A Russian Story

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE In the preparation of my English translation of A Russian Story I have been fortunate in enjoying the close co-operation of the author throughout. Ideally, this is how all literary translations should be written, so as to ensure that the translator is enabled to realise the author’s intentions creatively without overstepping them. I would also like to gratefully acknowledge the support of my Ukrainian colleagues Dr Bogdan Babych and Dr Svitlana Babych of the Centre for Translation Studies at the University of Leeds, who read the translation and made positive suggestions for improvements of detail. — Patrick John Corness. Patrick John Corness is presently Visiting Research Fellow in the Centre for Translation Studies at the University of Leeds. Formerly a Principal Lecturer in Russian and German, with wide experience in translation and interpreting, he has specialised since 2000 in literary translation from Czech, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian. He holds the Silver Medal of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, for achievements in the international dissemination of Czech scholarship and culture. His interest in Ukrainian grew out of several years of close involvement during the 1990s in EU-funded projects supporting collaboration between universities in Western Ukraine and Coventry University in England. He has contributed translations of modern Ukrainian short stories to Ukrainian Literature, a Journal of Translations (Toronto), The Massachusetts Review and The Stinging Fly (Dublin).