Juozas Kėkštas (Adomavičius) was born in November 19, 1915 in Tashkent, to a family of a railway worker and a seamstress. His father having died early, his mother returned to Vilnius in 1921, together with her five children. In 1926, Juozas started attending the Vytautas Magnus gymnasium. Hard living conditions, social iniquity, and his restless soul kindled the fire of revolutionary romanticism in the heart of the future poet, drawing him leftwards. In 1930, attending the 4th grade of the gymnasium, he joined the underground activities. A couple of years later J. Kėkštas was arrested for the first time by the police, but released in two months because of lack of evidence. He continued his studies, created poems, read the “Third Front”, “Culture” and works by K. Boruta, was especially delighted in V. Mayakowski, S. Yesenin, the Polish revolutionary poets, particularly Wl. Broniewski. In the beginning of 1934, he was arrested again and sentenced to four years in jail. Released earlier thanks to the amnesty, he led quite a miserable life, working hard and creating increasingly more. In 1937, J. Kėkštas was imprisoned for half a year in a concentration camp, afterwards he settled down in Poland at his sister’s, experiencing a painful disillusion in the ideology that he had believed in. In July 1938, the first collection of poems by J. Kėkštas was published in Vilnius under the title of “Such is Life”, comprising 28 pieces of personal and social character, falling into two cycles, “The Blue Fire” and “Such is Life”. Authenticity may be named among the most striking qualities of J. Kėkštas’ lyrics: the book appeals to the reader openly and sorely. In his poetics one hears echoes of expressionism and rhythms of the Polish avant-garde poets, a note of romantic melancholy and elegiac tune of despair, contrasts and allegories. The stylistics of J. Kėkštas’ lyrics and his poetic world consist of an eternal opposition between light and darkness, hope and despair, freedom and jail, of the motive of broken heart and a painful, fatalistic note of sorrow, of a wish to break free, to turn loose, of the apotheosis of winds, storms and hurricanes. His poetic word is sparing and restrained, as if condensed, and therefore strong and suggestive. The first collection of lyrics by J. Kėkštas was a distinctive contribution to both the poetical life of Vilnius and the whole Lithuanian poetry. The war found J. Kėkštas in Vilnius. In March 1940, the Soviet authorities arrested him and deported to hard labors in Kirov region. Having been released as a Polish citizen in a year and a half, J. Kėkštas joined the army led by gen. V. Anders and moved to Persia. Subsequently he reached Iran, Iraq, Palestine, and Egypt, took part in the military campaigns and battles, and composed poems overflowing with nostalgia for his homeland. Having been injured, he was cured in South Italy. Afterwards he experienced hardships of emigration to Argentina. In 1957, the poet became seriously ill and was half-paralyzed. Thanks to the efforts of Polish writers, he moved to Poland in 1959. J. Kėkštas died in April 16, 1981 and was buried in Warsaw.

Numeriai:

2011 - T.57
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2010 - T.56
Nr.1-4

2009 - T.55
Nr.1-2, Nr.3-4

2008 - T.54
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2007 - T.53
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2006
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2005
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2004
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2003
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2002
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4

2001
Nr.1, Nr.2, Nr.3, Nr.4