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P id m oh yln y, V alerian . A L IT T L E TOUCH OF D R A M A . T ran slated from U k rain ian by G eorge S. N . and M oira L u ck yj. W ith in trod u ction b y G eorge S hevelov. L ittleto n , Colorado, U k rain ian A cadem ic P r e ss, 1972. 191 pp. (U k rain ian C lassics in T ran slation , N o. 1 ) . To th e ra tio n alist hero, a bio chem ist by profession, love is M AXIM R IL S K Y (1 8 9 5 -1 9 7 3 ) B orn in R om anivka (K iev ), son of a m iddle-class landlord who led a m ovem ent to persuade th e Polonized U k rainian g en try to re tu rn to U k rainian ideals and w ork fo r th e ru ra l m asses, M axim R ilsky grew up steeped in U krainian trad itio n s and fo lk lore. H is firs t collection of poem s appeared w hen he w as fifteen. D uring th e post-R evolution years (1919-21) R ilsky lived in th e coun try in a solitude rich w ith creativ ity b u t aloof from th e “socialist realism .” H e r e tain ed th is detachm ent upon his re tu rn to Kiev and w as attack ed by th e Soviet regim e fo r h is lack of revolutionary spirit. He was arrested in 1931 and im prison ed. F o r alm ost a decade follow ing h is release, a broken m an, his earlier w orks w ere banished, w hile he w as given an oppo rtu n ity to in g ra tia te him self in to th e fav o r of th e P a rty . In due course he received 2 S talin prizes fo r literatu re. H is capitulation, however, does not d etra ct from th e fa ct th a t he still is th e g re a te st m as te r of th e U krainian language and one of th e g re a te st contem p o rary lyricists in any lite ra tu re. (F rom biographical notes in “T he U krainian P oets “ by C. H. A ndrusyshen and W. K irconnell — U n iv ersity of T oronto P ress). b u t a disturbance in th e protein. To th e heroine, it is a glorious rom antic episode. The story of th e ir g re a t passion and its b reak up set in th e era of th e “g re a t socialist reconstruction of m an” is not a trag e d y on th e ancient sca le: it is no m ore th a n a little touch of dram a. V alerian Pidm ohylny w as one of th e m ost prom inent w riters of th e U krainian cu ltu ral re n ais sance in th e second decade of th is century. A t th e tim e w hen N eve- ly ch k a dram a (th e original U krainian title) firs t appeared in p rin t in a jo u rn al in 1930, P id m ohylny, th en 29 y ears old, a l ready had a few collections of sh o rt stories to his cred it and has achieved considerable fam e by his g re a t novel M isto (The C ity). N e v e ly c h k a dram a, how ever, w as destined to be Pidm o- hy lny ’s la st novel. T he author, in th e eyes of th e regim e, becam e politically unreliable. F irs t his original w ork ceased to appear in p rin t and he began devoting him self exclusively to tra n s la tions from A natole F rance, B al zac, M aupassant, Stendhal. Then, in 1934 he w as arrested , d ep o rt ed from U kraine and all trac e of th e w rite r w as lost forever. N e v ely ch k a dram a w as firs t pub lished in book fo rm in 1957 in P aris. Pidm ohylny to th is day has not been reh ab ilitated in th e Soviet Union. H is w orks are not published th e re and rem ain u n know n to th e read in g public. U krainian Academ ic P ress, a new ly established publishing house w hich prom ises to b rin g us a whole series of U k rainian clas sics in tran slatio n as well as o th er scholarly w orks on U kraine, chose P idm ohylny’s novel as its firs t p resen tatio n to th e E nglish readin g public. It w as n o t a bad choice. A L ittle Touch o f D ram a, ably tra n sla te d by George and M oira Luckyj, is surp risin gly m odern and is likely to appeal to contem porary reader. The well- know n lite ra ry critic, G eorge Shevelov of Colum bia U niversi ty, in his eig h t page in tro d u c tion to Pidm ohylny and his w ork calls A L ittle T ouch o f D ram a “a pre-existential novel,” “a small, unnoticed and y e t quite distinct link in th e developm ent of m odern lite ra tu re .” sft * M odern U k rain ian S h ort S to rie s; parallel te x t edition. Edited, w ith a preface by George S. N. Luckyj. L ittleton , C olora do, U krainian A cadem ic P ress, 1973. 228 pp. $8.50. In th e last decade a num ber of U krainian sh o rt sto ry collec tions have appeared on th e A n glo-A m erican book m ark et. S ho rt stories of F ranko, K otsiu- bynskyi, S tefanyk, K hvylovyi are available to th e E nglish speaking read er in separately published collections. T here have been also tw o sh o rt an th o lo g ies: one, T heir Land, published by Svoboda P ress in 1964 and one, S tories of th e Soviet U kraine, published in 1970 in Moscow. M odern U krainian S h o rt S tories — an anthology issued by th e recently established U krainian A cadem ic P ress -— is unique in several respects. These are firs t of all “m odern” sh o rt stories w ritte n by w rite rs w ho consciously attem p ted to g et aw ay from th e populist and re alist trad itio n s p erm eatin g m ost of U krainian lite ratu re . T his a n thology includes fiftee n stories and only eleven au th o rs. T he pe riod covered ran g es fro m th e tu rn of th e cen tu ry w riters S te fanyk, K otsiubynskyi, Y atskiv and V ynnychenko — th ro u g h those prom inent in th e cul tu ra l renaissance of th e 1920’s: K hvylovyi, K osynka, P idm o hylny і and Y anovski — to th e contem porary young w rit ers of p re sen t day U kraine: V inhranovskyi, S hevchuk and H utsalo. A nother unique ch a racteristic of M odern U k rain ian S h o rt S tories is th e fa c t th a t it is a “parallel te x t edition” : th e orig inal U krainian te x t appears side by side w ith th e E ng lish tra n s lation. T his m akes it possible to exam ine th e tw o te x ts critically and to com pare them . In add i tion, it is of trem endous help to read ers w ho would like to read th e sto ries in th e original, b u t due to th e ir lim ited linguistic НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ — ЧЕРВЕНЬ, 1973 * 7
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