have been within the year and was to have hit the market in December, 1975. Since that time she has had very little successful communication with the publisher. She has talked to him on the phone and received empty promises. She has written letters, including registered letters, and has received no reply. Now, a year later, it is her feeling that she has been bilked out of her $1,400 as well as her manuscripts and illustrations.
My mother, who is now a landed immigrant in Canada, and living with me at the above address, has all the correspondence and all the agreements which have been undertaken between her and the publisher, and would be willing to present them to you for information.
Your assistance in helping us bring the book to publication or a return of the manuscripts and the $1,400 would certainly be appreciated. The publisher’s name and address are as follows: Hugo Skrastins, Box 7246, Powder Horn Station, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 55407.
Yours truly,
[signed] Inese Birstins
[letter composed by husband Gordon Leaman]
[signed] E. Dzelme
——————————
[stamped} DEC 10 1976
December 8th, 1976.
Action Line [etc]
Dear Sirs:
Thank you for you early reply to our first letter of inquiry. Attached you will find our original letter with my mother’s signature as requested and four contractual letters written by the publisher, Hugo Skrastins, in Latvian, with the appropriate English translation attached. Please understand that Latvian is a highly inflected language and word-for-word translations are really not possible. However, we have done our best to make them precise and accurate. We will look forward to receiving you next communication.
Yours truly,
[signed] Inese Birstins
Enclosures.
———————————
[stamped]: JAN 18 1977
[letterhead]: Voyager Magazine
Box 7246 Powderhorn Station Minneapolis, Minnesota 55407
January 14, 1977
Ruth Lea Taylor
Action Line
The Province
2250 Granville St. Vancouver, BC V6H 3G2 Canada
Dear Ms. Taylor:
I am sorry that I can answer your December 22 letter only today, but I have been sick with a bad case of pneumonia since Christmas.
In regards to Inese Birstins’ letter, I have to advise you that this matter has to be handled by lawyers or be decided by the courts.
Inese Birstins’ letter, which you quote as ‘self-explanatory’, is part truth, part misunderstanding, and part imagination. I am requesting that everything published in The Province on this matter be sent to me also.
Mrs. Erna Dzelme’s book has been typeset for a long time, but she has not provided the promised illustrations – her own line drawings which were foreseen as necessary for this publication.
I have in my possession correspondence regarding this situation, which show that Mrs. Dzelme should be aware of this problem. How can a publisher print what the author has not yet submitted for publication? Also, the author has not yet decided upon the title of her book.
As soon as Mrs. Dzelme submits the promised illustrations for her book, a title for the book, and the drawings for the cover and jacket, I will be able to proceed.
I hope you will be able to communicate with Mrs. Dzelme and explain to her the reason why her book has not been published yet.
Sincerely,
[signed] Hugo Skrastins
Publisher
[stamped]: JAN 21 1977
HS: am
——————————
Mission [etc]
January 27, 1977.
Hugo Skrastins,
Minnneapolis [etc]
Dear Sir:
Attached to this letter you will find the following:
1. Illustrations for my book.
2. Title for my book.
3. Drawings for the jacket of my book.
Please note the following instructions regarding the cover and jacket:
1. The book jacket shall include the drawings and the title.
2. The book cover shall only include the title.
I trust this completes all the necessary requirements and I shall soon hear from you that publication of my book is completed.
Yours truly,
E. Dzelme
cc: Action Line,
The Province.
——————————
Mission [etc]
March 12th, 1977.
Hugo Skrastins
Minneapolis [etc]
Dear Mr. Skrastins:
Thank you for your letter of March 5th, 1977. I will try by this letter to clear up the outstanding problems you mention in your recent epistle.
1. It was not my intention that the illustrations follow the text of the book. I don’t believe it is necessary.
2. If the illustrations submitted are not suitable for printing as you suggest then please publish the book without illustrations.
3. Regarding the title, please note that I find it perfectly appropriate and would like to see it published as I have suggested. If, in your view as publisher, it is not fitting I would feel free to have you select an appropriate name.
In closing may I say that your concern with the relationship between the content and the title and the content and the illustrations is undoubtedly valid in most cases. It is my feeling, however, that my suggestions are appropriate considering the part of the population which will serve as the market for this publication.
It is my sincere hope that this book may come to the market soon as I have another manuscript nearing completion and would like it to be published sometime in the near future as well.
E. Dzelme
cc: Action Line,
The Vancouver Province.
———
[telegram]
CNCP Tēlēcommunictions
[handwritten notes: Mail orig. Inf. Nfl 1206P
Ask Zelma 826-2707 wrong pty. Don’t know addressee.]
[stamp] 1977 MAY 1 AM 10. 53
VIA 788
ZCZC VIA 789 011246
AML631 CYA0 (1204) (2-019434E121)PD 05/01/77 1204
ICS IPMBNGZ CSP
6127227717 TDBN MINNEAPOLIS MN 31/26 05-01 1204P EST
PMS MRS E DZELME, RDM REPORT DELIVERY BY MAILGRAM
RR 2 MISSION BC CAN V2V 4H9
BT TO CONTINUE PREPARATIONS FOR PUBLISHING YOUR BOOK I AM REQUESTING YOUR IMMEDIATE ANSWER TO MY APRIL 21ST LETTER REGARDING YOUR OWN ILLUSTRATIONS FOR THE BOOK
HUGO SKRASTINS
(BOX 7246 POWDERHORN STATION MINNEAPOLIS MN 55407)
————-
The Province
Vancouver, B.C. V6H G2
Telephone 732-2222
[stamped]: May 11 1977
Dear Reader:
Thank you for contacting the Province Action Line.
We are returning the enclosed documents which you sent to us.
Sincerely,
[signed] R. Taylor
ACTION LINE
———————————
Mission [etc]
May 5th, 1977.
H. Skrastins
Minneapolis [etc]
Dear Mr. Skrastins:
Thank you for sending me the proofs of my book – part ‘Diendiena’. I am returning them with pages numbered. Approximately like that would suit the text. Most important – print all that part as one long text under the main title ‘Diendiena’, the poems and prose following each other with only the asterisks (*) and gaps in between. In some items, where the heading seems to be very important, print it close to the text as you have done it already in the proof.
I agree that there is no need for subtitles ‘short story’ or ‘sketch’ all through the book.
I am sending here 5 more drawings. Use them for illustrations in the book and on the cover as you like. I made inquiries – the reduction to page size and preparing a printing plate costs $12 here. I presume your price would not differ much. As we have no previous agreement about illustrations, I am prepared to pay my half of the expenses for them. These illustrations are final. If you cannot use them, print the book without illustrations.
My proposed title for the book, with your agreement, is ‘Iela uz juru.’
Illustrations by Dzidra Mitchell-Dzelme.
Yours sincerely,
E. Dzelme
cc: Action Line,
The Province.
SKAIDRĪTE RUBENE
[First 3 letters are copies of letters that Rubene wrote to unknown person(s) — shared with Erna. Photo of Rubene from Jaunā Gaita journal.]
Nov. 19th, 1983.
Since you called – I have never stopped talking to you. Think, how it would have been if you had had to listen to it all… Though some parts you may have enjoyed. Others were answers to your questions. But as I of yet have not devised the way to send my thoughts directly to the person intended I will have to help them with words. I promise, with mercifully FEWER than those released by a flash flood of feeling. For it was something like that. I was surprised at the joy I felt just to hear your voice. And that it brought all back. Especially of late I had wondered what had happened to you, but logically it seemed that there was not the slightest chance that I would ever learn.
And yet, when you started to speak my being sort of went forth from the physical cage – as if on the edge of a sword somewhere high up – ecstatically happy – towards a blinding light… As I said in somewhat more restrained terms – I was so grateful that you simply were. Do I feel ashamed to say it so openly? – No. The longer one lives the clearer one realizes that the times one meets another human being towards whom one has feelings are extremely rare. With you it was like walking through a desert for years and years and suddenly coming – well, upon the Garden of paradise… Or walking into a dark seemingly deserted medieval church – and the space suddenly shaken by a baroque organ – bursting forth in glorious jubilation. I did not know what I was seeking but when you spoke – it was all there – and so much more. How could I stop liking (though love is the correct word) when you went away? And that love did not turn to hate – as some ‘loves’ do. I just – like a Bluebeard… – put that love behind a door and kept it well locked – but the Paradise behind it survived. Yesterday and this morning when I kept frenetically talking to you – tears kept streaming down my face just looking at that Paradise. You see, how much better it is to put this down on paper – to save embarrassment to us both. Also, there are some things one tell to the person directly, but many – no matter how one wants – one can not. At least, not at the moment one should have and even if one sees that that it was the only moment that it mattered to say them.
Which brings us to that awkward dinner at that Chinese restaurant and what preceded it. You may remember, you had been away for quite a while. When you had left it had hurt as much as losing my child. But one survives. Only I felt a bit like a Baseidov dog – ‘cautious’… Also, there are times no matter what one’s mind says – the feelings go ‘flat’ – simply no reaction. I needed time and reassurance that you were not going away again. Yet, I got the feeling that YOU rejected me even before we left the house. When we got to the restaurant I sort of felt ‘outside myself’: I was what I was – I could not be otherwise. I saw you ‘receding’ – watched it all as if from above and yet was not able to explain or plead – for what? It all seemed futile. I think, if people are friends over a longer periods and do not have to fear that the present meeting might be the last one for years – that people learn to relax with each other and forgive those ‘flat moments’ because they do come in any relationship. Even those visions of Paradise one does not get any time one wishes. How could I ever ‘disapprove’ of you? – Does this somewhat explain what you thought were my reactions at the time?
As for my house-set up: I never lived ‘with my parents’. Unasked, they moved in with me and since father at that time (I had barely gotten the work with the university when he retired) took mother out of psychiatric hospital – raving with sound hallucinations – and put her on my doorstep. Father said he was dying with a head-wound he had received at work – I could not refuse them. Well, both are alive – twenty three years later… Parents, too, eventually can turn into vampires… Mother eventually went senile and when that became too unbearable – we finally put her into nursing home. Father is still with me, but he at least is SANE. Yet, looking back, what a waste of time and energy!
But there were reasons – partly to repay father, who had been good, partly to expiate ‘guilt’ – for once having tried to escape ‘duty’ and now trying to do whatever ‘Duty’ required. But that would be too long a story for one letter.
But to go back to why this letter was written – namely, you. I wanted to assure you that I do not try to hold onto you for any kind of ‘exterior’ reasons. I have work, I have friends – in my own ethnic group – artists and actors; among Americans mostly young ‘daughters by association’ and some rather strange types. I am still curious of life – I go to foreign films, plays and dance performances and I go alone – I like it better that way. But – one would like to share what one sees and thinks but for that the place I work is a desert.
Which brings us to my friend. When you left – in summer 1974 I went to Italy. Partly to see what you had seen, partly, because that is an obsession with all Northerners. We stayed there only three weeks (the other three we divided between Germany, France and England) but since the tour was well organized we saw a lot. On the last day in Florence we were given a free afternoon to see what we wished. I decided to see the leaning tower of Pisa. On my way back, in the train, I met a middle aged lady and gentleman – a brother and sister – who were returning from the trip to the just discovered northernmost Etruscan site. The gentleman said, he had gone to photograph it. So he talked Etruscans. Well, it did sound familiar… On leaving the train in Florence he handed me his calling card asking me to write them. Back in the states I felt so lonely that I finally did. He promptly answered and that exchange turned into a correspondence that lasted nine years – on the average twice a week and long letters too. Yet, he never wanted to meet me again – so I never went there. He died this summer, in August. Who was he? For me also a kind of gift of gods. When you left I wished that I at least would be given a FRIEND. And this time the gods heard and my wish was granted. But how gods play – even with their gifts, and yet – how wisely. My friend was half-Jewish, from Philadelphia but only a generation back from France and Italy. His French ancestors were mostly doctors and lawyers, his Italian relations had gone into publishing (The Milano Lattes publishing house is owned by a cousin). He himself had gone to Europe with the American Army (in the Intelligence service) and then done his studies in Greece and later in France and Rome. By profession he was press photographer and journalist, but had dabbled in arts and film-making and for 16 years had worked on the Spoleto Festival committee doing publicity. He had never married, considered himself a bi-sexual, but naturally mostly liked men. Why did he write to me? When we met he apparently had gone through some kind of crisis – material and emotional, had left his Rome studio and moved to Florence and HATED IT. He once had money, but lost most of it – rather given it away. He had scattered his rather numerous talents so he felt like a failure. He was also growing older (he would have been 66 this month) and did not know how to deal with it. He simply needed a point in space to center on. My eagerness to have a friend provided that focus. His interests were somewhat different from yours – some suited me less, but since he was willing to be a friend – I tried to learn about things that interested him – so we would have something to talk. So first I learned about photography – that is photographers and styles, etc., then since he liked films and had known a number of Italian filmmakers – (while they were unknown they had been quite accessible) – I went to any Italian movie that came around. Having lived in London some time he liked theatre – so we caught up with the major names in that. After that it was the assorted gay lore, dance, memoirs, women’s literature – you name it. It takes a lot of matter to fill bi-weekly letters over nine years… But I learned. And to him too I am grateful.
Why do I talk so much about him? Maybe, to show, that there are many forms relationships can take – that still enrich life. Maybe, you would like me just to write you sometime? I would have somebody to talk to and maybe it would amuse you to have letters? And small amounts of carefully selected BRIEF pieces of reading matter? But this is almost too much for one letter and too many questions too soon.
The letter did not turn out as romantic as my private monologues… I apologize… But you can always refer to that first letter I wrote you – if you still have it. Also, it was not romantic at all. Only a coldly scientific registering of effect your person would leave on an objective observer…
Please, keep yourself warm and dry!
Yesterday I kept repeating „My love, my love”… Today it has turned grey and it is more difficult to believe in ‘paradises’ – so if you permit let me at least sign off as your friend.
(reading matter follows in a separate folder)
————————
[letter starts abruptly, without intro or capital letter – maybe a part is missing, maybe not]
Nov. 23, 1983.
maybe it is too many letters but I want to write while the words still come…
Until this morning just kept ‘thinking of you’ – actually not allowing the mind to form any thoughts – just trying to protect the joy that you are there. But later it started to rain – the day turned gray and damp – the mind crawled out from its lair and the joy went and hid herself. Without that ecstatic joy – should one write at all? – Well, one could try one of those ‘other kind of letters’…
First, a bit ‘patron intellectual landscape improvement business’. Because of your present work and also of that upcoming San Francisco conference I assume you do not have time to do much pleasure reading. Still, the weather being so dreary I thought you needed something with pictures – so I sent you a book on India, by John Keays. It has a chapter on the deciphering of the various Indic scripts among other things – so I thought you might enjoy it. I will send the Tanizaki book too, but want to wait as I think there are books you would enjoy more. Did you ever read Stoppard’s play ‘Jumpers’? It is one of the most brilliant exercises in logic which by using the metaphor of Zeno’s arrows proves that God exists. – The other prize piece of my literary gem collection – Umberto Eco’s tongue-in-cheek list for an intelligent man’s summer reading – I could not find. I know I have it – just have to look through the Espressos, find the issue and make a xerox copy. It is a very sophisticated piece of literary criticism of some very esoteric works and very amusingly presented.
To answer your question: yes, all three items at their time were part of correspondence with my Florence friend. However, I wish to assure you – should occasional letters be acceptable – they would not consist of ‘already used items’… Also, every person is SO DIFFERENT. As I looked through my collection of articles I became aware of how few of them would please or interest you. That is, as much as I believe to know your tastes. Not that my friend’s interests were invalid – they were just different. And yet I will not deny him. His sharing of what interested him kept me alive these years. I would have rather written to you – if I had had the choice – but it was not to be. So I learned about things that my friend was willing to share with me. I am grateful to him too. So much about that matter.
Guilt. If people come from the same place and the same social milieu there are many ways to find out about the other. Otherwise it is like coming from different planets. Some people believe that keeping one’s life completely secret makes the person more interesting. To some extent of course, it is true. On the other hand even just in friendship – or correspondence – one would like to know who the other person is. I do not ask it of others and I do not volunteer that information just to anyone I happen to talk. But in my life you mattered greatly. And still do. So – MAYBE – in case – should you take liking of receiving ‘romantic letters’… I think, you should know those facts about my life that may influence you wanting (or not wanting) to talk to me. No one can go back and rearrange one’s life to make it look better. One can only go ahead and make a ‘new life’. So about that guilt.
I had another daughter – by the same man. I had just passed my exams for a Ph.D. when he turned up – and starving. So I stopped studying and started to work so could help him. When I got pregnant (ironically the night I was going to break the relationship) and he got his degree (M.A. in music) he (naturally) ran away. I only knew – to California. A few months later I followed. That summer I lived on a cucumber and a can of sardines a day. Later I worked for a family – so neurotic one, that when my first daughter was born I wanted to be just with her and applied for social aid. They asked who the father was and I told them. They found him through the Embassy in less than a week. I immediately lost the aid and he forgot my address… I had no money and my mother being mad I could not go back to my parents. It is too long to explain, but eventually I gave her up. And then the despair took over. I tried to get her back but it was no longer possible. I arranged everything for a clean formal suicide but felt so desperately lonely I went to see the man who in some ways still had meant something to me – it was the end of that relationship but – without knowing it – I got pregnant again. I duly took the 100 pills (I had read in the paper that 40 had killed another woman almost instantly) but due to [something missing] from morning till night. Ten days later – with just one bag of unsorted papers leaning against a chair – I went back to work – slightly annoyed that that feeling about the visitor had not produced anything. And yet, that evening, when I was returning from work – that visitor – a man I had never seen before – was standing at my door. He had come to talk about my daughter. I asked him in an he told. (I am making the story very short) My daughter had been adopted (together with a slightly older Chinese boy) by a Chinese family. Had graduated from college – had travelled – in the East and several times in Europe – had married and was now living in France. So I thanked him and asked him who he was. Oh, just a friend. But after he left I thought that he had talked in a way a friend had not and he must have been her husband. Two days later he called that my daughter had flown in from Europe and wanted to see me. So I said: Sunday morning – and she came. Aiko was all passionate feeling. Christine – pure mind. Self-confident, composed, elegant. The reason she had tried to find me was that they were moving to Kenya for five years and it would be difficult to make contact from there. The man indeed was her husband – she had met him in Switzerland he and her husband’s father both taught at universities. Well – it was a miracle. All those years I was so afraid that being given up had driven her to despair – loose living, drugs or something like that. Yet, she had been perfectly brought up and apparently in quite well to do family. And what was best – she had grown up as Oriental among Orientals – something I could have never provided for her. – I have since seen her two more times when she comes to visit her adoptive parents on her annual leave. She works for the government on some economic development survey. Her husband works in industry – teaching management. I still do not know her present name – nor her real address – except a c/o P.O. Box number… She is as secretive as her father. Her father married a Korean shortly after Aiko was born and moved out of our lives. Still, Christine’s reappearance, too, was a miracle. At least, I know, that she is. But is it not absurd? The child I gave away – turned out well. The one I kept and so desperately tried to do the right things for – because of not good enough parenting discipline or whatever – died so pitifully young and so horribly.
What was the ‘price’ for getting to see her? Learning that a real closeness there will not be. How could there be? But at least I know that she survived.
In the meantime – again out of need for affection – to give and take – I have acquired four ‘daughters-by-association’ – all about the age of my daughters. One from the San Francisco family I took care of while she was little – the others I met here, by chance. All come from educated, but troubled or broken families. So I have some ‘daughters’. Also the friends I mentioned by my previous letter.
As for this bit of telepathy that I have mentioned. That has manifested itself also at other times. When my German teacher – my life’s ‘guru’ – died some years ago – he came in a dream to say good-by. As for my friend – one night I suddenly dreamed that I had received from him two absolutely black envelopes – I woke up with a start and as soon it was decent to call – called his sister and learned that he had just had a heart attack and had been taken to a clinic. He died ten days later. I think, people’s minds work like weak radios and in times of stress are able to send messages to other people who operate on more or less the same wave length.
This letter turned out so dreadfully long. But it says about all I thought you needed to know – in case you decided occasionally to talk to me again. I think it was better to put it on paper before. Should we ever meet – I would much rather listen to your stories or talk pleasant nonsensical things.
Herewith I solemnly promise never (well except when the subject possibly could not be treated in fewer words) to write longer letters than just one page.
May you be kept safe and well
Skaidrīte
p.s. FOUND Eco’s article on intelligent vacations! Hope you will like it.
Was I to provide vital statistics too? – I will be 57 in January. I have not grown fat. There are more wrinkles. But other people get them too and they still find it possible to talk to each other – from time to time…
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Jan. 31st., 1984.
do you know what ‘mind’ looks like? – Like a drunk, with a terrible hangover, who walks into the kitchen and starts telling the woman all the truths he thinks she should know, but which she knows already and would prefer not to hear again…
When, after your phone call I wrote that my ‘mind’ crawled out of its lair – that is what it looked like and that is what it did… In that conversation – even though you mentioned coming to San Francisco, you never said, that you intended to stop by… But though my mind – annoyed at my stupidity – explained all this to me – my heart in wild joy kept materializing your face and eyes across a table with that starched white table cloth and good strong coffee… Foolish heart – as if it did no know that if one desires that intensely – of practically living it – it gets counted as if it had happened – and life – true to its preference for ever producing something new – does not permit the desired, already imagined – lived – thing to happen…
Did the article, at least, reach you? Yes, for a moment I had forgotten part of your name though actually it was rather peculiar quirk of just partial recall. But as you remember – in our brief acquaintanceship – your name was only an addition…
Sometimes I wonder why you called – as the person who answered your call at the information desk is very capable and probably gave you the correct information right away? I prefer to think that it was only to get the article a few days sooner. Were you just curious – about what? At times my mind projects an image of you like a jungle idol – with a huge square head and burning eyes – behind which the poor savage worshipper senses a mind like a huge computer figuring out possibilities – instantly clear to the idol, but beyond the grasp of the poor savage. Was that idol – that afternoon – for a moment – feeling lonely and needed some ‘smoke break entertainment’? Whatever his reasons were – for the worshipping savage ‘the god’ spoke…
No bitterness, indeed. From all my heart I was happy to learn that you still were. When my ‘Florence friend’ died last August I thought (since his letters had brought joy) that I would never know joy in my life. To know that you were there – made the world beautiful again. Even if that was all that was meant to be – it was the greatest gift anyone could give me.
I was so pleased that you told a few things about your life. That you are capable of making your name prevail in your field – your articles, your present position – that only confirmed what always was quite evident. But your life in Yukatan raised other questions – as I, alas – ha, ha… – am not just that ‘disembodied mind’ to whom my friend preferred to address himself. My woman’s mind – also quite logically – says the if you have a house there – there must be a woman to look after it. So most likely you have a family there too. Are you happy? Once you save enough – will you return to live there permanently?
If this assumption is correct – you really do not need any letters? And if you never answer – as much as a line – how am I to know if they are still being read? Or if they – unopened – land straight into the wastepaper basket? – About that phone conversation. I got the feeling that you were offended that I tried to cut the conversation short. But the telephone is not at my desk – it is in an open station – with cloth walls to other catalogers cubicles – and as a prolonged phone call always creates interest I was aware, that the surrounding typewriters had fallen silent…
Have I remained ‘faithful’? People are very complex. When two people meet, usually only parts or their beings ‘make chords’. Not only that. Though some chords in both beings may make harmonious sounds – one person may have a much larger range of strings or ‘pipes’. So it often happens that the person with fewer ‘pipes’ may believe that her instrument has found the perfect echo – while the other – with the ‘barock church organ’ – may be appalled by the poverty that he hears and naturally would be looking for another ‘barock organ’. Still, if one finds something that one seeks – one loves it and cannot stop loving. In that sense Natasha will never stop loving Onegin (though her staying with the general, of course, had nothing to do with faithfulness to a given word. The woman, having gotten used to good life and to being admired and respected – AND having some sense – decided to stay with the good life… After all – if she had run away with Onegin – from one cheap rented room to another, ostracized by society and without any money – Onegin’s love for her had died in no time at all. So it was better for her – and even for her love – that she stayed with her general…
Speaking of books – did the India book reach you and did you have time to look into it? India fascinates me and the book was well written. In my previous letter I mentioned that during the past years I have read a fairly large number of biographies. One of the most fascinating ones was Peggy Guggenheim’s updated memoirs ‘Out of this century’. What interested me was her incredible energy – and the long tortuous way it took to finding out what she should do with her life. But then, that type of a book may be more of interest to a woman than to a man. – The best book about a man – I have ever read is still Mary Renault’s study of Alexander (‘The nature of Alexander’ now out in paperback but which one still should read in the original illustrated edition. Of art criticism I have enjoyed most Robert Hughes’ ‘Heaven and hell in Western art’. (Maybe I will xerox a page or two to give you a taste. The image of the soul on the sword may have indirectly been influenced by a passage in Hughes’ book though there the context is different. Though how true those Jungian images are… Like that being on a sword going towards blinding light… There is an absolute necessity and yet – a sword somewhere up in a dizzying height – is not a bridge… The being needs the light but the light… etc. Better back to books.
After Gilbert Highet (Catullus, Man and Devil) have much enjoyed critic Elizabeth Hardwick. Not quite as elegant as Highet, but womanly wise and witty. Will try to collect a few brief passages to illustrate this evaluation.
No point talking about movies as it is not likely that Yukatan would offer a video library to keep up with them. However, should you have a video down there, this is the base collection that you should have – or view NOW while you are in a place where videos (and the necessary aerials and plugs) are available… Namely: Werner Herzog’s ‘Kaspar Hauser: or, man against God and God against all’; the Taviani brothers (Italian) ‘Padre padrone’ (if not available on video – maybe you would like to have the biography on which the movie is based? About a Sardinian shepherd who until age 21 remained illiterate and then in eight years through sheer will power from an illiterate made it to a doctorate in linguistics and then could not get adjusted to the life of an intellectual (a realized human being) – a most moving story, also the film is beautifully shot with images that look purely Greek. Visconti’s ‘Ludwig’ (about that mad king of Bavaria who built those castles and was madly in love with Wagner), ‘Conversation piece’ and ‘Innocent’. Also the Brazilian filmmaker Glauber Rocha’s ‘Antonio de los muertes’. Fellini’s ‘Satyricon’ and ‘Roma’, Satvajit Ray’s ‘Apu’ trilogy, ‘Music room’, and ‘Devi’, and, because your living among Indians – the recent Japanese movie ‘Bride of the Andes’ which describes a Japanese scholar’s (or scholarly inclined man’s) living alone in an exclusively Inca village up in the Andes.
Why – after those first three ‘semi-romantic’ letters did I stop writing – if you wondered? For ten days came down with the usual pre-holiday flu. As soon as I could move about – it was time to do the Christmas decorations for the Library lobby – in connection with the Christmas book exhibit (I have done this for the past few years – as a concession – return to my earliest ‘profession’ – i.e. that of a would be florist) This year I did it in purely neo-classical style – with gilded palm branches, whitened acanthus stalks and (for color – a few poinsettia plants in a gilded basket on the stair. Also put ray crowns (of gilded palm branches) on the god’s heads. It worked. Otherwise enjoyed what came – visits with two of my daughters by association – wrote letter to the others and – in between talked to – well ‘somebody up North’… Even made a new friend – met a young (35) beautiful woman whose name is Hera. Imagine the faith of the parents in daring to name their child Hera – a woman-goddess worthy to become the consort of the ruler of all gods! Well, the name suits her…
Monday finished my latest ‘exercise’ – a review of the 1982 Soviet Latvian film ‘A limousine in the color of Midsummer night’ which we showed here at the Pacific Archives. That done, I can now enjoy a couple of days freedom and do (mostly read) what I like.
I hope you have been well and wish you good health, success and happiness for the New Year!
if you permit – in friendship
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[card: THE BALLET. The court theatre’s elaborate facilities for staged illusion led from the court masque to the spectacle of the ballet. The greatest artists, composers, and dancers of the age were enlisted in its service. In modern times this tradition found its champion in the Russian Diaghilev, who matched the talents of Nijinsky, Karsavina, and Pavlova with the avant-garde genius of the composers Ravel and Stravinsky and the artists Derain and Picasso. In 1910, Diaghilev startled Paris with the brilliance of Stravinsky’s Firebird, and ballet assumed its place in the theatre of the modern world.
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One of the banners illustrating theatrical history that decorate the lobby of Zellerbach Hall at the University of California, Berkeley. (Designed by Betty DeMars).]
1988.g. 14.jūn.
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Skaidrīte Rubene
February 1991
WHEN THE TAILS OF OWLS WILL BLOOM…
Latvian Political Theatre of the Eighties
David Shoemaker – thanks to whose interest and efforts this event is taking place – has asked me to say a few words about the play which you are about to see.
In the past two years I have translated 5 political plays from Latvian into English of which Helds’ play is one. I chose his play because it is a pretty good little satire, but also because it addresses a rather frightening aspect of any totalitarian system, especially Communism, namely, the emergence of ‘power figures’ who can make careers rise and fall. Helds’ own blocked career as a dramatic writer may be a case in point.
Juris Helds (in his late thirties) for the past two decades has worked as actor at a large Latvian provincial theatre and also in the last three years has been very active in the Latvian Independence Movement. To date Helds has written 7 plays, more or less in the same sharply satirical, somewhat surrealistic vein as ‘The Applause for the Flies’. Though ‘Flies’ were written as early as 1978 (and circulated in manuscript) it was published after the Writers’ Plenum that started Latvian Second National Awakening Movement (which Helds play predicts) ‘the moment’ for Helds’ play had already passed. On the other hand, some persons (or types of persons) at whom his barbs were directed, still held considerable power (still do) as a result his play has never been performed (nor his other plays).
Held’s play tells about such a just mentioned ‘power figure – Mrs. Miram – who by her heroic exploits in World War II (40 years later Mrs. Miram still likes to get on her ‘old battle horse’…) and due to the power position held by her late husband literally holds careers, privileges and maybe even lives in her hands. Getting somewhat on in age and also sensing a change in the political winds (which could mean her own demise as power figure) Mrs. Miram decides to stage her own funeral – with games… in which the three of her closest friends would treat her with (under the political system) a very rare delicacy – the truth – in this case, confessions as to why they are holding on to her. The rest you will find out from the play.
How does Helds’ ‘Flies’ fit in the Latvian political theatre of the eighties?
As we know political theatre can do many things: ‘Teatro Campesino’ tried to help the farmworkers organize against their employer-exploiters. San Francisco ‘Mime Troupe’ (in their latest hit) tried to mediate between Israelis and Palestinians. American off-stream theatre has produced many plays protesting against the Vietnam War. The purpose of this short introduction is to show how Latvian political theatre of the eighties – by awakening and strengthening in Latvians the feeling, that they were a nation with a language and culture of their own – tried to help the nation in its fight for freedom and self-preservation.
To return to our theme, in this dramatic crucial decade in Latvian history, besides Helds there were some 10 writers who produced political plays. However, in my opinion, next to Helds (a very daring, first swallow) there were only two other writers whose themes were politically DARING and whose plays also represent high quality literary achievements. They are: Mara Zalite and Ugis Seglins.
Mara Zalite (age 38) has 5 collections of poetry and 6 plays to her name (Mara’s Room is full of Small Cradles, The Trial, The Living Waters, Bearslayer, the Hedgehog), of which for our topic ‘Mara’s Room’ and ‘Bearslayer’ are the most important ones.
Ugis Seglins (just turned 28) to date has written 5 plays (The Corner, The Meeting’s Bed, The Tract, ‘The Creamcheese-Chocolate-Covered-Tootsie Roll, Coca Cola, The Matchstick and the Egg’ and ‘Attention, Passengers’) of which the most important is his ‘Attention, Passengers’.
Both authors are university graduates in literature and both have furthered their education at the prestigious Literary Institute in Moscow. However, they are very different as persons and their differences carry over into the themes, the characters and the literary style of their plays.
Mara Zalite was born in Siberia as granddaughter of Latvians who had been taken there in the first wave of deportations in 1940. After Stalin’s death they were allowed to return to Latvia. Zalite grew up in the country, somehow becoming steeped in Latvian folk poetry and traditions, which permeate her poetry as well as her plays. Hence Zalite speaks for the Latvian as a peasant, bound to the land, its traditional beliefs, customs and heroes. The other theme – partly due to the experiences of her family – is the theme of injustice done to the Latvian nation by its various occupiers and rulers.
Together with Rainis (1865-1929) (of the pre-World War I period), and Ziedonis and Belsevica (or the post-World War II period) Zalite now of the younger generation is one of the strongest most original poetical talent that Latvians have had. What sets her apart from the others is, that in her poetry as well as in the plays – rather than as an individual – Zalite speaks with the voice as if (coming from) of the collective national subconscious – sort of as a medium. At other times Zalite can be quite harsh her voice turning into that of the tribune – judge of her own people.
Ugis Seglins, in contrast, speaks with the voice of a city born and bread intellectual – rejecting the past and zeroing in on specific contemporary problems – like intermarriage of Latvians and non-Latvians, the corruption and stagnation in state controlled institutions (Seglins addresses the situation in the theatres) and the dangers presented to the nation by Moscow orchestrated flood of in-migration of non-Latvians, reducing the native Latvian population to a minority in their own country. If Zalite turns all her characters into sort of timeless symbols, Seglins seems more like a surgeon putting his finger on the raw exposed nerve-ends of the nation, and proceeds talking – transmitting the voices of his fellow Latvians of today.
Of these just mentioned two only one – namely, Zalite has achieved wide public recognition, whose plays ‘Maras Room’ (in 1983) and ‘The Trial’ (in 1984) had great impact upon the public and her fellow writers (both plays were produced, and also printed in the Latvian main literary monthly ‘The Flag’ (circa 16,000)) While the rock-opera ‘The Bearslayer’ (with Zalite’s libretto) shown in two runs (in fall of 1988 and in spring of 1989) in Riga’s largest Sports Stadium (7,000 seats) turned into soul shaking events, comparable to the (numerically much larger) Song Festival of last summer.
Before we start examining Zalite’s ‘Bearslayer’ – already the third most important rewrite of the theme, we must step back and look at what lead to the writing of the first version of this theme, and what effect it had on Latvian national psyche, sense of nationhood, drive for independence in the intervening time.
Due to last year’s Nobel Peace Candidate’s, Mr. Gorbachev’s, energetic efforts to cultivate peace in the Baltic Republics, Latvia, too, has been in the news rather often. Still, for better understanding of our general topic, a brief recall of a few historical facts may be helpful.
{Can be omitted}
Latvians arrived at their present geographic location on the Baltic Sea around the beginning of our era. In the 13th century they were conquered by the German Order of Knights of the Sword. By the 16th century the land (with Latvian peasants as serfs) had passed into the hands of the German landowners and remained there till the end of the 19th century. Politically the land in turn was ruled by the Swedes (our only good overlords), the Poles and since the end of the 18th century by the Russians. This double oppression and exploitation was the main reason for Latvians’ drive for independence during the First National Awakening movement in the 1870ies and during World War I, which lead to Latvian independence, which they kept till June 1940.
During those 700 years under foreign oppressors Latvians were kept from education, and kept their identity by holding on to their language, their pre-Christian beliefs and traditions. This heritage (and by now greatly enriched national culture) besides political freedom and economic improvement is what Latvians are fighting for NOW.
Latvians do not have a national epos. Instead, they have a vast body of folk songs or dainas, which cover every aspect of human life. Around the turn of the century they were collected and printed and ever since – with their beliefs, symbols, imagery and language rhythms – have influenced Latvian poetry and drama. The connection to our theme being, that most of best Latvian drama (including almost all plays by Zalite) are written in verse.
However, a Latvian officer in the Russian Army, Andrejs Pumpurs, thought, that having a national epos would boost Latvian self-esteem, so – using a local legend about a very strong young man, who had ripped a bear apart with his bare hands – Pumpurs wrote his epos ‘Bearslayer’, published in 1888, which immediately became very popular and inspired many works of literature by other Latvian writers.
In his epos, besides Bearslayer, whom Pumpurs made the unifier and defender of his nation, and whose name (since the epos) became a synonym for a hero, Pumpurs created a row of other characters, who also entered Latvian literature as types. Like Laimdota (‘Given by Goddess Fate’, but whose name also means Bliss) became symbol for Latvian Land. Pumpurs made Laimdota the daughter of Burtnieks (a sage, keeper of the knowledge of ancestors), whose castle had been sunk into the lake by some dark powers. With the help of Laimdota Bearslayer makes the castle (also referred to as ‘Castle of Light’ (freedom, spiritual enlightenment)) rise up again. Pumpurs also created the figure of Kangars (Bearslayer’s friend) who later turns traitor (Kangars also has become a generic name for traitor). Pumpurs also created Spidola, an attractive dark haired witch, who first allies herself with the Dark Powers but later joins Bearslayer. Eventually Bearslayer defeats his German enemies, and marries Laimdota. However, at the victory games he is challenged by a mysterious, blind Dark Knight (coming from the East, he says ‘Tartary’). Kangars betrays Bearslayer telling the Dark Knight that Bearslayer’s strength is in his ears. The Dark Knight cuts them off. Bearslayer loses his strength but manages to push the Dark Knight off the cliff, however, falling in and drowning in River Duna together with the Dark Knight. The epos ends with a hope that someday Bearslayer will rise again, defeat the Dark Knight and then the nation will be free.
The reason I took so much time to describe Pumpurs epos in such detail is that each time a new version of Bearslayer is written the characters and the basic plot remain the same. What changes is how the characters perceive themselves and react to the new historical situation. It is also interesting, that whenever the situation of the nation is darkest – a new Bearslayer appears.
Pumpur wrote his ‘Bearslayer’ at the time of the severest russification (which threatened to do away with Latvian language and with it – the Latvian nation as an ethnic entity) Rainis (perhaps the greatest writer Latvians have had) wrote his Bearslayer called ‘Fire and Night’ in the years preceding and following the bloody uprising of 1905. He finished it in his exile in Switzerland in 1908. Rainis’ ‘Bearslayer’ turned out dramatically so effective that it sort of replaced Pumpurs’ epos and has remained on Latvian stages to this day. Pumpurs made his Bearslayer a man of action. Rainis makes him into an intellectual, who only gradually comes to defining his goal – the total subordination of his life to the ‘highest idea’ – the unity and freedom of his nation. Rainis wrote this play together with his wife, the poetess Aspasia (1865-1943), who probably wrote the part of Spidola. In Pumpurs’ epos Spidola is just a minor temptress-witch. Which Rainis/Aspasia turn into a ‘life force’ which strives for constant change and rejuvenation, claiming that in order to achieve his goal – a free Latvia — Bearslayer should keep changing too.
The other play by Rainis of this period, which had great impact upon the Latvian public (and which was picked up and rewritten by Zalite in 1983) was ‘The Golden Steed’ (1910, produced 1911) in which the Latvian folk-tale third son, the pure hearted fool-idealist performs the impossible – rides up the Glass Mountain and brings down the Princess, who has been sleeping there for 700 years… (time period Latvians have been living under foreign oppressors). Both plays certainly inspired at least the leaders of those Latvians who in World War I went into trenches and with great loss of lives eventually gained Latvia’s independence in 1920.
During the Latvian independence (1920-1940) there was no political theatre.
During World War II, following the 2 waves of deportations (1940 and 1949) in which the Soviet government carried off 100,000 Latvians to Siberia and the 100,000 which in late 1944 fled to Germany (to the West), Latvia lost about 2/3 of its writers, so after World War II for 20 years in Latvia there was no literature. However around 1968 (the time of the political thaw) there appeared a group of very talented Latvian poets – Vacietis, Ziedonis, Belsevica, Caklais, — who with their inspired symbolic poetry gave Latvians again a sense of being a nation with a language and culture of their own. Vacietis died, but the others are still writing, read, and much loved and honored.
Around the same time there appeared also a group of playwrights – Gulbis, Priede, Putnins and Petersons, but whose political influence – due to the stringent censorship – was much smaller, as all they could write about was corruption in economic and work sphere, alcoholism and delinquency of the young. Besides these permitted themes 3 themes continued to be absolute tabu: those 100,000 who had been deported to Siberia, those 100,000 who had fled to the West, and any reference to religion or ethics as something spiritually uplifting.
Upon this very bleak scene in 1983 burst Mara Zalite with her ‘Mara’s Room’ in which she dared to break all 3 of the just mentioned tabus: namely, the play’s 2 brothers who had gone abroad… (as ‘seven-league-boots-adventure-seekers’ and ‘mercenary soldiers’) return and wish to join their father’s home. Second, Zalite dares to point her finger at the ‘neighbour’, who has stolen the younger brother’s ‘Table Cloth of Plenty’ (in the process killing the brother too), and thirdly, Zalite dares (through the play’s youngest daughter) also called Mara… to invite Latvians to look for inspiration to their own heritage – symbols, beliefs, traditions, but mainly to take care of the neglected land and to fill Mara’s (goddess of Life and Death) cradles with new lives.
However, Zalite’s great triumph came with her ‘Bearslayer’ – as the text for the immensely popular rock opera as well and perhaps even more after the libretto was published in book form. Again Zalite kept the general plot but also made significant changes. So, first of all, Zalite throws out the dark haired temptress Spidola declaring that those strivings for something higher and nobler (of Rainis’ Spidola) Zalite’s Bearslayer already carried in himself. She makes Laimdota (symbol of the country) more personal and also more prominent. Laimdota is actually raped by the traitor Kangars, yet Bearslayer loves her even in her defiled state and promises ‘with his love and tears’ to make her whole and pure again. Zalite also changes the meaning of Bearslayer’s ears. In her version they are no longer signs of physical strength but sort of antennae with which he can hear the desires and sufferings of his people. In the final fight with the Dark Knight Bearslayer’s ears are again cut off and he – together with the Dark Knight again fall into the River Duna.
However, maybe because of that mediumistic quality which I mentioned and sensing that this time Latvia’s situation was more serious than ever before, Zalite in her retelling makes the many headed devils and the Dark Knight appear as almost no longer to be defeated quasi primordial EVIL.
Now, a few words about Ugis Seglins. I said, that at times Zalite could sound quite stern – like a judge of the people. Seglins by nature is KIND, and has a marvellous sense of humor, yet fitted out with lazer-guided needles of irony, that never miss their targets… Still, under this whipped-cream cover – when it comes to things that really matter – like Love, loyalty to others, one’s native language, and the survival of the nation – Seglins is as dedicated and patriotic as Mara Zalite in ‘Mara’s Room’ and ‘Bearslayer’. (And possibly as pessimistic about the outcome of the struggle as she…)
Outwardly, Seglins career shows some parallels with that of Helds. Seglins first play ‘The Corner’ was produced, even translated into Russian and printed in the Moscow prestigious literary journal ‘Sovremennaya literatura’. His sort of in-house satire on the situation in Riga’s state supported theatres ‘The Meeting’s Bed’ was published in ‘The Theatre Courrier’ and just produced at the Youth Theatre. ‘Tract’ has not been published, but ‘Attention, Passengers’ even despite the abolishment of censorship… was published only outside Latvia – in the best Latvian emigre literary journal ‘The New Path’ (in May 1990)
‘Attention, Passengers’ – Seglins’ most ambitious effort till today – is a modern ‘morality play’, in which (as I mentioned) Seglins addresses the problem of Moscow supported migration of non-Latvians into Latvia, (with the result that after 45 years of Soviet rule, Latvians have practically become a minority in their own country) (somewhere between 51 and 49% of the total population). In Riga the situation is even worse. Due again to Moscow directed constantly expanding industrialization, Riga now has a million inhabitants, out of which 300,000 (or 200,000, depending on who is counting) are Latvians. Besides the immigration per se the other reason for this imbalance is that Latvians are not permitted to move to the Capital City, but any migrant who seeks work in any of its factories, or any retiring army officer, who wishes to settle there, WILL be given residency permit. The newly elected Latvian government has not been able to stop this flood of new immigrants and they keep flowing into Latvia at the rate of 17,000 a year. So much for the sociological backdrop of Seglins’ play.
The play takes place at the platform of a small provincial railway station, where once a day, coming from ‘inland’ the train disgorges yet another group of new immigrants. After the train leaves and the crowd disperses, what remains on the platform are only two disembodied souls – one male, the other female and a number of assorted bloody body parts – apparently thrown out of the train after some incident… The male soul recognizes a torso, and the female soul the head as theirs, but the other parts, apparently, come from various different previous owners. The mischievous small left hand (of a girl kindergarten pioneer) accidentally falls off the platform unto the rails. By joining forces the other limbs somehow pull her up. Pleased with the success of the cooperative venture the limbs get acquainted – all talking at times as body parts at other, as the persons to whom they belonged. Aware of the fact that the train – with a new mass of people – will return, who in their haste to settle in, will surely make them into ‘platform meat’ – they decide that they should help themselves – join as a body and walk away – home. So the little Left Hand and the Lame Leg (or a War veteran of the last great war… (World War II)) joint the left side of the Torso, while the Right Hand (of an ‘important somebody’, second in command) and the Beautiful Leg (of one of the five best dancers in a cozy, very exclusive cabaret) join the Torso on the right. The Head, as it turns out – of a love-obsessed, otherwise sensible bookkeeper – takes command. However, talking it over, the Right Hand and the Torso decide that being lead by a woman was damaging to their male egos and elect Torso as leader. Who, alas, is only the torso of a body builder, to whom thinking has always presented somewhat of a problem. And whose brightest idea as how to make the rather awkward body (with its over developed torso and its ill-matched weak legs) walk… In order to reduce the weight of the torso is to make the LIMBS do vigorous exercises – as the Torso says: „to get rid of the ‘excess blood’”… Which almost kills them and leaves them bleeding and exhausted lying scattered on the platform. In which state they are swept up by the cheerful, industrious ‘Caretaker’ and thrown into the social trash bin, and, of course, locked in.
At this point the two souls – sitting dejectedly on the cover of the trash bin, somehow manage to straighten out their differences as to who would be better qualified to enter the body (politic) and decide to enter in both. Which produces a miracle – the limbs join together, moreover showing courtesy and good will towards each other. They even – by banging vigorously on the cover from the inside – manage to attract attention on the outside – of a passing Soviet soldier, who opens the cover and is horrified at the sight of the bloody, unwashed giant rearing out of the bin. But it (he, they) gets out of the bin and with the soldier still close by and watching – make a first step and then another and another…
Zalite ends her ‘Bearslayer’ on a sad note but with a hope: the golden apple – Bearslayer – has fallen, but God already is making another. While Seglins after this rather hopeful-sounding outcome of HIS play (Attention, Passengers) (For the information of passengers) adds an exceedingly bitter, horrifying little poem, implying that the just portrayed miracle will probably never take place or – will happen – as the saying and his poem goes – only „When the tails of owls will bloom”…
With this we can return to Juris Helds and see what this ‘daring first swallow’ had foreseen as the outcome of his hoped-for, new National awakening. The word passes to the ‘Hardback theatre’. During the second part of the eighties Latvian theatres continued to produce plays by foreign authors which somehow could be turned into commentaries on the political situation in Latvia, like, for example, Abe Kobe’s ‘The Cage’ – about a man’s ‘friends’ – some pushy strangers, who move into his apartment and then end up putting him into a cage and finally killing him. Or, as a commentary in a lighter vein, producing Durrenmatt’s ‘The Stables of King Augeas’ (written to describe Switzerland in 1963) in which the situation in ‘King Augeas kingdom’ – the accumulation of cow dung — has grown so bad, that last year you still could see the roofs of the houses but this year they have completely disappeared…
Starting with its premiere in June 1989 the most popular political play, currently performed in Riga, is the ‘Four Days in June’ by the Bay Area Latvian painter and playwright Raimonds Staprans, which examines the last days in power of independent Latvia’s last president Karlis Ulmanis, before Latvia (as the other Baltic countries) was overrun by Soviet tanks. After the Soviet takeover Ulmanis was arrested and taken to Southern Russia where he died. Staprans play is made even more dramatic by being performed in the late President’s work cabinet in the Riga Castle and by the fact that the actor portraying the President bears an uncanny physical likeness to the President. Which to the Latvian viewer turns the play into one last heartbreaking glimpse into independent Latvia.
How these just mentioned plays get to the Latvian public? At first it should be stated that Latvians always have been passionate theatre goers. First, because as outwardly reserved Northerners they found theatre a place where emotions would be discussed they would not discuss in society; but also constantly living under some other political power, theatre provided a forum where in symbolic or allegorical form (like for example in the plays by Zalite and Seglins) ideas could be discussed that could not be discussed elsewhere. Also, particularly during the pre-glasnost, pre-national awakening period theatres were the places where Latvians could spend a few hours in purely Latvian atmosphere.
As for present day Latvian theatres as public institutions – there are 3 large state supported theatres: The National (formerly the Drama theatre) (about 1000[?] seats) staff of 80 salaried actors, the Daile (or Art theatre 1,500 seat hall, 3 other stages adding some 500 more seats) also 80 salaried actors and the Youth theatre which Latvians share with Russians each having about a staff of 40 actors. Besides those – in Latvia as a whole – there are 3-4 provincial city theatres (one quite large) and about 43 amateur theatre groups attached to State Farm and factory culture units. Each spring they hold competitions and the best productions in the fall are then presented in Riga.
How does this Latvian political theatre compares with the political post-World War II theatre in other politically oppressed countries – like Czechoslovakia, Poland, or the other two Baltic republics? Apart from some allegorical plays in the sixties (like Aliksaar’s ‘The Unnamed Island’) in the last decade (to express their protest) the Estonians seem to have turned to film, producing grim, black-humor cartoons. While the Lithuanians (to discuss the situation in the present) turn to historical subjects from the past. Lithuanians of late have produced some very good films some of which (like the musical ‘Devil’s Bride’ use folk tale symbols in the same manner as Rainis and Zalite do in their plays). However, this strong pervasive tendency to mythologize their subjects seems to be a specifically Latvian characteristic.
As for the political theatre of the Czechs and the Poles – to judge from examples like Havel’s ‘Memorandum’ and Mrozek’s ‘Tango’ – we must remember that they were written in the sixties and bear a strong influence of the Theatre of the Absurd (of Ionesco and Beckett) they start to look pretty dated, the more so since their characters seem to take their political situation too lightly. The political situation of Latvians, who in the eighties have been reduced to practically a minority in their own country, is more serious therefor the mood of Latvian political plays of this period is more serious too. Moreover, or, so it seems to me, the political plays of the above mentioned Central European states, generally put more emphasis upon the threatened freedom of the INDIVIDUAL, while Latvian political theatre (from its inception) shows the INDIVIDUAL as almost physically joined to the FATE OF THE NATION.
Let us hope that the ‘tails of owls’ will bloom soon – with the blossoms of freedom!
Skaidrite Rubene
MONASH UNIVERSITY
Monash University
Clayton Victoria Australia 3168
Telephone: 03 541 0811 Telegrams: Monashuni Melbourne Telex: Monash A A 32691
Department of English
4 June 1984
Ms Erna Kikure
Paddington 2021
Dear Ms Kikure
I am engaged in research into creative literature written in Australia in languages other than English. My aim is to compile a bibliography of such literary works.
It would be of much help if you fill in the attached questionnaire, and send it back to me as soon as possible. When completing the details of your published work, could you, please, add a line or two characterizing the particular book. This is meant as a kind of annotation for readers’ reference. Also, enclose your picture (passport format) for future publication purposes.
Thank you. With regards,
Alexandra Karakostas-Seda (home ph ****)
————-
QUESTIONNAIRE
This questionnaire was prepared for the purpose of compiling a bibliography of creative writing in languages other than English, produced in Australia.
It would be of great help to the compiler, if you kindly fill it out. As for the section ‘personal details’, it is, of course, up to you to give more than the basic information requested. Please, bear in mind, however, that the final result – the bibliography or ‘dictionary of writers’ – apart from being a source of reference for librarians in the ethnic sections of our libraries, will also, I hope, serve future researchers not only in the fields of literature itself, but also that of history, sociology, and related disciplines. For this reason, your personal data and such details as the year of your arrival in Australia are of importance.
Please, enclose your picture (passport format, if possible) for future publication purposes.
It will be of great help if you fill the Questionnaire out in English, but you are welcomr to fill it out in YOUR LANGUAGE.
Thank you very much for your help.
Name:
Address and phone no.:
Year and place of birth:
Year of arrival in Australia:
Personal details (any information you are willing to give about yourself, relevant to your writing – eg. Educational background, interests, occupation, when you started writing and publishing etc. – a brief curriculum vitae).
Work: contributions to papers or journals – just give the name of journal, place of publication and year(s) in which you contributed to it.
Read over the radio – which station, when?
Public readings?
WORK PUBLISHED IN BOOKFORM – either as self-contained volume or in an anthology. Please follow this sequence:
Original title – in your language and script:
The title in English translation:
Published, place and publisher:
Year of publishing:
Number of pages:
Genre – poetry, short story, novella, novel, drama, autobiography, memoirs etc. & brief annotation – information about the contents of the book (eg. Lyrical poetry about Australian nature – home country etc.)
If needed, use an extra sheet, keeping to the same sequence of details.
Critical material: Please, put down any critical material, reviews, articles etc. published about your work, either here or overseas. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THIS INFORMATION AT HAND, GIVE JUST WHAT YOU HAVE, DO NOT GO OUT OF YOUR WAY TO OBTAIN IT.
Name of author:
Title of article/review in the original and in English:
Paper/journal:
Year, volume:
Page/pages:
Thank you very much. Please, post to Alexandra Karakostas-Seda
English Department, Monash [etc]
——————
[Monash letterhead]
18 January 1985
Ms Erna Kikure [etc]
Dear Ms Kikure
I wrote to you several months ago regarding my research into literature produced in Australia in languages other than English.
As I still have not received you reply, I would like to remind you that without your help I cannot enter your name into the bibliography I am preparing (or, at best, the entry will be incomplete).
I enclose another copy of the questionnaire I would like you to fill out (in your language, if you wish), and I would be very grateful if you send it back to me as soon as possible.
With best wishes,
[signed] Alexandra Karakostas-Seda
DEAKIN UNIVERSITY
Centre for Studies in Literary Education School of Humanities
Deakin University
Victoria 3217 Australia
Telephone (052) 47 1270 Fax (052) 44 2777 Telex AA 35625
4th May 1990
Dear Mrs. Kikure,
We are currently preparing for publication in 1991, by Deakin University’s Centre for Studies in Literary Education, a bibliography of Australian multicultural writing. The bibliography will bring together and update two earlier ones, Ethnic Writings in English from Australia (published 1984) by Lolo Houbein, and Bibliography of Literature in Languages other than English (unpublished, with material incorporated until 1986) by Alexandra Karakostas-Seda.
We hope the bibliography will become a standard reference tool fo schools, colleges, universities and libraries throughout Australia, and for other international centres where Australian Literature is studied.
Consequently, we are very anxious to discover any information on first, second and third generation *non Anglo-Celtic writers and their work which may not have been included in either of the earlier bibliographies. We also wish to update as fully as possible the entries on those writers already included, ie for writers in English, from 1983 and for writers in languages other than English, from 1986.
If you have already been included in the information we have, we enclose a copy of our current entry for you to check and update. If not, we would be very pleased if you could provide biographical information and details of your work and publications by filling in the attached page.
The bibliography project is to be followed by the development of a collection of multicultural literature at Deakin University library. We would be very grateful indeed if you were able to donate any of your published works or manuscripts to this collection.
You may contact either of us at the above address or phone no. (Jan can be contacted by phone through the General Office, Humanities Department.) Please do, however, return any information on yourself and your writing to us by the 31ST JULY 1990, if possible, to allow time for the work of collating and production.
We look forward to hearing from you,
Dr. Sneja Gunew
Senior Lecturer, Humanities
Jan Mahyuddin
Research Fellow, Humanities
* By non Anglo-Celtic we mean anyone who has access to languages or cultures other than English through parent(s) or grandparent(s) or by being born outside Australia.
Director
Prof. Ian Reid.
[handwritten note from Dzidra]:
I received this yesterday (4 July) – so if you send it quick I’ll pass it on to them
Do it!
Give Australian address.
ANDREJS EGLĪTIS
.
[Erna met him in 1956 in Sydney. He is buried at the Ļaudona cemetery, the same cemetery as the burial place for Erna and her father.]
.
.
Andrejs Eglītis 21.10.1912 – 23.02.2006
literatura.lv
Andrejs Eglītis (1912–2006) – poet. Born in Ļaudona. Educated at a local school and in Riga. From an early age, he was associated with various Latvian press publications. His literary debut was in 1934. On May 7, 1945, he went as a refugee to Sweden, and in August 1998, he returned to live in Latvia. He is the author of more than 30 books published in various countries of the world, and is the co-author of several books. Several collections and selections have been published in Latvia, including Essays in seven volumes. The poetry intertwines a romantic depiction of the homeland and love with the national stance and patriotic sound culminating in exile; the tragic fate of the nation is intricately intertwined in the poetry. Both the melodiousness and prophetic nature of the poetry are noted. Poet Pēteris Ērmanis called him a true, passionate, strong singer of the sorrows and feelings of a great, gloomy era and a people walking the path of pain, whose name can now be mentioned along with the best in our poetry. The suffering of the people has a religious radiance in this book. His verses became an integral part of the life of the Latvian exile and the Latvian spirit in general. Andrejs Eglītis’s cantata “God, Your Land is Burning!” is of lasting value; the text has been translated into English [below], Swedish, Spanish, Italian, German, Norwegian, Danish, Portuguese and other languages and was composed by Lūcija Garūta, Bruno Skulte, Tālivaldis Ķeniņš. He has received many literary prizes and awards
ALEKSANDRS ZARIŅŠ
[Zariņš was a very active in the literary and dramatic community in Sydney and elsewhere. He organized Erna’s public readings and was involved in the publication of some of her work.]
.
.
Feb. 1992
[Erna visited Australia and went to a literary gathering arranged in her honour at the home of the Zariņš family in Engadine, near Sydney]
.
.
[Funeral programme, June 14, 1994.]
Aleksandrs Arvīds Zariņš, Born in Latvia, Novembern18, 1918. Died in Sydney, June 8, 1994
Aleksandrs Arvīds Zariņš (Aleks to his friends)
Was born on the day of Latvia’s declaration of independence, on the 18th Nov. 1918, in Alsviķi in the province of Vidzeme, Latvia, to Jēkabs and Alvīne Zariņš. Aleksandrs was the youngest of 6 children. Aleksandrs lived in Alsviķi until age 16, then Riga for the next 10 years, where he married Olita on 15th June, 1940. With his wife and eldest daughter Dagnija, the family fled to Germany ahead of the Russian advance into Latvia in 1944. In 1949, with the addition of son Kristaps, the family migrated to Australia. Aleksandrs worked his compulsory 2 year government indentured period in the Greta refugee camp, after which the family moved to Engadine, where their daughter Gundega was born. Aleksandrs and Olita have lived there since 1951. Aleksandrs graduated from the Rīga Technical School in 1939 as an industrial chemist, and for most of his working life has worked in his chosen profession in Latvia, Germany and Australia. In Sydney he joined the Lucas Heights Atomic Energy Commission in 1959 as a laboratory analyst, where he worked for 24 years until his retirement in 1983, rising to be head of the reactor chemical laboratory. Aleksandrs became known for his meticulous attention to detail and was asked to train many young technicians. Aleksandrs involvement in various Latvian cultural activities began during the time spent in refugee camps in Germany, where he wrote for a Latvian newspaper and organised concerts and plays. In his first job in Australia as a storeman in the Greta displaced persons camp, he established a Latvian ‘book corner’ alongside the supplies he dispensed. In 1951 he helped promote the idea of holding an annual Latvian Arts Festival and was the secretary of the first organising committee. Since 1954 Aleksandrs has been the Sydney editor of the (Melbourne based) Australian Latvian News. Aleksandrs has always enthusiastically promoted Latvian writers. In the early 1050’s he organised the Latvian Press Association, and on many occasions was a member of the presiding committee. During his tenure the Press Association established a publishing group, which has published over 20 books by Australian Latvian authors. Aleksandrs also initiated and administered the publication of 30 plays by Swedish Latvian playwright Mārtiņš Zīverts. Aleksandrs was a member of the Latvian Writers Guild (LaRA) and served for some years on its committee, and participated in the establishment of the LaRA Book Club and its worldwide distribution network. Alkesandrs has participated in many Latvian Writers Symposiums and reported on Latvian Song Festivals, both in Australia and North America. In 1983 Aleksandrs was presented with the annual award of the World Federation of Free Latvians Cultural Foundation for his work in journalism. In 1989 he was given the annual Spodris Klauverts prize for his work in encouraging new Latvian literary works. In the same year, Aleksandrs’ book Bees and a Boomerang was published, containing a collection of his newspaper articles chronicling the Latvian community in Australia since the 1950’s. Aleksandrs lived to see the publication of his second book, Mārtiņš Zīverts in Austrālia. The book documents Aleksandrs’ 35 year correspondence with Zīverts in connection with his tour of Australia and the subsequent publication of Zīverts’ plays. Over the past 35 years the Zariņš family spare bedroom has been host to numerous visiting Latvian writers, poets, musicians and artists to Australia. Aleksandrs was a practical visionary, a proud Latvian, and loved and respected by his family.
BAIBA KREIŠMANE
[Photo: Ella Kreišmane’s 100th birthday. Her daughter, Baiba, behind her]
[Inese’s correspondence with Baiba, Ella Kreišmane’s daughter, to ask for possible copies her translation of part or all of Erna’s book (Mūsu kaimiņš) and of Erna’s letters to her mother]
01.10.2012
Hi Baiba,
I am switching to English as it is easier and quicker for me — and possibly also for you — do you mind?
Thank you so much for responding to my letter! I am delighted to hear from you! And I was delighted to read that your mum is still going strong! wow! Our mum lasted till 96 (in 2003) and was living with me till age 94…
I remember you slightly, but remember your mum a bit more — my mum and I stayed at your place for one of the Kultūras Dienas in Melbourne — I am not sure of the year — sometime early 60’s?? [Right, December 1960, in Kreišmane’s garden. L to R: Baiba, Erna, Ella, Jānis Sarma]
The moment when I remember your mum was in one of the bedrooms, we were all getting ready to go to one of the events and your mum asked me to fix her hair (I guess I was supposed to be young and ‘with it’ !!) — anyway I had no clue — my hair was short and I had never done anyone else’s, and certainly not long hair like your mum’s… I was petrified and all knees and elbows… I made an attempt to comb it back in some way — your mum hurrumphed and said that that was not how to do it — it had to be brushed UP and then back, so that it would make her look younger — just brushing it back in a straight line or even slightly droopy over the ears was for old ladies!!! So, I failed my test miserably… and I was young enough to feel unhappy about it!!
Since I got your letter, I thought a bit more about the incident — and what occurs to me now, is that your mum expected some sort of youthful solution from a youthful person — and when I think about that idea now (when I am old and grey) I realize where the fallacy (wrapped in hope) in that lies — the fact that when one is young, one has no notion of how to try to make oneself look ‘younger’ — that I probably spent most of my time practising looking ‘older’ !!
Anyway, that is all nonsense…
Anyhow, yes, I am transcribing all mum’s texts, as best I can and hope to make a web or blog page of them. As you no doubt know, from your mother’s experience, it was pretty hard to get anything published and distributed to the diaspora Latvians, to say nothing of those in Latvia… So, much of that material remains unknown. It seems to me that our new technologies can rectify some of that. My fear has been that all those who were interested or were their contemporaries are fast disappearing and that the younger crowd won’t have enough connection to the people or the material to care. Still, you say you could be interested in seeing such a page — that gives me some hope.
And yes, my mum was originally a ‘grafiķe’ trained at the Academy of Art in Rīga, even managed to live as an artist and taught art in Latvia… She had always written a little, but more for herself and for early student publications initially. It was not till much later that she turned to writing — our (my sister Dzidra Mitchell, artist and me — she is about to open a show of her work in Sydney — notice/article in current Latvietis) dad was nasty, controlling man who did not let her do her art — and tried to stop the writing as well — long story all of that. However, some of that comes out in her letters to Sarma and more in her diaries, which I plan to put on the webpage…
So, long explanations… I am sure your mother corresponded with Sarma as well… He had a lot of good things to say about her. He was a real mentor to my mother and I think to yours as well. Perhaps you have in your mother’s stuff the book that was published of the correspondence between my mum and Sarma — it is a green book about 1 1/4″ thick, originally with a beige paper dustcover with no other text than some images of hand-addressed envelopes in mum’s and Sarma’s writing…
The letters from your mother to mine that I had were sent to the Madona museum in Latvia, together with the rest of my mum’s archive. However, I have copies of them and I have transcribed them (with lots of typos, I’m afraid — but I still have to go through them to correct what I can)… I will attach a file for you. If you have no objection, I would like to include them in the webpage eventually — all that is still a considerable time off…
Yes, I had heard that you had translated a text of my mother’s — she had heard it from somewhere — but I had no idea which text it was. I had the idea that it was Mūsu Kaimiņš, which was published in a book. That is a considerable length to translate! I would love to have a copy of it for myself and, again, if you had no objections, I would love to publish it on the webpage, with all the appropriate acknowledgements.
Some time back, when I had started this project, I tried googling you — I seemed to find you in England — was that likely or was that someone else I found? And I still did not have a way to contact you — now, with the articles/pictures of your mum’s 100th (!!! give her greetings and hugs — I always thought of her as very determined, courageous, fighting her own doubts and frailties and outside setbacks — truly admirable — and she has not given up yet!) I have finally found you! Yes, our new technology is rather amazing!
Sorry to gush on so… that is not really my style, but I am truly happy to have finally got in touch with you… And, I would be most interested in finding out more about you and your mother — from the letters I know that she and you (I assume) went to America at one point and then came back to Australia — I am sure there are interesting stories of hopes and difficulties in your lives as well as ours and many others — if you translated one of mum’s texts, you must have some sort of interest in all of that sort of stuff…
But enough for now.
I also need to tell you on a purely practical level that my computer is sick and needs to go to see an Apple doctor — I have put that off till next week so that I can still function on this basic level till then and let people know — I don’t know how long it will be out of action. In the meantime, it no longer loads Skype, so that makes it hard to contact in that way, though I have been told that Skype can access normal phones as well. If that is so, my number is ****. I am home most days and evenings with the exception of Tuesdays and Wednesdays when I am at work during the day, and most lunchtimes (about between 11.30 and 1.30 our time — Calgary, Alberta, Canada) and other odds and ends, though not many, when I might step out.
So, I am attaching the file, full of typos, that I have of your mum’s letters.
Inese
—————-
7.10.2012
Sveiki Inesa,
I guess I’ll write in English, too. I never did go to Latvian school, so my spelling can be a bit haphazard.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a printer at home, but I’ll print out your email in the library, as I can’t remember stuff I read on a screen. I must be younger than you. I vaguely remember your mother when she stayed with us, but , unfortunately, not you.
It was Musu Kaimins, but I don’t know where it is now.
I’d like to know more about your impressions of my mother.
Yes, I studied various languages and literatures at uni. I have a BA and MA in Russian literature and I wrote a couple of short stories a long time ago and used to draw.
Just in the last couple of years I’ve been reading a bit about Latvia’s history, the two world wars and the Jews.
These days I live in the country and most of my time is spent on looking after my numerous animals
I’ll ring you soon when I have a bit of time and work out the time zones.
Baiba.
—————-
Oct 20, 2012
Hello Baiba,
I just learned from the online Latvietis paper that your mother has died… My sincerest sympathy for you.
I was a bit shocked to see the notice — mostly because the last news and pictures seemed so full of life!
My condolences to you — I’ll leave the chatting to some other time. You have too much else to deal with right now. Hope it is not all too painful.
Inese
————–
20.10.2012
Hullo Inese,
Thank you.
I realise now that you don’t realise what it’s like until you lose a mother yourself.
At least she went peacefully and didn’t know what was coming.
They told me she went unconscious after lunch, they put her to bed and she came round a couple of times and then went unconscious. Her heart beat was weak and erratic and her breathing was a bit faster and then her breathing stopped, one more breath, and she was gone. No fear, no anxiety.
The perfect death, really. Except she would rather be alive.
I got there about an hour after she had died. I stayed with her for about three hours.
She looked very at peace.
I decided best to remember her at her birthday, so no funeral.
She was cremated yesterday. I’m bringing her home and I’m going to fetch my father’s ashes from the cemetery and put them beside each other. My father died 41 years ago.
[Baiba]
————–
2016-01-25
[In Latvian, translated by Inese]:
I have to move to a new place and I was going through my and my mum’s stuff and found her letters to my mother, but I don’t have time to read them right now.
Baiba.
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Jan 26, 2016
Hi Inese,
I’m having to move after 18 years of renting a farm. I don’t have anywhere to go as yet, but I’ve managed to acquire some old caravans and I’m putting all of my and my mother’s stuff into them. It’s amazing how many cupboards caravans have.
The upside is I shall never have to pack again, I will just tow all my stuff around with me when I move.
It’s very emotional coming across photos and books, memories of lives past and now gone.
I even found a letter from my mother’s best friend to my mother in 1940, from Jelgava to Riga, where she is so sad and scared, (the friend) because her lover has just gone to war and she is about to have a baby(my mother’ god daughter to be) and if she can’t work, she won’t have money.
And unbeknownst to them, the Russians are about to invade Latvia for the first time.
The god daughter is still alive and I email with her daughter, both in Latvia.
I think the best thing to do, is for you to send me some money and I will photocopy everything and mail it to you, I’ll keep copies for myself, and then when you have received those, I will mail you your mother’s originals by registered mail. Will have to work out how much.
I’ve just realised, I should be able to ring you, because my phone company allows me 300 minutes of overseas talk to approved countries, included per month, not Latvia, I talk to a friend in Seattle fairly regularly. I’ll check whether Canada is included.
So send me your phone number please and I will check whether Canada is included and get back to you.
Yes, Canada is included.
Send me your phone number.
Baiba.
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Jan 27, 2016
[Right: Baiba sent a photo of part of a couple of Erna’s letters, asking if these were the ones]:
Hi Baiba,
I am delighted and excited that you have found the letters!!!
Here is what I would suggest — let me know, if that would work for you:
Since you are in the middle of moving (I don’t envy you that!!) and will be busy for a while with moving and settling into new space, perhaps you could send me the letters and I could then copy them and return them to you at your new address — I would also then send you repayment for whatever it cost to mail them. (I could also wire money to your bank ahead of time, but would need all the banking info from you.)
Ground (sea) transport for a parcel would probably take a month or more to get here, but I could make the copies fairly quickly.
My address is:
Inese Birstins **** Calgary, AB Canada
If it is too complicated to send them directly to me, perhaps you could send them to my sister in Sydney and then she could forward them to me. Her address:
Dzidra Mitchell **** Paddington, NSW
Let me know what you decide and good luck with your move — I really don’t envy you that — I’ve moved a lot in my life and don’t ever want to have to do that again!! But one never knows…
Sincerely,
[Inese]
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Jan 27, 2016
Just spoke to the post office. They said $37 for 1kg registered by air, $104 for 5kg registered by air, $68 by sea, takes 90 days.
But registered only covers till border of Australia, costs a bit more to get confirmation, where you have to sign when you receive it.
I think that would put more accountability on Canadian post.
Will try to experiment with photographing later today.
I want to try and dismantle a kitchen cupboard and get it and my mother’s desk, already dismantled, into the biggest caravan first, otherwise I feel like I shall explode.
That will be a major milestone and then I can relax.
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2016-01-27
Sveiki Inese,
I’ve just had a thought. Perhaps you should ask your techno savvy friends, or maybe you know already, I don’t, because I only have a mobile phone, no big computer or printer, — whether, if I take the best photos I can with my mobile phone camera, of your mother’s letters and email them to you, you can just print them out.
Then after you have done that, I can mail you the letters by registered mail.
If possible, it would be a lot more simple and quick.
Baiba.
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Jan 28, 2016
Yes, you could do that — send me a sample and I will tell you whether it is readable — it usually is a bit hard to get all the edges to be sharp. It may also be hard to get the size to be readable.
But try it anyway — make sure you have good, even lighting.
However, if you plan to send them by registered mail anyway, then it hardly seems worth the effort to go through that in-between step???
Inese
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Dec. 27, 2017
Hi Baiba,
Glad you got the book and find it ok.
I know what you mean about trying to figure out what happened in Latvia — I have been doing that too, and it is getting a bit clearer now that there is more information coming out and being published. I have just acquired (and read one so far) books by a Sheila Fitzpatrick (an Aussie academic) — she has studied and published on the Stalin period in Russia — with some reference to the wider Soviet Union, including small bits on Latvia. Hard to find stuff that is specific to Latvia, but her stuff gives a pretty good idea on how ordinary people managed their lives — that is what particularly interests me: how did they live, think, cope, etc. and how does all that shape their lives now? It must have a huge effect, since we all tended to believe what we were taught in school more or less, so how do you then start over again and rethink it all?
My grandfather was the village mayor (pagasta vecākais), he had also been a teacher and owned a small farm, so he was part of the intelligentsia/“ruling” class… At the beginning of 1919, Latvia was still under Russia. Then the Soviet Bolsheviks/Red Army of the Revolution (mostly Russian, but also Latvian) invaded Latvia and wanted to get rid of that class of people and replace them with the “working” class, etc., etc. What was rather sad was that about 6 months after he was executed, Latvia, helped by Germans and others, managed to fight its way towards independence — which it finally got and got rid of most of the Bolsheviks in 1920… Latvia had proclaimed its independence already in November 1918, but it took about 18 months of “brīvības cīņas” (real warfare) to make it a reality.
There is now pretty good info on the basic facts online. The info I keep looking for how life was for the ordinary people… what it was like to grow up/live then (and also of course later, after 1940, etc.)
My phone number is ****.
Since you have moved to a new place, perhaps you had a chance to find your translation of “Mūsu Kaimiņš” and my mum’s letters to your mother?? I would still love to get copies of all that — still planning to put it online, though I have had a long hiatus of not working at it. Now that the exhibition and book are done, I should be able to get back to it — and even use some of the scans I did for the book to put pictures with the text online… That is the plan, but it is hard to get going on it again.
Happy New Year to you,
Inese
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March 30, 2018
Hi Baiba,
Happy Easter! I bet yours is quite different to mine here — it is snowing!! We have had endless snow this winter and it is still not finished!
Anyway, I am finally getting back to my project of putting my mum’s writing, etc. online. Still have lots to do, but now that the book and show and Latvia visit are over, I can get on with it.
So… I would still love to include my mum’s letters to your mum. And your translation of her book “Mūsu kaimiņš”, if you would agree to that.
What do you suggest as the best way to do it?
Photocopies that you send me? — I can pay you for the copies and the sending costs.
Originals that you send me and that I copy here and send you back the originals?
I buy the originals from you? You let me know the price?
Do let me know.
My address is: ****
In the meantime, perhaps I should be wishing the world “A Merry Xmas!”
Inese
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May 11, 2018
[Photo: Erna, Jānis Sarma, Ella Kreišmane, at Sarma’s house in Melbourne, Dec.30, 1971 ]
Hi Baiba,
I have 2 questions for you:
1. Do you know where Sarma’s archive (his writings/papers/letters) has ended up? Or do you know who would have looked after it and would know about it?
My mum used to send him parts of her diary for safekeeping — and those bits were not returned to her, so they must be included amongst his papers.
2. Have you made your decision about the letters that my mum wrote to yours? I really would be happy to pay you whatever costs might be involved in sending them — and I promise to return them! I assume that sending them would be simpler for you than trying to copy them, especially trying to photograph them — that is pretty hard. If you do send them, sending them registered mail as you had suggested would make sense, just to make sure that they do not get lost in transit. If you need the money ahead of time, let me know the amount and how best to transfer it to you.
Otherwise, nothing new here — we had an incredibly long winter this year — it felt as if it would never end. Now, for about 2 weeks we finally have spring and everything is turning green at a super pace — seems as if it is trying to make up for lost time.
All the best,
Inese
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May 11, 2018
Hi Inese,
Im feeling guilty about your mother’s letters.
Ive been very busy and not all that well, plus I am a bit aprehensive that my mother may not have kept them, or that I may not be able to find them, and I am also aprehensive that I will get depressed if I look through my mother’s papers.
However, I promise to look for them in the next couple of days.
As for Sarma’s archive, I don’t know, but maybe the Latvian library librarian at Latvian House in Melbourne might know something, or Edwards Silkalns, now living in Latvia, ask Janis Delins for his address. Also, I seem to have a vague recollection, that I read about Sarma/Kalnins on the internet a few years ago and there were articles about him and his home town in Latvia, maybe his archive went to a library there. Also, there is some sort of migrant writers in Australia library/archive, maybe they would know something.
Hope that helps,
Baiba.
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May 12, 2018
Hi Baiba,
Thanks for all your suggestions for where I might look for Sarma’s stuff — do you have some sort of contact info for any of them?
And I just remembered that you once sent me two samples of mum’s letters that you had photographed. I will attach them here, so that it might be easier for you to identify her handwriting — though some letters may have been typed (like one of the samples, where the handwritten bit is probably an additional note).
Good luck with it — I would be really grateful to get the stuff and I really hope that it does not depress you too much. Sorry to put you through that.
Inese