Yet today, we inhabit a different world, touched by a newfound sense of neighoodness, more acutely aware of Ukraine's solitude. On the final day of our gathering, we traveled the Transcarpathian borderlands to Vynohradiv and Berehove - cities steeped in the spirit of Central Europe. After our discussions, it felt as though the space itself had gained substance. Vynohradiv harbors the memory of many nations and religious denominations, still naturally alive with it's polyphony, though it is a place scarred by history, fractured in the twentieth century. Winding through the green corridors of Transcarpathia, we were halted by border police patrols, inspecting passports, guarding check points, fragmenting our journey. The borderland here is a distinct space. Uzhhorod, Vynohradiv, and Berehove appear as scattered fragments of a broken whole, a mosaic that can now only be pieced together by a solid border. I will remember Freedom Square in Vynohradiv as the center of our meeting, it was there, looking at the moniument honoring the fallen Ukrainian soldiers, that silence fell, a silence to which it is difficult to add anything. In such silence, poetry must resonate. In the cultural center next to the square, Cafe Europa gathered a polyphony of voices from Romania, Slovakia, Georgia, Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, and Croatia. We listened to Central Europe, each poem different in melody, rhythm, and the tradition of another language. The meeting opened with an orchestra from the local conservatory, performing the music of Béla Bartók. The composer lived here for several years of his childhood, performed his first concert here, and sparked an early flame of talent. Listening to Bartók in Vynohradiv, a composer who explored musical borderlands, recording and listening to the place and his later world career seemed less significant. Looking at the tiny monuments to Bartok, small busts,in the space of the city, it was hard not to think that we have just been at the source, the small center of the world. Today, already on our way back, getting on our different paths again, we are composing truths about how to be with Others out of shards and glimpses. So the voices from Ukraine travel on, they were with us on the illuminated hills of the Transcarpathian vines, they carry this light further east and in other directions, all the way to the Caucasus. We know that the bright and peaceful world of the Uzhhorod region is real, just as real is the darkness that seeps into this world. Even being together, not all of us can truly feel what the weight of loneliness means today, which is born at the intersection of these two realities.
text, phot: Piotrek Szroeder
ICES - The Institute for Central European Strategy
Dilemma Academy
PEN Armenia
Literature Initiative Georgia
