Janinos Degutytės laiškynas. Kn. 3. Draugystė laiškais: susirašinėjimas su Lena Rapaliene

LTPoetė Janina Degutytė ir gydytoja Lena Rapalienė susipažino maždaug 1960 metais. Jųdviejų kelių sankirta – Smėlio g. Vilniuje 1958 m. pastatytas daugiabutis. Pasirodžius antrajai Degutytės poezijos knygai, Rapalienė jau žinojo, kad gyvena tame pačiame name kaip ir poetė, tad pasibeldusi į duris paprašė autografo – prisistatė kaip kaimynė, medicinos studentė. Kaimynių draugystė truko tris dešimtmečius. Nors ryšį palaikė daugybė įvairių dalykų, tačiau labiausiai jas siejo du. Rapalienė buvo gydytoja, pasiruošusi padėti kiekvienai ir kiekvienam, kuris serga. Degutytė visą jų bendravimo laiką sirgo sunkia širdies liga. Savo ruožtu Degutytė buvo žinoma poetė, o Rapalienė labai mėgo jos kūrybą. Degutytės eilėraščiai visą gyvenimą jai liko egzistenciškai svarbūs: ji juos gerai žinojo, nuolat skaitė, mokėjo atmintinai.

ENThe axis of this book consists of Janina Degutytė's (1928-1990) letters to the medical doctor Lena Rapalienė (b. 1936), her long-time friend and neighbour. The book contains all surviving letters, notes, and greetings that the poet wrote to her. The friendship of the two women lasted for thirty years, but the surviving correspondence covers a shorter period, from 1969 to 1989. [...] Another moment important for the compilation end editing of this book was the opportunity to meet Rapalienė in person. Conversations about the situations in which letters were written, about the events mentioned in the letters, yet most of all about the life lived during the time of the correspondence made it possible not only to understand the individual matters described in the letters, the ways of making connections, but also to rethink the general situations and forms of everyday communication typical of the Soviet period. This approach of ethnographic research opened the path to life stories as an equal-value source in this book. In addition to Rapalienė's reminiscences, the stories of other people mentioned in the letters are used in this book. Offered by the letters, the opportunity to rethink the connections made, the relationships forged, the friendships maintained, with the smallest of details that rarely survive prompted the way in which these letters were researched and presented. Letters pulished in this way first of all reveal their situational aspect, singularity, and contingency. The assemblage principle of the compositions of the book, the ways of densifying and presenting the context of the letters, and the general information about the poet Janina Degutytė and her correspondence are set out in detail in the first book of the series. [p. 272-273].