Michał Biłyk, drugi prezes Koła Łódzkiego PTF : zarys życia i twórczości

Abstract

Michał (Mychajło) Bilyk (28 February 1889 - 24 February 1970) born in Wierczany (near Stryj) in an Ukrainian peasant family. He studied classical philology at the Universities of Lvov and Vienna. Later he was the teacher of Latin and Greek at the grammar school in Stryj (1920-1933) and also the vice-chairman of the Stryj Circle of the Polish Philological Society. He translated the first six books of Vergilius’ Aeneis from Latin into Ukrainian (edited in Stryj 1930; his full translation of Aeneis appeared in 1972 in Kiyov). In 1933 he was compulsorily transferred to Łódź, where he worked at the Emilia Sczaniecka Grammar School (now 4th Secondary School in Łódź). In 1935 (from January to September) he was the chairman of the Łódź Circle of the Polish Philological Society. He resigned from this function in September 1935, as he intended to move with his family to Warsaw (which took place in 1937). Bilyk’s residence in Łódź was fruitful, though relatively short (four years). As the chairman he organised a trip to Goluchów (28 May 1935), where there was an excellent collection of the Greek vases. He published some articles on the didactics of the Latin language and gave some lectures, e.g. on the antiquities in Constantinople (2 December 1933). D uring the Second W orld W ar he worked as a director of the Ukrainian grammar school in Chełm (1940-1942), later as an inspector of the schools in the Galizien district. In 1945 he returned to Stryj and one year later he was appointed as a lector at the Ukrainian Lvov University. In 1950 he wrote his doctoral dissertation on S. F. Klonovic’s Roxolania, 17th century Latin poem about Russia (it was accompanied by the Ukrainian translation of this poem, which was reprinted in 1987 in Kiyov). He was relegated from the Lvov University in 1951, but he returned to it in 1953 after J. Stalin’s death. He was the head of the Classical Philology at the Lvov University in 1953-1958. Bilyk retired as the professor emeritus in 1964. He is buried in the famous Lychakov Cemetery in Lvov.