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An evocative collection of vignettes and essays from Ukraine's ?voice? of classical antiquity, now available in English for the first time.
Inspired by Virgil's exquisitely ambivalent phrase ?sunt lacrimae rerum? (there are tears of/for/in things), Andriy Sodomora, the Ukrainian ?voice? of classical antiquity, has produced a series of original vignettes and essays about things: the big things in our lives (like happiness, loneliness, and aging); the small things we do or see daily, rarely paying attention to them (like a tree's shadow or the kernels on an ear of corn); and the things (i.e., objects) to which we form connections. The selected stories presented here are the first English translations of Sodomora's profoundly intellectual and intertextual prose. Through his nostalgic memories and recollections, Sodomora takes readers on a journey through western Ukraine, as well as through world literature, from ancient Greece and Rome to the poetry of Paul Verlaine and Federico García Lorca.
This book has been published with the support of the Translate Ukraine Translation Program.
List of contents
About the Author
Introduction: Old Wine in the Evening Sunlight, by Markian Dombrovskyi
Translators’ Introductions
A Note on Translation
The Tears and Smiles of Things: Stories, Sketches, Meditations
In Lieu of a Preface: People amidst Things
“Carpe Diem”
The Mitten
A Room without Shadows
The Silver-Haired Wind
In the Language of Rain
The Felled Shadow
The World between the Windowpanes
The Owl
At the Intersection
The Whirligig
Praesens Historicum
The Flute
The Mood
Vigilate!
Rainy Landscape with the Cat
Dead Silence
The Rainbow over Vyriv
A Jug of Wild Strawberries
The Garden
The Credenza
The String
Corn
Mama’s Smile
The Dance
Notes
Glossary
Acknowledgements
About the Translators
About the author
Andriy Sodomora is a Ukrainian translator, writer, and professor of Classics at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine. His translation oeuvre includes an astounding number of volumes from ancient Greek and Roman authors. At the age of 85, Sodomora remains extremely prolific, successfully combining translation and creative writing.
Summary
An evocative collection of vignettes and essays from Ukraine’s “voice” of classical antiquity, now available in English for the first time.
Inspired by Virgil’s exquisitely ambivalent phrase “sunt lacrimae rerum” (there are tears of/for/in things), Andriy Sodomora, the Ukrainian “voice” of classical antiquity, has produced a series of original vignettes and essays about things: the big things in our lives (like happiness, loneliness, and aging); the small things we do or see daily, rarely paying attention to them (like a tree’s shadow or the kernels on an ear of corn); and the things (i.e., objects) to which we form connections. The selected stories presented here are the first English translations of Sodomora’s profoundly intellectual and intertextual prose. Through his nostalgic memories and recollections, Sodomora takes readers on a journey through western Ukraine, as well as through world literature, from ancient Greece and Rome to the poetry of Paul Verlaine and Federico García Lorca.
This book has been published with the support of the Translate Ukraine Translation Program.
