Honchar's "Sobor" in English Version
PHILADELPHIA — An English-language translation of Oles Honchar’s novel, Sobor (The Cathedral), was recently published by the St. Sophia Religious Association of Ukrainian Catholics.
The 308-page translation was a joint effort by Yuri Tkacz of Doncaster, Australia, and Leonid Rudnytzky of Philadelphia.
Ever since its publication in 1968, The Cathedral has been the most controversial work in Soviet Ukrainian literature. Upon its publication, it was fiercely attacked by pro-regime critics and even burned publicly by various Komsomol brigades, but it also found staunch defenders, especially among dissidents.
Today, it is considered a real classic of contemporary Soviet Ukrainian literature, and its influence on Ukrainian intellectual life, both in the Soviet Union and in the West, is undeniable.
In his introduction to the translation, Prof. Rudnytzky of LaSalle University writes:
“Honchar's narrative is essentially a human interest story dealing with real people as well as with abstract concepts, with individual hopes and dreams as well as with societal concerns and aspirations. The Cathedral is truly a multifaceted work of art that addresses numerous contemporary problems of the Soviet Union and their impact on the individual and on the collective. The central plot of this narrative—the blossoming love between Mykola Bahlay and Yelka—is developed against this contemporary backdrop: generational conflict, problems facing the aged in a society of young people, juvenile delinquency and hooliganism, graft, corruption, and the evils of ‘poaching,’ racial discrimination, and environmental pollution. The novel also contains highly revealing passages on Soviet foreign aid to the third world and glimpses of la dolce vita Soviet style.”
In explaining the translation, Prof. Rudnytzky notes that no translation can fully duplicate the experience of the original. The Ukrainian-language Sobor contains subtle puns, wordplays, etymological allusions, dialectical colorings, and the like, which are inaccessible to the non-Ukrainian reader. The translator states that Mr. Honchar’s highly lyrical style also contributed to the difficulties experienced in translating this work.
He concludes, stating that the present translation is a product of the merging of two texts, both having been worked on without knowledge of the other. The synthesis of the two texts hopes to offer the reader a worthy rendition of a work “where love gave birth to poetry.”
The translation also provides explanatory notes, which are appended to the text of the narrative. The cover design for the novel was done by Juriy Hura, a Philadelphia-based Ukrainian artist. The preparation of this volume was made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
