Violeta Palčinskaitė
Most people associate the name of Violeta Palčinskaitė (b. 1943) with the poems they have read or heard in childhood. She is a poet, a living legend of children’s literature. Several Lithuanian generations have grown up with her poems. Although Palčinskaitė has written as well as translated many poetry books for adults and a number of prose works, plays and scripts, she is still considered to be a children’s poet. It was back in her own childhood that she started writing for children. Her poems in Moksleivis magazine were accompanied by a warm introduction by another Lithuanian poetry legend, Janina Degutytė. Later, convinced that her poet colleagues were better at writing for adults, she took up children’s literature. Her poems are sincere, musical, memorable. She has also written plays. As poetry was always linked to playwriting for her, plots can be often perceived in her poems. Her works for children are stylistically light, playfully surprising, magical, and feature occasional reflections of subtle sadness or romantic longing. The poet reveals the meaning of life through a form that children can easily understand.
Eilėraščiai iš namų (Poems from Home), illustrated by Irena Daukšaitė – Vilnius: Tyto alba, 2017, 48 pp.
The very title of Poems from Home suggests that the poems are going to revolve around home. Home is a place of spiritual warmth which all children long for. “Netrukus prie stalo / Susėsim VISI. / Ir šypsos močiutė: / Sudie, liūdesy!” (“We’ll sit at the table / ALL of us well / Grandma smiles: / Sadness, farewell!”) The collection of poems features Palčinskaitė’s characteristic verse: pure, musical, intelligent, softly refined. The poems are set in the world of a city, where a playful atmosphere unfolds in the fragments of homes and everyday life. The poems are witty, aesthetic and subtle, offering a sense of the ridiculous and characterful humour, accurately portraying topical situations of life (Nesipykim – Let’s Not Fight, Sudužo puodelis – The Cup Has Broken, Išmanusis telefonas – Smartphone, Manekenai maištauja – The Mannequins Are Rebelling).