Metūgės [New Shoots] (Lithuanian linked-poem book published in Canada, 1952)
by Birutė Pūkelevičiūtė (émigrée Lithuanian writer, 1923-2007)

Translations and website text by Aušra Kubilius (2023)

“I reflected that the axis of Metūgės revolves around the loneliness of a young woman—in a foreign country . . . in the aftermath of a terrible war.”
from Birutė Pūkelevičiūtė’s introduction for the second edition

“A Literary Gem: now accessible to the English-speaking world.”
Draugas News

Delving into a woman’s desires and experiences, Metūgės was published before the second wave of feminism. This collection of linked poems faced a harsh response from some shocked émigré critics of the time. Later, especially during the centennial year of her birth, Pūkelevičiūtė has been hailed as an innovative, prescient poet by literary critics and admirers in Lithuania and beyond.

Now the entire collection has been translated into English for the first time. Only some of the translated poems—the highlighted selections in the Table of Contents—can be accessed on this website because a print publisher is sought for the whole book.

Startling images suffuse the Metūgės poems, many of them explorations of uneasy love by a passionate female “I.” The speaker engages with nature, sexuality, gender roles, maternity, religion, God, war, death, and rebirth. In these lyrical narratives, the evocative language ranges from contemplative to defiant, enraged to exultant.

Most of the poems are untitled. The “p” number on an English translation refers to the page number where the Lithuanian poem can be found in the first edition (see Metūgės-1).

The second edition, published 45 years later in Lithuania, included an introduction by the poet herself and an epigraph from Walt Whitman (see Metūgės-2).