Photo by Algimantas Aleksandravičius

The poet and prose writer Donaldas Kajokas (b. 1953) studied at the Kaunas Institute of Physical Education and worked as a children’s gymnastics trainer for several years but is primarily known as the editor of the literary supplement of Nemunas, the most important cultural periodical in Kaunas. He made his debut in 1980 with a collection of poems Žeme kaip viršūnėmis (Walking on the Ground Like the Summits). He has written five books of short fiction and two novels. He has also collaborated with Romualdas Rakauskas, a like-minded photographer, on a photography book with poetic commentaries (or, depending on how you look at it, a book of poetry with photographic illustrations). Kajokas’s work has been translated into English, French, Spanish, German, Russian, Finnish, Hungarian, Georgian, Polish, Ukrainian, Latvian and Slovenian. 

Kajokas has shown great interest in Eastern religions and philosophy, mostly Buddhism, for many years, and this has had a great impact on his work. He is a true bard of the beauty and symmetry of the world and its every detail. Kajokas’s poems combine brilliantly the traditions of Eastern and Western poetry – the musicality of neo-romanticism, the restraint of haiku, the specific imagery, and unexpected mood shifts. His works are meditative, pure, calm and laconic. 

His last collection, Apie vandenis, medžius ir vėjus (Of Waters, Trees and Winds, 2015), is less influenced by the East, and the language is more essayistic. The subject of the poems is observing the environment and naively contemplating the events of the world. The critics define him as an archetypal wise man who seems to know less and less as his wisdom increases. But behind the supposed naivety lies clear wisdom and peace. 

Selected translations

Russian: Линия времени: новая литовская поэзия. Moskva: liTTera, 2014

Осенняя бухгалтерия: poems of Lithuanian poets. Vilnius: Zarzecze, 2014

English: Raw Amber: an anthology of contemporary Lithuanian poetry. Salzburg: Poetry Salzburg at the University of Salzburg, 2002

German: Vierzehn litauische Poeten / Keturiolika lietuvių poetų. Vilnius: Vaga; Oberhausen: Athena, 2002

Translations on-line: www.lyrikline.org/en/authors/donaldas-kajokas