He sent me a message on the Internet on the occasion of my birthday, where one statement struck the soul, and it sounds like a catch phrase: “Dear Mehmet, we will not hurry, ahead of us – an eternity… “. Alexander’s Korotko poetic syllable is widely known not only in Ukraine but also in many countries. And the more you get to know the author and his poetry, the more convinced you are that the quoted idea addressed to me is not written for the sake of a red word. That is, the author is absolutely convinced that there is an eternity ahead of us, and because of this belief his inner world is filled with confidence and faith.
The communication with him is a pleasure, it is character and manners, and moral wealth, stands far above the others. Even when he says nothing-his silence sends a message. Only if you get acquainted with Alexander Korotko, you can meet with the way of his thinking, which relates to both his personality and creativity. Alexander –is as the person not from this world, the person who doesn’t hurry anywhere, lives under dictation of destiny, but sometimes, if necessary, itself can edit the destiny. Even the title of the collection of his poems sounds especially – “I did not live on earth.”
We met with Alexander Korotko in January this year in Paris, where the award ceremony of the European Academy of Sciences, arts and literature was scheduled. By the will of fate, we both became winners of the poetry contest “Love for freedom” and were elected as full members of this Academy. Of course, the Paris meetings were fleeting. However, at the end of September this year we were able to meet and spend a whole week together at the international festival of world poetry, which was held in the Republic of Montenegro. He came to the festival with his wife Lyudmila. The attitudes of this pair caused me delight and even feel white envy. The state of constant love, and understanding each other from the half-word – is God’s gift. But since my task is not to cover family relationships (although it’s no secret that for a person of art this moment is considered very important), I will move on to the main.
As biographers write, Alexander Korotko was born on August 29, 1952 in Ukraine, Korosten. He is an economist by education, as he is a graduate of the Odessa Institute of national economy. Until 2002, he worked in this specialty. He lives in Kiev. In the second half of the 80s started to be creative. In 1989 his first book “Window” was published. Since then, his poetry collections have been published regularly. It is already known not only in Ukraine but also in other countries. In literary magazines and almanacs of Russia, Croatia, America, Israel his poems and miniatures, prose and aphorisms are printed. Over time, the range of literary activity expands. Along with poetry, he also writes stories, novels and plays, which also gained popularity among readers. In these works the deep philosophy of content is combined with the minimalism of form.
Alexander Korotko is a poet of the postmodern period. His philosophical world-view is based on the principles of Jewish values, the achievements of Russian and European culture with a focus on existentialism, as well as the aesthetics of the Silver age. If you look from the point of view of the literary currents of our time, it is like an island in the ocean, because it has nothing to do with any pronounced trends. To express his feelings and to convey his thoughts, Alexander Korotko uses the language of poetry and the creative system, which is characterized by such features as metaphorism, conceptualism, polystylistic method, as well as other features of avangarde poetry. “His works are a kind of humanitarian system based on the poetic foundation of philosophy, religion, music, painting and theatre and based on harmony which rises, in general, on moral and ideological values.”
According to Andrei Bitov, Alexander’s Korotko works represent a mystical narrative, a parable where romantic and poetic texts coexist in parallel, which eventually turns into a literary “chaos”, and all the literary material of the author is above the genres. He is painting a picture, and we have to look at it. These three trends – the culture of Jewry, the culture of Russia and the culture of Europe and the new style of thinking that has emerged from this triangle directly into the literary text – have formed a completely new manner and style of writing. No wonder he writes: “as from the nest, I fell out of time…”, and then follows – “eternity of emptiness.”
Many creative people from different countries wrote a lot about the innovations that he brought to the literature. I’m certainly not going to quote everyone. The most famous composers of Ukraine and Russia created wonderful works on his poems, and these songs were performed in the repertoire of famous artists. Alexander Korotko is a member of the Union of writers of Israel, a member of the European Academy of Sciences, arts and literature. He also became the winner of the poetry contest of the Academy “Love of freedom”. And I wanted to translate some of my friend’s poems and present them to the esteemed readers of the “Literary newspaper” of Azerbaijan.