[LITHUANIAN AVANT-GARDE] Golas į ateitį [Goal to the future]

First edition of the author's first collection of avant-garde poems. With a striking futurist cover design by Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas (1907-1997), one of the most famous twentieth-century Lithuanian artists, as well as appealing typographic layout within, which corresponds to the author's interest in modernist themes such as airplanes, the cinema, radio, the city, dynamite, etc.

Sirijos Gira (1911-1997) was a poet, novelist, and translator from Vilnius. The present volume was published when he was just twenty years old, right after graduating from a Jesuit school. His short poems employ diction and rhythm that is maximally close to contemporary colloquial speech. He also takes a clear stand against two 'ideological' issues: first, the prevalence of literary theory, which he discards in favor of sincerity and directness; secondly, Gira sharply rejects communism, which leads him to clash with the ideals of Trečias Frontas (Third Front), the most important second-wave avant-garde group in Lithuania. One of the poems is called "Žodis 'Trečiam Frontui' ("The word 'Third Front'). Another poem contains expressive lines about his perceived literary enemies: "... Jauni frantai Laisvės alėjose / Važinėja limuzinais. / Jauni frantai- raudonai kairieji, / Jauni frantai-socilaj-revoliucionieriai, / Cigarus dantyse aprieje ... Darbininke, žioplas nebuki ... [Young dandies in Laisvės alėja [a central avenue in Kaunas] / riding limousines. / Young dandies-red left, / Young dandies-social- revolutionaries, / Cigars clenched in their teeth ... Laborer, do not be a fucker]." In 1936, Sirijos Gira was included in the anthology Antrieji vainikai (Second wreaths) edited by Kazys Binkis, who considered him to be a quintessential "Keturi vejai" writer (i.e. of the "Four Winds" group which initiated futurist and avant-garde tendencies in Latvia); nevertheless Gira always claimed to be completely separate from literary currents and a stranger to literary etiquette.

Pictured in Jankevičiūtė, Lietuvos grafika (The Graphic Arts in Lithuania, 1918-1940). See also: Salaris, Futurismi nel mondo, p. 670.

Very scarce. No copies shown in the trade or at auction. Not located through KVK or OCLC. First edition of the author's first collection of avant-garde poems. With a striking futurist cover design by Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas (1907-1997), one of the most famous twentieth-century Lithuanian artists, as well as appealing typographic layout within, which corresponds to the author's interest in modernist themes such as airplanes, the cinema, radio, the city, dynamite, etc.

Sirijos Gira (1911-1997) was a poet, novelist, and translator from Vilnius. The present volume was published when he was just twenty years old, right after graduating from a Jesuit school. His short poems employ diction and rhythm that is maximally close to contemporary colloquial speech. He also takes a clear stand against two 'ideological' issues: first, the prevalence of literary theory, which he discards in favor of sincerity and directness; secondly, Gira sharply rejects communism, which leads him to clash with the ideals of Trečias Frontas (Third Front), the most important second-wave avant-garde group in Lithuania. One of the poems is called "Žodis 'Trečiam Frontui' ("The word 'Third Front'). Another poem contains expressive lines about his perceived literary enemies: "... Jauni frantai Laisvės alėjose / Važinėja limuzinais. / Jauni frantai- raudonai kairieji, / Jauni frantai-socilaj-revoliucionieriai, / Cigarus dantyse aprieje ... Darbininke, žioplas nebuki ... [Young dandies in Laisvės alėja [a central avenue in Kaunas] / riding limousines. / Young dandies-red left, / Young dandies-social- revolutionaries, / Cigars clenched in their teeth ... Laborer, do not be a fucker]." In 1936, Sirijos Gira was included in the anthology Antrieji vainikai (Second wreaths) edited by Kazys Binkis, who considered him to be a quintessential "Keturi vejai" writer (i.e. of the "Four Winds" group which initiated futurist and avant-garde tendencies in Latvia); nevertheless Gira always claimed to be completely separate from literary currents and a stranger to literary etiquette.

Pictured in Jankevičiūtė, Lietuvos grafika (The Graphic Arts in Lithuania, 1918-1940). See also: Salaris, Futurismi nel mondo, p. 670.

Very scarce. No copies shown in the trade or at auction. Not located through KVK or OCLC.