Lithuanian translator awarded for bringing Ukrainian literature to Lithuanian readers

Lithuanian literary translator Donata Rinkevičienė, who has been translating books from Ukrainian for six years, received the “Metų vertėjo krėslas” award for her Lithuanian translation of Ukrainian writer Vasyl Shkliar’s novel “Zuikių bažnyčia”. The award highlights her role in introducing Lithuanian readers to Ukrainian literature and historical experience.

The award ceremony took place on June 11 at the Vilnius University Library. The prize is awarded by the Lithuanian PEN Centre and Lithuania’s Ministry of Culture.

Lithuania’s Culture Minister Vaida Aleknavičienė, who presented the award, said it recognised not only Rinkevičienė’s translation mastery but also her work in building bridges between Lithuanian and Ukrainian historical experiences.

According to Aleknavičienė, Rinkevičienė’s translations open Ukrainian historical experience to Lithuanian readers — from the Holodomor and Soviet terror to war and struggles for freedom — through literature of high artistic value.

Rinkevičienė received the award for translating Shkliar’s novel from Ukrainian into Lithuanian. The novel’s Ukrainian title is “Zayachyi kostel”, which can be translated as “The Hare’s Church”. The Lithuanian edition was published last year by the Lithuanian Writers’ Union Publishing House.

The novel tells the story of a Lithuanian partisan exiled to Donbas (an eastern Ukrainian region) who encounters Ukrainian insurgents and discovers a shared experience of fighting for freedom.

Rinkevičienė has been translating books from Ukrainian for six years. Among her best-known translations are works by Tania Piankova, Andriy Lyubka, Artem Chekh, Oleksandr Mykhed, Halyna Vdovychenko, Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv, as well as texts in the anthology “State of War”.

The “Metų vertėjo krėslas” award has been presented since 2001. The prize amounts to 40 basic social benefits.

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Main image: Vilnius University Faculty of Philology / flf.vu.lt