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There Is No Ithaca
There Is No Idylls of Semeniskiai & Reminiscences (Dual language edition, English and Lithuanian)by Jonas Mekas, translated by Vyt Bakaitis | Oct 1, 1996, 2nd printing.
- GenresPoetry
189 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1948
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120 people want to read
About the author
Jonas Mekas
113 books195 followersJonas Mekas is a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet and artist who has often been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema." His work has been exhibited in museums and festivals world-wide.
In 1944, Mekas left Lithuania because of war. En route, his train was stopped in Germany and he and his brother, Adolfas Mekas (1925–2011), were imprisoned in a labor camp in Elmshorn, a suburb of Hamburg, for eight months. The brothers escaped and were detained near the Danish border where they hid on a farm for two months until the end of the war. After the war, Mekas lived in displaced person camps in Wiesbaden and Kassel. From 1946 to 1948, he studied philosophy at the University of Mainz and at the end of 1949, he emigrated with his brother to the U.S., settling in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. Two weeks after his arrival, he borrowed the money to buy his first Bolex 16mm camera and began to record moments of his life. He discovered avant-garde film at venues such as Amos Vogel’s pioneering Cinema 16, and he began curating avant-garde film screenings at Gallery East on Avenue A and Houston Street, and a Film Forum series at Carl Fisher Auditorium on 57th Street.
In 1954, together with his brother Adolfas Mekas, he founded Film Culture, and in 1958, began writing his “Movie Journal” column for The Village Voice. In 1962, he co-founded Film-Makers' Cooperative and the Filmmakers' Cinematheque in 1964, which eventually grew into Anthology Film Archives, one of the world’s largest and most important repositories of avant-garde film. He was part of the New American Cinema, with, in particular, fellow film-maker Lionel Rogosin. He was a close collaborator with artists such as Andy Warhol, Nico, Allen Ginsberg, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Salvador Dalí, and fellow Lithuanian George Maciunas.
In 1964, Mekas was arrested on obscenity charges for showing Flaming Creatures (1963) and Jean Genet’s Un Chant d’Amour (1950). He launched a campaign against the censorship board, and for the next few years continued to exhibit films at the Film-makers’ Cinemathèque, the Jewish Museum, and the Gallery of Modern Art. From 1964 to 1967, he organized the New American Cinema Expositions, which toured Europe and South America and in 1966 joined 80 Wooster Fluxhouse Coop.
In 1970, Anthology Film Archives opened on 425 Lafayette Street as a film museum, screening space, and a library, with Mekas as its director. Mekas, along with Stan Brakhage, Ken Kelman, Peter Kubelka, James Broughton, and P. Adams Sitney, began the ambitious Essential Cinema project at Anthology Film Archives to establish a canon of important cinematic works.
As a film-maker, Mekas' own output ranges from his early narrative film (Guns of the Trees, 1961) to “diary films” such as Walden (1969); Lost, Lost, Lost (1975); Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972), Zefiro Torna (1992), and As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty, which have been screened extensively at festivals and museums around the world.
Mekas expanded the scope of his practice with his later works of multi-monitor installations, sound immersion pieces and "frozen-film" prints. Together they offer a new experience of his classic films and a novel presentation of his more recent video work. His work has been exhibited at the 51st Venice Biennial, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, the Ludwig Museum, the Serpentine Gallery, and the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center.
In the year 2007, Mekas released one film every day on his website, a project he entitled "The 365 Day Project."[2] Since the 1970s, he has taught film courses at the New School for Social Research, MIT, Cooper Union, and New York University.
Mekas is also a well-known Lithuanian language poet and has published his poems and prose in Lithuanian, French, German, and English. He has published many of his journals and diaries including "I Had Nowhere to Go: Diaries, 1944–1954," and "Letters from Nowhere,
In 1944, Mekas left Lithuania because of war. En route, his train was stopped in Germany and he and his brother, Adolfas Mekas (1925–2011), were imprisoned in a labor camp in Elmshorn, a suburb of Hamburg, for eight months. The brothers escaped and were detained near the Danish border where they hid on a farm for two months until the end of the war. After the war, Mekas lived in displaced person camps in Wiesbaden and Kassel. From 1946 to 1948, he studied philosophy at the University of Mainz and at the end of 1949, he emigrated with his brother to the U.S., settling in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. Two weeks after his arrival, he borrowed the money to buy his first Bolex 16mm camera and began to record moments of his life. He discovered avant-garde film at venues such as Amos Vogel’s pioneering Cinema 16, and he began curating avant-garde film screenings at Gallery East on Avenue A and Houston Street, and a Film Forum series at Carl Fisher Auditorium on 57th Street.
In 1954, together with his brother Adolfas Mekas, he founded Film Culture, and in 1958, began writing his “Movie Journal” column for The Village Voice. In 1962, he co-founded Film-Makers' Cooperative and the Filmmakers' Cinematheque in 1964, which eventually grew into Anthology Film Archives, one of the world’s largest and most important repositories of avant-garde film. He was part of the New American Cinema, with, in particular, fellow film-maker Lionel Rogosin. He was a close collaborator with artists such as Andy Warhol, Nico, Allen Ginsberg, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Salvador Dalí, and fellow Lithuanian George Maciunas.
In 1964, Mekas was arrested on obscenity charges for showing Flaming Creatures (1963) and Jean Genet’s Un Chant d’Amour (1950). He launched a campaign against the censorship board, and for the next few years continued to exhibit films at the Film-makers’ Cinemathèque, the Jewish Museum, and the Gallery of Modern Art. From 1964 to 1967, he organized the New American Cinema Expositions, which toured Europe and South America and in 1966 joined 80 Wooster Fluxhouse Coop.
In 1970, Anthology Film Archives opened on 425 Lafayette Street as a film museum, screening space, and a library, with Mekas as its director. Mekas, along with Stan Brakhage, Ken Kelman, Peter Kubelka, James Broughton, and P. Adams Sitney, began the ambitious Essential Cinema project at Anthology Film Archives to establish a canon of important cinematic works.
As a film-maker, Mekas' own output ranges from his early narrative film (Guns of the Trees, 1961) to “diary films” such as Walden (1969); Lost, Lost, Lost (1975); Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972), Zefiro Torna (1992), and As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty, which have been screened extensively at festivals and museums around the world.
Mekas expanded the scope of his practice with his later works of multi-monitor installations, sound immersion pieces and "frozen-film" prints. Together they offer a new experience of his classic films and a novel presentation of his more recent video work. His work has been exhibited at the 51st Venice Biennial, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, the Ludwig Museum, the Serpentine Gallery, and the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center.
In the year 2007, Mekas released one film every day on his website, a project he entitled "The 365 Day Project."[2] Since the 1970s, he has taught film courses at the New School for Social Research, MIT, Cooper Union, and New York University.
Mekas is also a well-known Lithuanian language poet and has published his poems and prose in Lithuanian, French, German, and English. He has published many of his journals and diaries including "I Had Nowhere to Go: Diaries, 1944–1954," and "Letters from Nowhere,
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 7, 2020
Turbūt daug kas esat turėję (arba dar turit) senelius, gyvenančius kažkur kaime arba šalia miesto, ir labai dažnai pas juos leisdavote savo vaikystes vasaras. Būtent tokius prisiminimus - arba bent labai stiprią šią prisiminimų liniją - man sukėlė „Semeniškių idilės“.
Beskaitant jaučiausi lyg būčiau vėl grįžęs atgal į savo vaikystę ir leistas vasaras pas senelius: tokį šviesų, džiugų, kaimišką ir pilną įspūdžių pritvinkusį laiką. Tai tikrai labai šilta ir maloni knygos dalis, kurioje Mekas aprašo savo prabėgusius pirmuosius gyvenimo metus. Jo gamtos ciklo aprašymai, kaimo veikėjų apibūdinimai ir noras kiekvieną aplinkui esantį daiktą apdainuoti sukuria šias idiles savotišku rojaus kampeliu (kurį jis vėlesniais gyvenimo metais vadina „Not yet lost paradise“).
„Reminiscensijos“ - tai jo prisiminai iš įvairių po II Pasaulinio karo veikusių stovyklų Vokietijoje iki jo iškeliavimo į JAV. Su skausmu, nežinomybe ir abejonėmis dėl ateities aprašytos eilės kuria gan liūdną nuotaiką: atsisveikinimas su draugais, kolegomis, miestais, Reinu ir iškeliavimas už Atlanto paliko dar vieną antspaudą Meko gyvenime (ir dar tolimesnė kelionė nuo savo gimtųjų namų turbūt nepadarė jam naštos lengvesnės).
Beskaitant jaučiausi lyg būčiau vėl grįžęs atgal į savo vaikystę ir leistas vasaras pas senelius: tokį šviesų, džiugų, kaimišką ir pilną įspūdžių pritvinkusį laiką. Tai tikrai labai šilta ir maloni knygos dalis, kurioje Mekas aprašo savo prabėgusius pirmuosius gyvenimo metus. Jo gamtos ciklo aprašymai, kaimo veikėjų apibūdinimai ir noras kiekvieną aplinkui esantį daiktą apdainuoti sukuria šias idiles savotišku rojaus kampeliu (kurį jis vėlesniais gyvenimo metais vadina „Not yet lost paradise“).
„Reminiscensijos“ - tai jo prisiminai iš įvairių po II Pasaulinio karo veikusių stovyklų Vokietijoje iki jo iškeliavimo į JAV. Su skausmu, nežinomybe ir abejonėmis dėl ateities aprašytos eilės kuria gan liūdną nuotaiką: atsisveikinimas su draugais, kolegomis, miestais, Reinu ir iškeliavimas už Atlanto paliko dar vieną antspaudą Meko gyvenime (ir dar tolimesnė kelionė nuo savo gimtųjų namų turbūt nepadarė jam naštos lengvesnės).
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March 13, 2011Jonas Mekas is a famous avant-garde filmmaker, still alive, but people don't know these beautiful poems. There are two books, one composed in 1948, in a Displaced Persons camp in Kassel, Germany -- that's called "Idylls of Semeniskiai." The second, shorter book, was written in New York City, in 1951, entitled "Reminiscences." Both are composed in Lithuanian, translated by Vyt Bakaitis. I got this book from Jonas in 1996, soon after it was published, but just now have I read it. Even I, who militantly dislike nature, am seduced by the rustic breathing of lines like:
Hands still smell of honey and clover,
with fresh grass and cool evening-air on clothing.
How quiet it gets, with the mist rising,
with the last of the clanging pails,
shouting milkers, well-cranes straining
by the wooden watertroughs, all now
far off, the other side of the elms.
Hands still smell of honey and clover,
with fresh grass and cool evening-air on clothing.
How quiet it gets, with the mist rising,
with the last of the clanging pails,
shouting milkers, well-cranes straining
by the wooden watertroughs, all now
far off, the other side of the elms.
January 3, 2021
Antroje šio rinkinio dalyje esantis autobiografinis J. Meko poezijos rinkinys "Reminiscensijos" (1951) apie pokarinius jo blaškymusis po Europą, gyvenimą DP stovyklose ir galiausiai persikėlimą į JAV, mintyse susisiejo ir, rodos, (kalbant apie skirtingus europiečių likimus tuo laikotarpiu) pratęsė vakar pirmą kartą matytą Agnieszkos Holland filmą "Europa Europa", kuriame pasakojama Solomono Perelio gyvenimo istorija XX a. 4 deš. ir Antrojo pasaulinio karo metais.
June 23, 2023
Ypač sužavėjo Reminiscensijos.
December 1, 2024
Semeniškių idilės 5/5
Reminiscencijos 3/5
Reminiscencijos 3/5
March 12, 2022
Aside from 11 and 24, I didn’t connect with many of the Idylls, but Reminiscences is absolutely remarkable.
December 17, 2025
Tai yra apie mus... Apie šviesiąją mūsų, mūsų tėvų, senelių kasdienybę. Tokią savą ir mielą...
July 23, 2025
Tiesiog pasakysiu, kad šita knyga yra kaip lietus šiltą vasaros dieną🌦️
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews