TRANSLATION DURING THE YEARS
OF UKRAINE'S INDEPENDENCE (1917-1921)
AND EARLY SOVIET RULE
Our history of belles-lettres translation in the twentieth century divides into some primarily unfavourable and trying times for the Ukrainian people. The firstand the shortest period embraces the years 1917-1921, when the close ties which had existed before between the Russian and the Austro-Hungarian parts of Ukraine were fully restored as a result of Ukraine's gaining independence in 1917. During that short and unstable period of two wars with Bolshevist Russia not much could be translated. Hence, fiction works previously translated and published in Lviv, Chernivtsi or other places were now republished in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Poltava and other cities of Ukraine. Some of the translated works were brought from Halychyna (Western part of Ukraine) where books were published by the Vsesvitnya Biblioteka (World Library). The publishing house was founded by I. Kalynovych. This publishing house issued translated works of different foreign authors during 1914,1917-1921. Among the published works were Poems by F.Schiller (1914), Dramatic Works by A.Pushkin, the well-known poem Hermann and Dorothea by J.W.Gothe, the comedy Clouds by
Aristophanes, narratives by H.Hofmannsthal, Death of Titian, The Rolland Song (all published in 1918), and others. Among their translators were I. Franko, O.Luts'kyi, P.Dyatlov, V.Shchurat and others. These translated works could also be read in the then Ukraine. Among the very first to appear as early as 1917-1918 in Ukraine were also J.London's Stories of the North (translated by N.Romanovych-Tkachenko) and some other works translated before (The Happy Prince by O.Wilde, Treasure Island by R.C.Stevenson, Uncle Tom's Cabin by H.Beecher-Stowe, etc.). Quite a new Ukrainian translation which appeared among the notables during those years was, however, J.London's Iron Hee/(1918) accomplished by V.Trotsyna and a few others. Practically republished during the first and last years of Ukraine's independence in 1920-1921 were also several works of R.Kipling (Mowgli, 1920), E.A.Poe (The Red Death, 1922), W.Shakespeare (The Taming of the Shrew, 1922) and some others.
The artistic level of those translations, which were mostly free adaptations (except The Iron Heel, which was neither shortened nor adapted), left much to be desired. They mostly contained many lexico-semantic, syntactic/structural and stylistic inexactitudes which could often even pervert the meaning of the original sense units, as it was the case with V.Trotsyna's translation of The Iron Heel. The Ukrainian version of this J.London's work was marked by very many conspicuous literalisms of all kinds. There were, naturally, a few regular faithful translations too, as, for example, the little shortened O.OIes's versification of H.Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha reprinted in Kharkiv in 1923 (after first being published in Lviv in 1912).
The second period,this time in Soviet Ukraine's history of translation, began in 1923-1925 with the adoption of highly promising plans for the next 5 to 10 years (up to 1930's) which were supposed to give the readers separate works and collections of translated belles-lettres works by many outstanding foreign authors. The first to appear were partly abridged J.F.Cooper's novels of the Leather Stocking series: The Deerslayer translated by O.Baikar (pen name of F.Shelud'ko), The Pathfinder (translated by M.Lebedynets'), and The Spy (an abridged and free translation by D.Kardynalovs'kyi). A still larger, twenty-seven brochure-size volume collection of Jack London's works (originally planned as a fifty-volume collection) appeared during 1927-1932. This collection was prepared by the translators M.Ryabova, M.Lysychenko, M.Gray, O.Burhardt, I. Ryl'skyi (M.Ryl'skyi's brother) and others. Probably the highest level of prose interpretation in the
1920's and 1930's was shown by Mykola Ivanov (1886/7? -1945/6?), who translated into Ukrainian several masterpieces from French (Rabelais' GargantuaandPantagruel), English (J.F.Cooper, H.G.Wells, W.Shakespeare) and other languages. Translations of high artistic quality were always produced by Lesya Ukrainka's sister Olha Kosach-Kryvyniuk (1877-1945), who began translating as far back as 1892 (C.Dickens' short stories). She selected for Ukrainian children the best prose works by E.Seton-Thompson, R.Kipling, George Sand, P.Loti and others. Her translations continued to be published during Ukraine's independence in 1918 as well. She also translated some novels of Guy de Maupassant {Our Heart, 1930), A.Dumas' Queen Margot (1930), V.Hugo's The Year of Ninety-Three, Les Miserables (1932), short stories by I.Turgenev and other works of great authors. Undoubtedly the most outstanding translator of poetic works during 1920's - early 1930's was Mykola Zerov (1890-1937). As a professor and scholar in ancient literatures and in the field of translation, he improved and successfully applied new, effective methods of faithful versification, which established his leading position among the Neoclassicists and Ukrainian translators. Among Zerov's accomplishments were several brilliant translations of works by ancient Greek, Roman and West European poets. His first collection was comprised of works authored by several Roman poets (Catullus, Virgil, Horace, Propertius, Ovid, and Martial) and was published in the Anthology of Roman Poets (Kyiv, 1920). These translations represented a paragon of truly artistic versification for many years to come. M.Zerov managed to faithfully convey not only their main content, but also the artistic merits and the spirit (pragmatic orientation) of the originals. His translations maintain the ease and poetic beauty found in each original author's work. An ardent fighter against any translations of doubtful artistic quality as well as against any author's works of this kind, Zerov supported the ideas of M.Khvylyovyi who raised his voice in support of the «West European» way of development of arts. He defined as «Asiatic» the Communist or «proletarian», as it was officially called, way of development of literature and arts in the U.S.S.R. Zerov not only shared this view of Khvylyovyi but also practically realized the main principles of Khvylyovyi through his exemplary original and translated poems. A really high artistic level of Zerov's versification was confirmed again in his new collection of translations published in 1923 which included, apart from the Roman poets, also the works of the French poet J.Heredia (1842-1905). The up-to-date methods of
artistic versification and adherence to neoclassicism in opposition to the inconsistent artistic translation of poetic works of the day, made the Communist critics, who were ignorant of and hostile to neoclassicism even more incensed. As a result, M.Zerov, P.Fylypovych, M.Drai-Khmara and hundreds of other outstanding Ukrainian poets, authors and scientists were arrested in early 1930's and suffered a martyr's death during the waning days of October and the first days of November 1937 in Sandarmokh (Karelia), but their mass graves were found in deep forest only in 1997. Their execution was dedicated to the twentieth anniversary of the «glorious(l?) October Revolution of 1917.»
All translations by the Neoclassicists illustrated the highest level of artistic versification of the 1920's and 1930's in regard to content, artistic merits, and pragmatic orientation of each foreign belles-lettres work. A standard of masterly versification during the years of the so-called Ukrainian renaissance, however, were and will always remain Zerov's translations. He occupies a leading position as an exemplary poetic master whose versifications even today, more than 70 years after their publication, remain artistically complete and mostly unsurpassed. Another prominent place in the constellation of the Neoclassicists belongs to the poet Oswald Burhardt, pen name Yuriy Klen (1897-1947), who happened to survive during the Bolshevist holocaust and terror in the 1920's and 1930's probably because of his German descent. His first significant Ukrainian collection of German poets (The Iron Sonnets) appeared in 1925 and was followed by more translations of world's greatest English, German and French poets (Shakespeare, Shelley, Gothe, Rilke, Rembaud, Valery, Mallarme, Verlaine and others). Close to O.Burghardt stood M.Drai-Khmara (1889-1937), who also pursued the aim of enriching our literature and culture via faithful artistic versification and who met his martyr's death together with M.Zerov in Sandarmokh in 1937. He translated mainly the works of the most outstanding French poets (S.Bodlaire, P.Verlaine, S.Leconte de Lisle, S.Mallarme, Sully Prud'homme) and completed Dante's The Divine Comedy, which was confiscated by the NKVD1 during his arrest and was never found again after that. He also translated Polish (A.Mickiewicz), Czech (J.Hora, J.Mahard), Russian (A.Pushkin, M.Lermontov, A.BIok, S.Yesenin) and poets of other nationalities.
Unquestionably, the most outstanding place among the surviving Neoclassicists, and one who made a significant contribution to llki.unian literature and culture by his poetic translation, belongs to Maxym Rylskyi (1895-1964). He outlasted all his co-literary companions and managed to introduce via his high quality Ukrainian translations many masterpieces of world literature. His translations originated from Polish (Mickiewicz, Slowacki), French (Hugo, Verlaine, Racine, Moliere, Boileau, Voltaire, Musset, Gautier, Heredia, Maeterlinck), German (Gothe), Russian (Pushkin, Lermontov, Fet, Blok) and other national literatures. M.Rylskyi was also a very active literary OTltlc of translation who practically laid the foundation for scientific Ukrainian criticism of belles-lettres translation in Soviet times. His won grounded theoretical articles and reviews of several translations helped considerably to raise the level of faithfulness in the succeeding prose and poetic translations in Ukraine1.
The number of Ukrainian poets/authors who were also translators, and victims to the Bolshevist terror in the 1920's and 1930's, by far exceeds, however, the whole group of the Neoclassicists. Worth mentioning, at least briefly, among them are first and foremost the following: the brilliant poet, researcher and translator M.Johansen (1895-1937), who left behind quality translations from English (G.G.Byron, E.A.Poe and H.G.Wells); D.Zahul (1890-1937), who ti.'inslated from German (H.Heine, F.Schiller, J.W.Gothe, J.Becher), I i.inish (Andersen-Noxe); I. Kulyk (1897-1937), who translated the works of W.Whitman; M.lrchan (1897-1937), whose translations were from Polish, Czech and German literatures and V.Bobynskyi (1898-1938), the translator of some works of Polish, French, Russian and German authors.
Because of the Bolshevist terror and suppression during the mid 1920's and all through the 1930's, the far-reaching plans of publishing foreign belles-lettres translations adopted in 1923-1925, were only partly realized. There were published only incomplete collections of novels/narratives and separate best-known works by the world's most outstanding authors. Thus, from French belles-lettres there appeared some new translations (together with the republished ones during 1929-1930) of Zola's eighteen-volume collection of prose works, which were accomplished by the then familiar, and the now unknown
1 NKVD (People's Comissariat of Inner Affairs), the predecessor of the KGB.
1 See: Максим Рильський. Ясна зброя. - Київ, 1971. Максим Рильський. Мистецтво перекладу. - Київ, 1975.
translators, as N.Romanovych-Tkachenko, O.Pashkevych, K.Rubinskyi, K.Kakhykevych, O.Yezernets'ka, A.Volkovych, M.ll'tychna, V.Dubrovskyi, L. and V.Pakharevskyi, V.Chernyakhivs'ka, the young M.Tereshchenko and some others. In the same years Guy de Maupassant's ten volume collection came off the press in Kyiv and Kharkiv, some of his novels/narratives being republished without any changes from their nineteenth century translations. Among the translators were O.Kosach-Kryvyniuk, V.Shchurat, B.Kozlovskyi, M.Vyshnivska, Ye.Tymchenko, Ivan and M.Ryl'skyis, V.Derzhavyn, V.Pidmohyl'nyi and others. Some separate works of great French authors already known to Ukrainian readers from the nineteenth century translations, published in Halychyna, were republished in late 1920s - early and mid 1930's as well. These were A.Daudet's most popular works as Letters from the Windwill (1926), Tartarin from Tarascon (1936) and also some others translated in the preceding years by I. Franko, M.Chaichenko (Hrinchenko), M.Hrushevs'ka, V.Shcherbakivska, M.lvanov and A.Lyubchenko. Among these were also Honore de Balzac's works, some of which had also been translated in the nineteenth century. Thus, in 1895 Father Gorio came off the press in M.Podolyns'kyi's translation, and in 1927 it appeared under the title Gorio in S.Rodzevych'es qualified translation. Apart from these, translated and published were some other of Balzac's famous works as La Peau de Chagrin (1929) in V.Vrazhlyvyi's (Shtan'ko) translation, the Poor Relatives and Cousine Bette (1929) respectively in Y.Starynkevych'es and Y.Drobyazko's Ukrainian versions. In the 1920's and 1930's there were translated, republished or retranslated well-known works by J.Verne, among the translators being already familiar names of N.Romanovych-Tkachenko, A.Bilets'kyi, TChortoryz'ka, E.Rzhevuts'ka and others. No less frequently translated and published were also works by PMerime, namely: Colomba (1927), Carmen (1930), The Chronicle of King Charles /X(1930), Jacquerie (1936), which were translated respectively by M.Konstantynopols'kyi, S.Buda, M.Tereshchenko and others. The list of the French authors would be incomplete without H.Malot (1830-1907), whose work Without Kith and Kin (Without A Family) was twice translated and published in 1926 and 1931.
Very popular with Ukrainian readers during the late 1920's and all through the 1930's were two French language Belgian authors: Ch. de Coster with his highly artistic novel Till Ulenspiegel, which first appeared in a shortened version (1928) in L.Krasovs'kyi's translation
•nd its second almost complete edition in Y.Yegorova's and S.Sakydon's translation of 1935, and M.Maeterlinck, whose works woretranslated by P.Hrabovs'kyi, L.Ukrayinka and later by M.Voronyi, M loreshchenko, M.Ryl'skyi, Ye.Tymchenko and others.
A considerably more important place in the 1920's and 1930's belonged to translation of classical British and American authors whose novels, narratives, short stories and poems were not well-known to now Ukrainian readers. The list of the most outstanding authors was headed by such prominent names as C.Dickens, whose works, as wasmentioned, appeared in Ukrainian as far back as 1880 (Christmas < . iidI) and 1882 (The Chimes) which were translated respectively by y ( Hosnyts'kyi and I. Belay. In the 1930's some other works of the їй >volist were published, namely: A Tale of Two Cities, Dombey and ІОЛ (both in 1930), The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1937), David Copperfield (1939). These and other works were presented by the highly qualified translators N.Surovtseva, V.Chernyakhivs'ka, M.lvanov, M.Saharda, K.Shmyhovs'kyi, YKorets'kyi «nd others. In 1928 appeared a two-volume collection of Conan Doyle's selected works and a separate edition of The Lost World which was followed by The Dog of the Baskerville's (1937). The works were translated by M.lvanov, S.Vilkhovyi, M.Kalynovych, V.Petrovs'kyi, 11 Knsyanenko, M.Roshkovs'kyi, M.Lysychenko and others. In 1930 l l Voynich's narrative Jack Richmond was published in M.Lysychenko's and M.Ryabova's translation. The 1920's and 1930's llto witnessed the appearance of some other works by prominent E-.nglish and American authors in Ukrainian translation. These were d.issical works directed toward juvenile readers for the main part. The in si to be published and republished (also in Halychyna), which fell under Polish occupation, were the works of G.K.Chesterton, H.B.Beecher-Stowe, R.L.Stevenson, W.Shakespeare (A Midsummer Niqht's Dream, 1927, all published in L'viv), H.G.Wells (1928), D.Defoe (1929, L'viv), W.Scott (Quentin Dorward, 1931), E.L.Voynich (The Gadfly, 1929, 1936, 1939), J.Conrad (1925, 1928 - two volumes), R.Kipling, C.Bronte and others. As to American authors, whose works wore repeatedly published in Ukrainian translation in those years, Mark I w.iin should be mentioned first (The Adventures of Tom Sawyerand The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), as well as E.A.Poe's detective stories, O.Henry's stories (published in 1924,1926,1928,1930) and the narrative Cabbages and Kings (1932) first translated into Ukrainian by M.Ryabova.
A noticeable event in the history of Ukrainian translation during that period was the appearance of Italian belles-lettres - G.Boccaccio's Decameron, translated by LPakharevskyi and P.Mokhor (1928). This translation was followed by another outstanding work- R.Giovagnoli's Spartacus (1930) in P.Mokhor's translation. The same year appeared C.Goldoni's comedy The Sw/'nd/ertranslated by Marianna-Khmarka. In 1927 and 1928 the librettos of G.Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly and G.Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville were also translated for our opera theatres by Marianna-Khmarka. In 1931 Ada Negri's poems (she was befriended by Lesya Ukrainka) were published in versification of P.Hrabovskyi, V.Samiylenko, Marianna-Khmarka and some others.
Alongside of prose works many poetic works were also translated, i.e., versified in the mid 1920's and 1930's both in Soviet Ukraine and in the Polish occupied Halychyna. Most of the versifications of world classics were published, however, not in separate collections, but in different journals or anthologies. Among the more or less often translated were the poetic works of German, French and English poets (Heine, Schiller, Gothe, Hugo, Beranger, Verlaine, Rimbaud, R.Bums, Byron). Separate editions were much rarer, though not excluded altogether. Thus, Byron's famous poetic dramas and poems appeared in the following succession: Cain (1925), Mazeppa (1929), Manfred (1931) and his Tragedies in 1939. A separate edition had also the French poet P.Beranger (Selected Songs, 1933) as well as some others. Among the translators were D.Zahul, V.Samiylenko, M.Ryl'skyi, M.Tereshchenko, M.Yohansen, I. Kulyk and several others, not to mention the Neoclassicists.
The Bolshevist reprisals in the mid 1920's, however, began to be more and more directed towards the nationally minded intellectuals, first of all, towards the men of letters. The infamous S.V.U.1 trial instigated and carried out by the G.P.U. in 1930 brought drastic changes in the official Communist orientation in the domain of translation as well. The corresponding authorities issued orders directed at increasing the number of translated works of Russian authors, especially of those, who were ideologically trusted. The works of those authors, naturally, replaced the planned novels and narratives of Western and Eastern classics. Under the pressure of the Communist censorship in the 1920's and mid 1930's, and still more in the succeeding years
1 SVU (Spilka Vyzvolennya Ukrainy/Union for the Liberation of Ukraine). A fictitious political organization invented by the GPU for the purpose of staging a show trial to intimidate the Ukrainian intelligentsia and put an end to Ukrainization in early 1930's.
considerably more attention was now paid to works of contemporary authors, especially to those, who criticized life in capitalist society. As a result, there appeared several works containing much і evolutionary spirit and having mediocre artistic value. Ukrainian reader, received now works by authors who were practically unknown in the West such as C.Bercovici (collections of his Short Stories, 1927, 1929), M.Gold {Short Stories, 1929; Selected Poems, 1931), Myra Page (The Approaching Storm, 1934). There were also published some real belles-lettres works of T.Dreiser (Short Stories, 1929,1930); novels of J.Dos Passos (Manhattan, 1933; The Soldiers, 1934 and others); a several volume collection of U.Sinclair's novels, some of which were changed into plays and staged (Jimmy Higgins), etc. There also began to be translated and published works of this trend from German (B.Kellermann, W.Bredel, B.Brecht, E.Weinert, F.Wolf, A.Seghers), French (A.Barbusse, LAragon), Russian (R.Panfiorov, M.Shaginyan), etc.Translation of belles-lettres was also carried out in the 1920's and1930's in Western parts of Ukraine occupied by Poland and I tumania (Chernivtsi region). Active in the Polish part of Ukraine were suchprominent public figures and scientists as V.Shchurat, who hanslated mostly English and French poets, P.Karmans'kyi (French, German, Italian poets) and M.Rudnyts'kyi, who usually accomplished free interpretations of Honore de Balzac's and P.Merimee's works. During this period notable Ukrainian diaspora translators also actively worked in Western countries (O.OIes', S.Hordyns'kyi and others). Their translations, naturally, remained unknown to Ukrainian readers who lived behind the Iron Curtain.
The late 1930's and the beginning of 1940's marked the end of the second period in Soviet Ukraine's history of translation. The defining characteristic of this period was a gradual rebirth and active development of belles-lettres translation at its initial stage and a slowdown with apparent symptoms of stagnation at its closing stage. Persecutions, trials, murders and deportations to the Far North or to Siberia of many prominent Ukrainian translators such as M.Zerov, D.Zahul, V.Mysyk, M.Drai-Khmara, V.Pidmohyl'nyi, B.Ten, S.Fylypo-vych, H.Kochur and several others prevented them from enriching the Ukrainian literary tradition with masterpieces of world literature. The terror during these times almost stopped the entire process of cultural revival which had been initiated in Ukraine during the early 1920's. As I result, there remained only a few active translators who continued to acquaint the Ukrainian readers during the 1930's and early 1940's
with the best works of Western and Eastern belles-lettres. Their list is short and includes M.Ryl'skyi (he translated Polish, French and Russian poetry), M.lvanov (English and French prose works), Y.Korets'kyi (Byron, Shakespeare, Schiller, Dickens, Mayakovs'kiy), LPervomais'kyi (German poets) and the mediocre versifier M.Zisman (Gothe, Schiller, Lermontov).
TRANSLATION AND TRANSLATORS IN POST-WAR
UKRAINE. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
PRINCIPLES OF FAITHFUL TRANSLATION
The Second World War and the German occupation of Ukraine had for three years completely stopped any belles-lettres translation in the country. Hence, all work had to begin anew in 1944-1945 with the establishing of the publishing houses and republishing of some translations, which were completed before the war. Only in late 1940's the first newly translated foreign belles-lettres works began to appear in Ukrainian, though their number was very small. Therefore, the years 1944-1950 constitute a transitional period in the history of Soviet Ukrainian translation. Only in early 1950's, and especially after Stalin's death in 1953, the first signs of revival in belles-lettres translation began to be really felt. It became finally a reality only during Khrushchov's «thaw» and after the return from the concentration camps of some outstanding translators. This coincided with the peak in the literary activity of Ukraine's most versatile translator Mykola Lukash. The condemnation of Stalin's cult of personality in late 1950's loosened for a short time the ideological grip on Ukrainian intelligentsia. As a result, there appeared a war-hardened generation of talented and patriotically minded editors and translators, who graduated after the war from philological faculties of universities and institutes. It was during those years that several new editorial departments for translating works from foreign languages were opened at some major publishing houses. It was then that the question of quality of the translated belles-lettres works seriously and officially arose. As a consequence, in 1956 Oleksa Kundzich published his critical articles on the state of literary translation in Ukraine, in which he put forward a categorical demand to reject literalism and improve the artistic level of translation. In 1958, after a twenty-four years hiatus the translators' Vsesvitjournal came to life again. Thus, during the late 1950's and early 1960's, when the natural revival of artistic translation and its scientific criticism
had almost taken root, the third periodin Ukraine's history of Iftnslation began. It was soon marked in the mid 1960's, however, with new persecutions and reprisals against such prominent transla-iinsasH.Kochur, M.Lukash,I.Switlychnyi,V.Marchenko,I.Yushchuk, A.Perepadya, R.Dotsenko, O.Terekh and others, who were in the u. myuard of the Sixties Movement. They came under longer and heavy fire of the Communist ideologists. This last wave of Soviet persecutions and reprisals against Ukrainian intellectuals slowed down only in the IN irlod of Gorbachov's restructuring (Perestroika) during 1985-1989. The third periodin Soviet Ukrainian translation was also marked by the common understanding of the need for higher standard of artistic requirements, which were finally put before all translators of belles-iHtios by noted literary critics in the late 1950's and early 1960's. It was then that many regular samples of faithfully translated works of great foreign literary masters were published. This inspired the succeeding generation of post-war translators to follow the fine example of Ryl'skyi, Lukash, Mysyk, Tereshchenko, Borys Ten, and others. The older generation of translators, who were active already during the late 1920's and early 1930's and who produced highly faithful translations, were represented by some masters of the pen. First place among them belongs to Maksym Ryl'skyi (1895-1964), the patriarch <>l the twentieth century Ukrainian translation, who has created highly skilled poetic versifications from Polish (A.Mickiewicz's, Yu.Slowacki's and Yu.Tuwim's major works) and Russian (works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Fet, Blok, Voloshyn). But undoubtfully the greatest number of smaller and larger poetic works were translated from French: J.PMolliere's Tartuffe, The Marriage of Figaroby P.Beaumarchais, as well as Sidby P.Corneille, Fedra by J.Racine, The Misanthrope and I he Poetic Arts by N.Boileau, the Virgin of Orleans by F- M.Voltaire, and also several smaller poems of V.Hugo, A.de Musset, T.Gautier, J.Heredia, P.Verlaine, M.Maeterlinck, and others. Ryl'skyi has also translated some English poets (Shakespeare). Among the first-rate masters of the pen is also Valerian Pidmohyl'nyi (1901-1938), a prominent Ukrainian prose writer and translator who found his martyr's death together with M.Zerov, M.Drai-Khmara, L.Kurbas and hundreds of other Stalinist GULAG victims in Sandarmokh in late October or oarly November 1937. He succeeded in recreating several masterpieces of French belles-lettres, among them being The Prison by P. Amp, Candidby D.Diderot, Letters from the Windmillby A.Daudet, Colomba by PMerimee, works by J.Verne and J.Romanis. During 1927-1930 he prepared and edited Balzac's and E.Zola's (18 volumes) as well as
Я
G.de Maupassant's 10 volume works. He also translated H.Flaubert's Madame Bovaryand V.Hugo's Ninety-Three (1928), Jargal(\ 928), The Man Who Laughs (1930) and Les Miserables (1930).
As a translator, V.Pidmohyl'nyi excelled in his artistically unsurpassed skill for conveying the individual peculiarities of style and characteristics of each prose masterpiece of foreign writers. His translations are close to the originals, utilizing an equally rich Ukrainian lexicon, reflecting the versatility of stylistic devices and the individual author's means of expression.
Exceptionally masterful versifications from Western and Eastern belles-lettres were performed by one more veteran translator and Soviet concentration camp inmate, Vasyl' Mysyk (1907-1983). His translation output comprises one half of R.Burns' poems, which rank among the best versifications of the Scottish bard in all Slavic languages. Besides, Mysyk left behind extraordinary translations of some works by Shakespeare, Byron, Milton, Shelley, Keats, Longfellow. Moreover, he was the only qualified translator, who besides A.Krymskyi, was able to render works of some Eastern classics directly from the original. He revealed in Ukrainian the works of old Persian and Tajik world-wide known classics A.Firdousi, Abu Ali Husain Ibn Seana, Omar Khayam, M.Saadi, Sh. Hafiz as well as some French classics (J.du Bellay, P.Scarron) and several others.
Meanwhile, another veteran translator and poet, who had a narrow escape from getting into the Stalinist GULAG, Mykola Tereshchenko (1898-1966) performed versifications from French (a collection of the seventeenth-eighteenth century poets F.Malhebre, B.Le Fontenelle, C.Perrot, J.Rousseau, D.Diderot, L.de Lisle, E.Parny, A.Chenier and others). He also translated French classic poets of the nineteenth century (E.Verlaine, P.EIuard and others). Besides that Tereshchenko edited many poetic versifications of other translators (including M.Lukash's first complete translation of Gothe's masterpiece Faust).
No less significant versifications were performed by Yevhen Drobyazko (1898-1980), who was the first to artistically recreate The Divine Comedyby Dante in Ukrainian (1975). This achievement established the reputation of Y.Drobyazko as a real master of translation, who also produced some quality translations from German (Heine, Gothe, Schiller), French (Moliere, H.de Balzac), Italian (Eduardo de Filippo), Russian (A.Pushkin, A.Griboyedov, I.Krylov, A.Herzen, V.Mayakovskiy), Polish (Yu.Slowacki, Yu.Tuwim), Czech (V.Nezval) and works of some other prominent foreign authors.
To this constellation of talented translators belongs also Iryna Steshenko (1898-1987), a former actress of the Berezil theatre in Kharkiv. A highly educated person, she translated poetry and prose fromFrench (G.Apollinaire, J.-B.Moliere, A.Michott, Guy de Maupassant), English (W.Shakespeare, M.Twain, J.London, J.Fletcher), German (J.-W.G6the, F.Schiller, S.Zweig), Italian (C.Goldoni), Norwegian (H.Ibsen) and Russian (M.Gorki, A.Ostrovskiy). In her translations she paid great attention to the logical cohesion of phrases in lines and stanzas, to euphony of verses and to the natural ease of speech as well as to the rendition of the inner force pertained to the source language idiom. Prominent in the galaxy of this older generation translators was Borys Ten (1897-1983), the pen name of Vasyl' Khomychevs'kyi. A poet and former Stalinist terror victim, he was the first to produce entire masterly translations of Homer's Iliad and the Odysseyin Ukrainian. Besides, he edited M.Bilyk's translation of Virgil's Aeneidand provided the Ukrainian theatre with a collection set of dramas by the most outstanding ancient Greek playwrights as Aristophanes, Sophocles, Aeschylus and others. Borys Ten also iianslated the works of Shakespeare (King Richard III).
A considerable contribution to Ukrainian belles-lettres was made by M.Bazhan (1904-1983), whose most important work in the domain of translation was the versification of Shota Rustaveli's Knight in The Panther's Skin, which all prominent Georgian poets considered to be a masterly translation. Bazhan had also translated several other classical works of Georgian literature (D. Huramishvili) as well as some poems by Italian (Dante, Michelangelo Bounarotti, P. Pasolini), German (Gothe, Helderlin, Rilke, S. Selan), Polish (Yu. Slowacki, A. Mickiewicz), Russian (A. Pushkin, V. Mayakovskiy), Indian (R. Tagore) and other .luthors'poetic works.
A noticeable place among the older generation of Ukrainian translators belongs to M.Zerov's emigrant brother Mykhailo Orest (1901-1963), who versified from several West European languages and literatures, as French (P.Verlaine, J.Heredia, C.Baudelaire, Lecont de Lisle, and A. Chenier), German (G. Staff, F. Nitzsche, F. Novalis), English (E.B.Browning), Russian (I. Annenskiy, N. Humilyov), Italian (G.Cavalcanti), and also from Spanish, Portuguese and other languages. Besides, M.Orest is the author of three larger collections of translated poetic works in Ukrainian: The Anthology of French Poetry, The Anthology of German Poetic Works and The Mussel and the Sea Anthology of European Poetry.
Active both in the pre-war 1930's, in the post-war 1940's and
also later were some poets, who versified from several foreign languages, though not always directly from the originals but on the basis of interlinear translations. Thus, the poet L.Pervomays'kyi would translate and publish German poets Rilke, Heine, Walter von der Vogelweide and the Russian poetry of Pushkin, Lermontov directly from their originals. At the same time, poetic works of Hungarian, French, Korean, Chinese, Indonesian, Burmese, Persian or Tajik authors could be translated by him, naturally, only on the basis of interlinear translations.
Similarly versified (and published) were in those years in Ukraine (and in the U.S.S.R.in general) many other poetic works written by well-known authors in various foreign languages.
The long list of outstanding Ukrainian prose and poetry translators, who happened to live through the years of Stalinist oppressions during the 1930's, 1940's and later years, and who either perished in the concentration camps or were forced to interrupt their literary activities for that same reason, would be incomplete without some more at least most noted names. One of them is the prolific translator of West European authors Sydir Sakydon (1896-1974), who was forced to flee in the late 1930's to Russia's Smolensk region where he managed to hide himself from the NKVD persecution and thus escape the Stalinist concentration camp. He had worked in the everfrost area all through the 1940's and returned to Ukraine only after Khrushchov's «thaw». S.Sakydon produced several faithful translations from some foreign languages: German (J.W.Gothe, E.-T-A.Hofmann), French (de Coster, R.Rolland), Polish (Zeromski), Czech (K.Capek), Serbo-Croatian (B.Nusic) and others. Also of note is Yuriy Nazarenko (1904-1991), an active participant of the Sixties Movement and translator from German (Schiller, Hauptmann), French (Verne, Verlaine, Hugo), Polish (Orzeszkowa), Byelorussian (Ya.Kolas, Krapiva, Tank).
As was already mentioned, in late 1950's and early 1960's there came into being and arrayed themselves around Ukrainian publishing houses in Kyiv, Kharkiv, L'viv and some other cities, a new linguistic generation of talented translators. Their proclaimed aim was to translate only directly from the original and fully employ the riches of the Ukrainian language. Some talented translators also grouped around the newly revived (1958) literary Vsesvitjournal. Most of these younger generation men of letters were ideological and spiritual adherents of the two most outspoken opponents of Russif ication of the Ukrainian people Hryhoriy Kochur and Mykola Lukash, who were themselves very talented in poetry and prose translation from
several foreign languages. Neither of them would yield to the constant pressure and intimidation on the part of the Soviet authorities which accused the translators of «archaization of the Ukrainian language» and other «deadly sins» of the kind. As has been mentioned, M.Lukash (1919-1988), a polyglot and an equally brilliant prose and poetry translator from eleven languages began to be published after World War II. He contributed greatly to the enrichment of Ukrainian literature with exemplary versions of many masterpieces of world literature such as Faust oi Gothe, Decameron oi Boccaccio, /Madame Bovary of Flaubert, The Fate of Man by Imre Madac, Don Quixote of Cervantes (in co-authorship with A.Perepadya) and several other important works by West European classics. M.Lukash was also a prolific translator of mainly French poets (Verlaine, Rimbaud, Valery, Apollinaire, etc.) as well of Spanish (Lorca, Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Calderon), German (Gothe, Schiller, etc.), English (R.Burns), Polish (Mickiewicz), Hungarian (E.Adi, I.Madach) and several others. His translations are distinguished by a rich and versatile Ukrainian lexicon, accurate idiomatic equivalents, high expressiveness and ease corresponding to those of the originals. In addition to his academic credentials, Lukash, as H.Kochur and I. Svitlychnyi before him, was a symbol of persistence and unyielding defence of the right of the Ukrainian language and culture to their free and independent development and functioning.
H.Kochur (1908-1994), a former student of M.Zerov and higher school lecturer in foreign literatures spent several years in Soviet concentration camps. He was a scrupulous versifier from foreign languages such as ancient Greek (Alcaeus, Sappho), contemporary Greek (C.Cavafes, Y.Ritsos) and especially the French classics (A.Vigny, C.Baudelaire, PVerlaine, A.Rimbaud, P.Valery, Saint-John Perse and some others). He also translated English and American classics (R.Burns, T.S.Eliot, John Milton, P.B.Shelley, G.G.Byron, J.Keats, H.W.Longfellow), Polish classics (Yu.Slowacki, Yu.Tuwim), Czech, Jewish, Lithuanian and other national poets. An inspirational role belonged to Kochur as he influenced and guided the Ukrainian translators during his chairmanship of the Translator's section in the Ukrainian Writers Union in early and mid 1960's.
Among other younger and older generations of translators who grouped around Kochur and Lukash are first of all Mykyta Shumylo, a translator from the Russian, D.Palamarchuk, O.Terekh, A.Perepadya, Y.Popovych, O.Senyuk, Borys Ten, I. Steshenko, R.Dotsenko, P.Sokolovs'kyi and others to be more extensively characterized below.
It is expedient to single out at least the most prolific of these and other translators and enumerate very shortly the most significant masterpieces of world literature which they recreated in Ukrainian. Thus, Dmytro Palamarchuk (1914-1998), a poet and also a former Soviet concentration camp victim, was an active participant of the Sixties Movement. He successfully versified all Shakespearian sonnets (1966) and published a collection of Byron's and Shelley's poems as well as many poems of well-known French poets (C.Baudelaire, S.Prud'homme, J.Heredia, S.Mallarme, A.Renoir) and also German (H.Heine), Polish (Yu.Tuwim, A.Mickiewicz), Italian (E.Petrarca) and Byelorussian (M.Tank, P.HIebka) poets. Besides, he also translated several novels by H.G.Wells, A.France, F.Mauriac, A.M.Stendhal, H.Flaubert.
Very close to the new generation of translators spiritually was the participant of the Sixties Movement Feofan Sklyar (1903-1979). He was a poet and scrupulous editor of many poetic translations carried out from West European languages by his colleagues, but he also versified the works of German Renaissance poets Sebastian Brandt (The Ship of Fools) and Hans Sachs (The Country of Idlers) published in the Vsesvit journal. Apart from these he also gave our readers a collection of excellent translations of P.Ronsard's poems into Ukrainian.
The post-war generation of Ukrainian translators who worked in various publishing houses or arrayed themselves during the 1960's around the Vsesvit journal has given our national literature several prominent masters of the pen. They contributed greatly to the quantitative growth and higher qualitative standard of Ukrainian belles-lettres works, which were enthusiastically received by the reading public. Masterly translations of world literature attracted more readers in the 1950's and 1980's, than the mostly mediocre poetic and prose works of many national authors writing under the yoke of the ideological principles of the so called «Socialist realism».
A leading position in the history of Ukrainian post-war translation have occupied some translators of prose and poetic works from Germanic and Romanic languages. Namely, Rostyslav Dotsenko (b. 1931), a former Soviet concentration camp victim and active participant of the Sixties Movement. He produced excellent prose translations from English (works by O.Wilde, Mark Twain, J.F.Cooper, W.Faulkner, E.A.Poe), French (J.-P.Sartre), Polish and other literatures. Mar Pinchevskyi (1930-1984), who translated prose works from literatures of the English language countries (Gr. Britain, the U.S.A., Canada, Australia). He produced Ukrainian versions of novels and
narratives of E.Hemingway, W.Saroyan, S.Maugham, W.Faulkner, F.S.Fitzgerald and others. Oleksandr Terekh (b. 1928) enriched our belles-lettres with an exemplary Ukrainian version of J.Galsworthy's most outstanding series The Forsyte Saga. Besides, he has translated some other prose works of the English language authors (J.Joyce, R.Bradbury, P.Ballentine, D.Salinger, G.Trease).
Some Ukrainian translators also worked successfully in more than one foreign language, the most outstanding of them being Yuryi Lisnyak (1929-1992), a former Soviet concentration camp victim as well and an active participant of the Sixties Movement. He left behind exemplary artistic prose and poetry translations from Czech (A.lrasek), German (H.Nachbar, M.-B.Schulz, B.Brecht, H.B6II, H.Mann), English (J.K.Jerome, C.Dickens, R.OIdington, B.D.Golding, H.Melville, W.Shakespeare), French (A.France, H.de Balzac) and other authors. Lisnyak was the chief editor of the new complete six-volume edition (1984-1986) of the complete works of Shakespeare in Ukrainian (translated by M.Ryl'skyi, O.Mokrovol'skyi, I.Steshenko, Borys Ten, H.Kochur, D.Palamarchuk, V.Koptilov and some others).
Petro Sokolovskyi (1926-2000), a participant of the Sixties Movement and a prolific translator from some West European languages, such as English (D.Cusack, C.Bronte, J.London, J.AIdrid-ge, F.Bret Harte), Spanish (F.Benites, V.B.Ibahes, J.S.Puig, C.J.Sela, C.L.Falids), Italian (G.Piovene, J.Vasari, C.Cassola, C.Malaparte, A.Moravia), French (J.Verne, E.Bazen, H.Chevalier) and others.
Yevhen Popovych (b. 1930) has dedicated his creative activities to the exclusive translation of the German language belles-lettres. He has brought into Ukrainian the most outstanding prose works of German, Austrian and some Swiss authors. For almost 40 years he has produced masterly translations of a veritable library of well-known novels, narratives, dramas and short stories written by the greatest authors as J.W.Gothe, H.Heine, E.N.Remarque, H.Hesse, M.Frisch, H.B6II, G.E.Lessing, J.Roth, J.Mosdorf, T.Mann and some others. Popovych in his translations pays an extraordinary attention to the faithful rendition of the main characteristic features pertaining to the syntactic structures and artistic style of every belles-lettres work, its expressiveness and ease like that within the logical sentence structures of the source language works. Like M.Lukash and Yu.Lisnyak, Y.Popovych ranks among the most outstanding Ukrainian translators of the second half of the 20th century.
Scandinavian belles-lettres were almost exclusively translated in the last 35 years by Olha Senyuk (b. 1929). The readers have
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received ideal Ukrainian versions of many artistic works of the Swedish authors (A.Lindgren, S.Lagerlof, R.BIomberg, W.Waldfridson, S.Topelius, P.Wale, T.Janson, M.Shewal, S.Lindman, P.Lagerquist, P.Enquist), of Norwegian authors (S.Helmeback, B.Bierson, H.Ibsen, D.Grenoset, K.Holt, E.Jakobsen, O.Nesse), of Danish authors (M.Andersen-Noxe) and also works of English and American authors, (V.Ash, W.Thackerey's Vanity Fair, Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor, separate short stories of Mark Twain, J.London, J.D.Salinger, J.D.Updike, O'Connor, K.Porter). Many belles-lettres works from Romanic languages (apart from those performed by M.Zerov, M.Rylskyi, PKarmanskyi, M.Orest, M.Voronyi, M.Lukash, H.Kochur, P.Sokolovskyi, F.Sklyar and some others) were successfully accomplished during the last 35 years by some representatives of the second generation of post-war translators. To be mentioned first is Anatol Perepadya (b.1935), who was severely criticized and persecuted by the Communist authorities in the late 1960's and early 1970's for his open public support of Kochur and Lukash. These translators consistently demonstrated the principle of unimpeded use of all the riches within the Ukrainian lexicon in their translated versions of foreign belles-lettres. Perepadya managed to carry this idea into practice in numerous translations of works of a number of Romanic languages authors. Among these were French (H.de Balzac, F.Mauriac, A.Saint-Exuperi, P.CIodel); Italian (J.Fava, A.Moravia, N.Machiavelli, I. Calvino); Portuguese (J.Amado); Spanish (A.Carpentier, M.Cervantes) and some others.
Among the very prolific translators of the 1960's -1990's was also Volodymyr Mytrofanow (1929-1998), who turned into Ukrainian about forty books by prominent American and German classic writers. The authors were Mark Twain (The Gilded Age, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer); novels, narratives and collections of short stories by E.M.Hemingway, H.Beecher-Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, T.Mayne Reid's Headless Horseman as well as novels, narratives and collections of short stories of N.Lewis, R.P.Warren, T.Capote, S.King, R.D.Bradbury, G.M.Synge, PH.Abrahams, B.Brecht's Carrier of Arturo L//'(from German) and several others. Some contribution to Ukrainian belles-lettres was also made by N.Hordiyenko-Andrianova (1921 - 1996), who translated prose works from Russian (V.Korolenko, A.Herzen, A.Kuprin, A.Ostrovskiy), German (L.Renn, A.Welma, B.Apitz, B.Brecht), French (A.France, Ch. de Coster's Till Ulenspiegel) and from Esperanto (V.Yaroshenko).
Mykhailo Lytvynets' (b.1933) translated several best poetic works mostly from contemporary Romanic languages (French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and others). His most outstanding versification into Ukrainian is The Luisiades by the Portuguese Renaissance poet Luis Camoens. Apart from this he produced translations of some best works of separate French poets (P.Beranger, V.Hugo), Spanish language poets (G.Mistral, B.Carrion, H.Marti, H.de Esponceda, P.Neruda, N.Guillen), Italian poets (G.Leopardi) and others.
Several well-known works written in Romanic languages were successfully brought into Ukrainian by another prolific translator H.Filipchuk (b. 1936). Among these are almost 30 novels and narratives representing the most outstanding French authors: E.Zola, H.Flaubert, A.Malraux, P.Merle, B.CIavel, A.Marquet, H.Crussy, PGamarra, and also some works of the Spanish language authors as Roa Bastos, D.Medio and others. Quite noticeable during the 1970's -1999's was also Lohvynenko O.P.(b. 1946), a translator of several prose and drama works by German, Swiss, British and American literatures authors as L.Frank, S.Lenz, E.Strittmatter, H.Hartuna, B.Kellermann, F.Durrenmatt, H.B6II, H.Kruschell, P.Handtke, H.Hesse, K.Ransmayer, M.Frisch, W.Scott, R.Stouter, D.Salinger, H.Wells, I. Show, E.O'Neill and others.
Active among the upcoming younger generation of Ukrainian translators, who have already won wide recognition in the last decades of the twentieth century is O.Mokrovols'kyi (b. 1946). He has accomplished a number of poetic and prose translations from English (G.G.Byron, J.Chiardy, P.B.Shelley, W.Shakespeare, D.H.Lawrence, W.Collins, R.Graves), Italian (S.Quasimodo, G.Leopardi, T.Tasso, L.Ariosto), German (G.Brezan), Spanish (A.Grosso, D.AIohso) and other languages. Also of note is M.Moskalenko (b. 1948), who translates mostly from French (P.EIuard, V.Hugo, Saint-John Perse) and Spanish (F.H.Lorca, H.Marti and some others).
A prominent position among the new generation of talented Ukrainian translators is occupied by A.Sodomora (b. 1937). He has performed faithful translations of several major works of famous Roman poets and authors as Horace, Ovid (Metamorphoses), Lucretius, Seneca, and of ancient Greek playwrights as Aristophanes, Menander, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides. Several works of ancient Greek and Roman poets (Virgil, Horace, Tirtacus, Tibullus and others) were translated by Sodomora's predecessor M.Bilyk (1889-1970). His most significant translations are Virgil's Aeneid (edited by Borys Ten) and
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S.KIimowiecz's long poem Roksolaniya (about Ukraine and the Ukrainians) translated from the Polish original.
Some Ukrainian translators specialize in turning prose works of West Slavic literatures into Ukrainian. Thus, Y.Popsuyenko (b. 1940) has translated novels and narratives of the following Polish authors: S.Lem, J.Korczak, J.Przymanowski, S.Dygata, B.Czeszka, B.Prus, R.Liskowacki, Z.Posmicz, B.Orkan, M.Warnenska, Y.Parandowski and others. D.Andrukhiv (b. 1934) translated a number of prose works by prominent Polish, Czech and Slovak authors. Namely, Polish: Y.Stawinski, W.Zelewski, L.WantuI, H.Auderska, B.Prus; Slovak: P.llemnicki, H.Zelinova, A.PIawka, W.Zamorowski, M.Figuli, L.Yurik, M.Diurickowa; Czech: F.Flos, I. Marek, I. Toman, MTomanova, M.Pasek, B.Nemcova, E.Petiska, M.Majerova, J.Kadlec, I. Mares and others.
A number of masterpieces from former Yugoslav belles-lettres were translated by Ivan Yushchuk (b.1933), who brought into Ukrainian more than ten novels and narratives of Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian and Macedonian authors. No less active and prolific is also Will Hrymych (b. 1925), who has translated several novels and narratives of Slovenian (C.Kosmac, A.Diklic, A.lnhoiic), Czech and Slovak (A.PIudek, P.Hanus, J.Neswadba, M.Pasek, P.Jasek), Serbo-Chroatian, Estonian, Uzbec and other authors. He also translated a number of plays of French, Italian, German and Serbo-Croatian playwrights whose works were staged in Kyiv theatres.
Prose and poetic works from West Slavic literatures were also skilfully translated into Ukrainian by V.Strutyns'kyi. Among them from Polish: J.SIowacki, A.Mickiewicz, M.Konopnicka, C.Norwid, J.Tuwim, E.Orzeszkowa, J.Kraszewski, S.Zeromski; from Czech: J.Neruda, V.Nezval, K.Capek, M.Majerova and others. Apart from Slavic literary works Strutyns'kyi also translated poetic works of Lithuanian, Bielorussian, Armenian, Azerbaidjan and other poets.
Belles-lettres works of several Chinese and Japanese classics and contemporary authors became known to Ukrainian readers only in the late 1950's and mainly thanks to two translators - Ivan Chyrko and Ivan Dzyub. Ivan Chyrko (b.1922) has translated some of the best prose works of the Chinese authors as Lu Sin, Mao Dun, Lao Sheh, Sian-Dsy, Ba Dsin, Pu Soon Lin, Arysim Takeo and several others. Ivan Dzyub (b.1934) acquainted our readers with the prose works of the Japanese authors K.Abe, R.Akatahava, YKavabata, N.Soseki, M.Kita, K.Saotome, TFukunaha as well as with Japanese fairy tales.
Apart from these, Dzyub turned into Ukrainian works of some Italian (G.Rodari, E.Vittorini) and Spanish (F.Basulto) authors.
Translations directly from some modern Indian languages and from Sanskrit into Ukrainian were produced, most likely, for the first time in the late 1920's - early 1930's by Pavlo Ritter (1872-1939), a Kharkiv University professor of Indian philology. Ritter was also victim of the Stalinist terror (going mad and died after constant torture in prison). This translator acquainted the Ukrainian readers with some Vedic hymns (the Ftihveda and Arharveda), with works of Kalidasa (circa 5 AD) and also with works of the great contemporary Indian poet R.Tagore (1861 -1941). A few works from Sanskrit and those of Asiz ud Dina Ahmad were translated into Ukrainian by the linguist O.Barannyk(ov) (1890-1952). A major contribution to present-day Ukrainian belles-lettres from Indian literatures, however, was made by S.Nalyvaiko (b. 1940), who translated from Hindi, Urdu and English prose works of Premchand, K.Chandar, B.Sahni, A.Desayi, P.K.Naraian and some others. Besides these, Nalyvaiko translated into Ukrainian Indian fairy tales, proverbs and sayings.
The list of prolific translators would be incomplete without the names of such masters of the pen as Yevhen Kovhanyuk (1902-1982), who carried out a number of translations from Polish (H.Sienkiewicz, S.Zeromski, B.Prus, Y.lwaszkiewicz, M.Warnenska and others). He also translated from Russian (M.Sholokhov, A.Tolstoy, N.Ostrovskyi, M.Gorki, A.Herzen, I.Goncharov, I.Turgenev, I.Dubynskyi, YTynyanov and some others). No less successful a translator of Russian literature and other national authors was Diodor Bobyr (1907-1980). A noted Ukrainian author himself, he faithfully turned into Ukrainian many poetic and prose works of A.Pushkin, M.Lermontov, A.Prokofyev, V.Soloukhin, and others. Bobyr also left behind exemplary translations of H.Heine's and B.Nusic's works as well as some theoretical articles on the theory and practice of poetic and prose translation.
Apart from the above-mentioned modern masters of the pen, who accomplished many faithful prose and poetic translations, there are several more brilliant contemporary translators worth mentioning here. Among them should be named the Stalinist concentration camp victim Ivan Svitlychnyi (1929-1992), a prominent figure of the Sixties Movement. He translated into Ukrainian works of different authors: Czech (V.Nezval, F.Halas, J.Mahen, J.Hanzlik), Slovak (M.Rufus) and French (J.de la Fontaine, P.-J.de Beranger, C.Baudelaire), The Tale of the Host of Ihor and other works into Ukrainian. Of note is also
Y.Kryzhevych (1937-1985), the translator of J.F.Cooper's and C.Marlowe's works. To these notables belong also the diaspora translators I.Kachurovskyi (b.1918), who turned into Ukrainian French, English, German and Italian poetry and I.Kostetskyi (1913-1983), who translated into Ukrainian Shakespeare's sonnets (1985), and King Lear(1969), T.S.Eliot's poetry, P.Verlaine's poems (1979), E.Pound's works (1960), F.G.Lorca's poems (1971) and other works. Many poetic works of Bulgarian literature (C.Zidarov, Y.Yovkov, I. Vazov, D.Metodiev, H.Dzhaharov, A.Todorov, N.Nikolayev, LLevchev and others) were translated by Dmytro Bilous (b. 1920). Another poet D.Cherednychenko (b. 1935) translates from Lithuanian (M.Vainilaitis, A.Maldonis, M.Martinaitis, Y.Martsinkyavichus) and from Slavic languages. Works of Georgian and Turkish authors (V.Pshavela, T.Chiladze, A.Sulakari, R.Hiuntekin, N.Khikmet, S.Dervish, O.Polat, O.Leonidze and others) became known to Ukrainian readers due to the efforts of H.Khalymonenko (b. 1941) and O.Synychenko (b. 1931). The latter translated several works of Georgian (E.Ninoshvili, D.Shenhelaya, I.Chavchavadze, N.Dumbadze, K.Lordkipanidze, K.Hamsakhurdia, Plvanishvili) and of German authors (E.Panitz, LFeuchtwagner and several others).
Actively participated in the process of enrichment of Ukrainian literature via translation also some professional poets as I. Vyrhan (1908-1975). He translated the poetic works from many languages: German (J.W.Gothe), Spanish (PNeruda), Armenian (A.lsaakyan), Georgian (A.Tsereteli), Lettish (Y.Rainis), Russian (A.Pushkin, M.Lermontov, F.Tyutchev) and some others. Rather active among the present-day poets and translators is D.Pavlychko (b. 1929), who successfully versified a number of poetic works from English (Shakespeare's sonnets), Spanish (I.Marti), Bulgarian (Kh.Botev, N.Vaptsarov), Slovak (PHviezdoslav) and other languages. No less active is also I.Drach who has translated works by Polish, French, Italian, Latvian, Georgian and some other poets.
It is necessary to note in conclusion, that despite the constant restrictions, persecutions, unceasing terror and even executions of translators in Soviet times, the process of artistic translation in Ukraine was never interrupted for long or brought to a complete standstill, as it was during 1942-1944. Only because of the persistent and devoted work of our most prominent translators from the older and succeeding generations could our Ukrainian belles-lettres have been tremendously enriched with many masterpieces of world literature. Ukrainians now have a true opportunity to become acquainted with a large number of
faithful Ukrainian versions of the best prose and poetic works of all major European, American and the main Asian literatures both of present times as well as of previous periods. As a result, Ukrainian belles-lettres walk in step qualitatively with the rich and developed West European and Asian contemporary literatures.
Alongside of the literary translation proper, there also developed literary criticism which was initiated in the nineteenth century by PKulish, I. Franko and Lesya Ukrainka. Literary criticism in the domain of translation began to be especially felt in the 1920's and early 1930's during the heated controversies against M.Zerov and the Neoclassicists. Taking part against M.Yohansen, P.Fylypovych, O.Burhardt, M.Ryl'skyi and others were Communist supporters of the officially introduced theory of «socialist realism» B.Kovalenko, Ya.Savchenko, V.Koryak, S.Shchupak and others. At the same time with the ideological controversy some truly scientific works on the theory and practice of translation were published in the 1920's and early 1930's. The most scientifically grounded among them were Zerov's theoretical works on poetic translation, which remain topical up to now, H.Maifet's works on translation of T. Shev-chenko's poems into English (1927) and French (1928), English and German (1928); V.Derzhavyn's solid reviews of Ukrainian translations (in 1929, 1930, 1931), a theoretical work on translation of O.Finkel (1929) and several reviews of current poetic and prose translations from foreign languages, which often appeared in those years in various journals of Ukraine.
The Stalinist terror and reprisals of the 1930's undermined translation and all scientific activity in this field for some years. As a result, the real scientifically well-grounded criticism in Ukrainian translation began only in the mid 1950's with the appearance of O.Kundzich's critical articles (1956), which were mainly directed against literalism in Ukrainian translation. His articles were followed by critical and reviewing articles of M.Ryl'skyi and V.Koptilov's thesis on T.Shevchenko as a translator of David's Psalms, R.Zorivchak's and O.Novikova's works. One of the most common forms of literary criticism were in the 1960's and later on critical reviews dedicated to prominent works of literature translated by outstanding writers such as Lukash, Kochur, Lisnyak, Dotsenko, Popovych and some others. Besides, there were often published in some journals (Vsesvit, Inozemna Filologia, Vitchyzna) theoretical articles on different linguistic problems and methods/ways of solving them in the process of translating belles-lettres from the source language into the target language. These and other works together with many highly qualified translations of prose and poetic works of world
literature helped create in the end the national school of Ukrainian artistic translation. A particular role in it belongs to the Vsesvit journal which deserves a more thorough elucidation in modern history of Ukrainian translation.