Poetry
The Ballads of Kukutis
Kukučio baladės
Marcelijus Martinaitis · 1977
Synopsis
A collection of poems centred on Kukutis, a little man with a peasant mind, a grotesque and carnivalesque figure who hides behind a fool's mask to say more than is allowed. A trickster and outsider, he ignores the rules, moves from one world to another and runs up against the new times: the old rural world breaks against the collectivization of farms and Soviet modernity. The ballads, ironic and biting, mix sadness and mockery.
Context
The author's fifth book, published by Vaga in 1977 and expanded in 1986, the collection has become a cult book. Critics cite it as an example of Aesopian language: the censor let it through, but Kukutis became a rallying voice, and his poems were recited and sung at the great rallies of the late eighties. A play by the author, Kukutynė, was staged in 1989. Translated into Swedish, Norwegian and Russian, the collection appeared in English in 2011, in a bilingual edition translated by Laima Vincė; it does not exist in French.
Who it is for
For reading how a Lithuanian poet voiced, under a jester's mask, the end of a peasant world and the weight of the regime.
Prizes and reception
The most famous book by its author, it keeps a loyal readership and remains a subject of study, even for those unaware of its context.