By Zhu Fengjuan

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Ludmila's Poems and I

By Zhu Fengjuan

In the spring of 2011, Ukrainian poetess Ludmila Skirda, wife of Ukrainian Ambassador to China Mr. Yurii Kostenko, favored us at Cultural Dialogue with her latest poetry collection Breath of China. The book was printed in Russian and Chinese. We enjoyed reading it.

烏克蘭駐華大使尤里·科斯堅科及夫人柳德米拉與中國著名翻譯家高莽先生（左）合影。In the picture are Ukrainian ambassador to China Yurii Kostenko, his wife Ludmila Skirda and Chinese translator Gao Mang.

She came to China with her husband and the new experience thrilled her. She marveled at what she witnessed and wrote down her sentiments and understanding. On August 25, 2010, she held a ceremony to launch the Chinese version of the collection. Chinese friends attended the ceremony. In appreciation of her poems, sincerity and friendship, we engaged Professor Luo Hanchao, the ex-dean of the Chinese Department of Zhejiang University, to write a comment. The professor's take on the poems opened up a chapter of friendship with Ludmila.

Shortly after the publication of the article in Cultural Dialogue, Ludmila sent us another book of poems titled The Melody of Four Seasons. This book stayed on my desk for a long while. It was her second collection of poems after she came to China. She traveled across China and wrote poems. Liu Feng, director of Cultural Dialogue, read the book and was happy to know the magazine did its job in promoting cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world.

Written in an eloquent and concise way, the poems portrayed her appreciation of the oriental country, its ancient charms and four distinct seasons. Her exuberating sentiments found ample expression in her poems and her heart echoed the rhythm of the Chinese orchestra of reform and opening to the outside world. Her poems endeared herself to a lot of Chinese friends in and outside the literary circle. Some poems in the new collection helped me to see a seemingly different aspect of the West Lake. She wrote her perception of four seasons and her sentiments. The lyrics were all about China. The publication won her a lot of friends in China and enhanced the friendship between China and Ukraine.

In fact, along with The Melody of Four Seasons came a thank-you note. The note and a comment on her latest book of poems were published in the issue of February, 2012. Looking back, I can say that Cultural Dialogue has bridged China and Ukraine and I believe that our readers felt the friendship between Chinese people and Ukrainian people.