Voices of Babyn Yar
2021, Translation-in-Progress Grant Recipient
Voices of Babyn Yar «Бабин Яр. Голосами»
Author: Marianna Kiyanovska
Translators: Oksana Maksymchuk, Max Rosochynsky
About the project: This is a translation of Marianna Kiyanovska’s book of poetry The Voices of Babyn Yar, which was awarded Ukraine’s highest literary state prize in 2020, the Shevchenko National Prize for Literature. Originally published in Kyiv by Dukh i Litera in 2017, the book represents the first stand-alone volume of translations of Kiyanovska’s poetry into the English language. It is the first book-length attempt by a Ukrainian poet to honor the victims of the Holocaust in Ukraine. Artful and carefully intoned, the poems present what ordinary civilians experienced from a first-person perspective to an effect that is simultaneously immersive and estranging. It memorializes the experiences of members of a group betrayed by the larger community of which they are part, abandoned by the state, and failed by institutions. Conceived as a tribute to the fallen, the book also raises challenging questions about memory, responsibility, and honoring those who witnessed an unbearable evil.
The book is expected to be published by the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University in 2022.