The Outline of The History of Translation 1
The Outline of The History of Translation 1
The Outline of The History of Translation 1
Translation in Ukraine
The history of translation in Ukraine is known to have started in the 10 th
century.
In 911 the Kyivan Rus’ Prince Oleg signed a treaty with Byzantium [bı
´zæntıəm] in two languages (Greek and Slavonic).
In 988 Christianity was adopted which stimulated the development of
translation in Kyivan Rus’.
In 1037 the Great Prince of Kyivan Rus’ Yaroslav the Wise gathered together
many translators in St. Sophia Cathedral to translate books from Greek into Old
Slavonic.
In the last decade of the 10th – early 11th century only the materials necessary
for church services were translated and soon the Bible began to appear in different
cities of Kyivan Rus’.
In the 11th-13th centuries many ecclesiastic and secular works were translated.
Examples from secular literature include works of Byzantine [bı´zæntain], Roman
and other poets and philosophers.
The Tatar-Mongol invasion in 1240 considerably slowed the progress in
translation.
In the 14th century the Bible of Polycarp appeared. Several historical works are
also known to have been translated in those times, e.g. the Trojan History.
In the 15th century the King’s Bible appeared and some important literary
works were translated, e.g. the Passions of Christ, a Story of the Indian Kingdom.
In the 16th century the Solomon’s Songs were translated.
In 1581 the Ostrog Bible was published by Ivan Fedorov. It was the first
complete translation of the Holy Book in Slavonic Countries.
One of the first belles-lettres translations into Ukrainian was an excerpt from
F.Petrarca’s Letters without Address made by Kliryk Ostrozkyi.
In 1632 the Kyiv Mogyla Academy was founded, which intensified translation
activities in Ukraine.
In the first half of the 17th century there appeared translations from Greek made
by D.Nalyvaiko and from Latin made by K.Sakovych. They were mostly free
adaptations.
In the second half of the 17th century D.Tuptalo translated Polish poetry. Ivan
Maksymovych translated from German.
In the 18th century G.Skovoroda made free interpretations of Cicero’s and
Plutarch’s [´plu:tα:k] works.
K.Kondratovych translated Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
In 1791 the first part of I.Kotlyarevskyi’s free adaptation of Virgil’s
[´və:rdзıl] Aeneid [ı´nı:əd] came off the press in colloquial Ukrainian.
In the 19th century
P.Gulak-Artemovskyi made free adaptations of Polish poetic works, of
Goethe’s poems and Horace’s odes.
H.Metlynskyi made translations of German, French and other poets.
M.Maksymovych made a versification of the Tale of the Host of Igor.
Taras Shevchenko versified ten of David’s Psalms from Old Slavonic into
Ukrainian.
The most famous Ukrainian poets of the 19th century Ivan Franko, Lesya
Ukrainka, Y.Grebinka, L.Borovykovskyi, M.Kostomarov, M.Starytskyi translated the
world-known works of art into Ukrainian.
The first professional translator in the 19 th century Ukraine was P.Kulish. His
output includes the most outstanding works of Shakespeare, Byron, Goethe, Schiller,
Heine, Pushkin, Tolstoy.
P.Kulish together with I.Puliuy and Nechuy-Levytskyi translated the Bible into
contemporary Ukrainian.