The French “Skovoroda”

On December 12, the French embassy in Kyiv held the Skovoroda Prize award ceremony. Over the ten years since this prize was instituted for the best translation from French into Ukrainian, about 100 works of the top French authors have been published in Ukraine. The competitive list of Skovoroda-2002 comprised 15 books: 7 in fiction and 8 on philosophy and social sciences. The scheme carries a mandatory requirement that the nominated works be supported by the Embassy of France or the International Renaissance Foundation. Among the translated authors were Marcel Ayme, Annie Ernaux, Jean Genet, Venus Khoury-Gata, Marcel Proust, Georges Balandier, Paul Ricoeur, Marc Bloch, Georges Nivat... This year the grand prize went to Mykhailo Moskalenko for the translation of Poesies et proses by Stephan Mallarme (Univers, 2002) and Natalia Kolbina for that of La Raison des gestes dans l’Occident medieval by Jean-Claude Schmitt (Oko, 2002; see Den No. 197, October 29, 2002, for the review). A special prize was awarded to Oleh Khoma for translating De la recherche de la verite by Nicolas Malebranche (Port-Royal, 2001).

Besides, Philippe de Suremain, Ambassador of France to Ukraine, handed over, on behalf of the embassy, to Den/The Day a whole pack of Skovoroda-scheme books to be sent to the Chornukhy village library. Among the gifts are Marcel Proust’s seven-volume epic A la recherche du temps perdu, Stephan Mallarme’s poems, brilliant bon vivant Lous-Ferdinand Celine, existentialist Albert Camus, Georges Bernanos, Simone de Beauvoir, Saint-John Perse, Anne Delbe... On behalf of the prospective readers, we thank His Excellency Ambassador and culture counselor at the Embassy of France in Ukraine, Mr. Olivier Guillaume, for fruitful participation in the reestablishment of a Ukrainian library.