Леонід Мосендз. Людина Покірна

Леонід Мосендз

Work proposed for translation:

Людина Покірна
Short stories (1939–1948)
Length: 260 pp.
Copyright: Public domain

Leonid Mosendz (1897–1948) is a Ukrainian writer and poet, scientist and politician. His life was part of a half-century of turbulent Ukrainian history in the first half of the 20th century: a soldier on the fronts of World War I, an officer of the restored Ukrainian state, an emigrant. He died in Switzerland. His poetic output consists of a collection of poems Zodiac, a dramatic poem Eternal Ship, the poems Kannitverstan and Volyn Year. Mosendz’s work as a writer reached its greatest development in the second half of his life. He is the author of two collections of short stories, The Meek Man and Revenge, the historical novel The Last Prophet, several literary essays, and the study Stein: Idea and Character. The main sources that nourished and influenced Leonid Mosendz’s work were European culture, philosophy, history, art, and literature.

The book includes two collections that were published during the author’s lifetime: The Meek Man (Homo lenis) and Revenge, as well as his literary essays. This is a special presentation of human behaviour both in the borderline situations of one’s own existence and in the culminating moments in the history of mankind. If the first collection is built on the motifs of the life choices of a Ukrainian person, then the second is based on motifs from European culture and history. One of the examples from the first collection is The Return of the Cossack Michael Smiles. Smiles is an American soldier who, from notes in his family Bible, knows that his ancestors emigrated from Ukraine long ago. It is therefore not surprising that after the end of the Great War, he joins the Ukrainian rebels in their fight against the Russian occupiers. And when they capture the rebels and offer Smiles to go over to their side, he rejects the offer and shares the fate of the other prisoners. From the second collection, I’ha pagata (He Repaid) is representative: in medieval Venice, the Doge Loredano seizes power. The owners of the weapons workshops, the Pacioli, lead the fight against the tyrant, but they are executed. So the wandering monk, the last of this family, returns to the city to kill the dictator.