Ukraine Past and Present: Politics – Poetry – Translation

Date: 12 April 2022, 13:15–16:00
Location: English Park, 6-0022
Type: Seminar
Organiser: Department of Literature
Contact person: Torsten Pettersson

Higher Seminar in Literature / A Minisymposium organized by the Department of Literature at Uppsala University (NB clock times)

Chair: Torsten Pettersson, Professor of Literature

Contact: torsten.pettersson@littvet.uu.se

As human beings, we are outraged by the war in Ukraine and appalled by the atrocities that have been perpetrated again and again – but what can we do as scholars of the humanities? We can provide various types of helpful understanding: the study of history reveals the complexity of the issues to be resolved; the study of poetry shows us how people respond to oppression and to freedom, now in despair, now with enthusiasm; the study of poetics illuminates the resources they can tap into to enrich their response; and the study of translation highlights an activity central to transcultural understanding but also subject to controversy when values and world views differ between the source language and the target language.

This is the philosophy behind this symposium Ukraine Past and Present: Politics – Poetry – Translation:

Programme:

13.15 “The War in Ukraine: A Challenge to Our World View”
           (Torsten Pettersson)
13.30 “What Every European Should Know about Ukraine: A Brief Reflection”
           (Julie Hansen, Dept. of Modern Languages, UU)
13.45 “Literary Translation as a Lens on the History of Soviet Ukraine”
           (Valentyna Savchyn, SCASS, Uppsala and Lviv University, Ukraine)
14.35 Short break
14.45 “The Poetic Function: Power in the Text, Problem in Translation”
           (Torsten Pettersson)
15.15 “Present-Day Translations of Eino Leino’s ‘Hail to Ukraine’ (1917)”
           Ukrainian: Olena Jansson (Dept. of Modern Languages, UU)
           English: Anna Tomi (Dept. of Literature, UU and University of California, Berkeley)
15.45 “Experiences of War in Poetry: Readings of Originals and Swedish Translations”
           Readings of Originals and Swedish Translations”

          Six Poems and their Swedish Translations
          Kamal Zerdoumi: Ukraine (2022) read by NN – Ukraina
          Marie Luise Kaschnitz: Hiroshima (1957) read by Jules Kielmann – Hiroshima
          Yrjö Jylhä: Kohtaus metsässä (1941) read by Anna Tomi – Ett möte i skogen
          V.A. Koskenniemi: Latuja lumessa (1940) read by Anna Tomi – Skidspår i snön
          Laurence Binyon: For the Fallen (1914) read by Julie Hansen – För de stupade
          Plyve Kacha, Ukrainian folk song, read by Valentyna Savchyn – Anden simmar

16.00 End of the Symposium