Василь Слапчук. Навпроти течії трави

Василь Слапчук

Work proposed for translation:

Навпроти течії трави 
Short stories (2001)
Length: 180 pp.
Copyright: Author: v.slapchuk61@ukr.net

Vasyl Slapchuk (born 1961) is a Ukrainian writer and poet, essayist, literary critic and translator. While serving in the Soviet army, he was sent to Afghanistan. He was seriously wounded during an assault on a mujahideen base in the Tora Bora Gorge. Since then, he has lost the ability to walk. After a long treatment, he studied at the Faculty of Philology of the Lesia Ukrainka Volyn National University. He holds a doctorate in philosophy. Winner of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine in 2004 (for his collections Against the Flow of Grass and A Knot on a Traveller’s Staff). He believes that the war made him a writer. He is the author of about a dozen books of prose and about the same number of books of poetry. Not all of them are about the war, but among Ukrainian writers who fought in Afghanistan and covered their war experience in literary works, Vasyl Slapchuk is probably the most famous figure. His works were published in Poland, Bulgaria, the USA, and Belarus.

Against the Flow of Grass is one of those books by Vasyl Slapchuk in which the writer refers to his own experience of the Afghan war. The book appeared at the intersection of genres (poetry and prose) and consists of many small lyrical reflections and prose microplots. The central theme of the war is complemented by memories of childhood, imaginary dialogues with relatives, reflections on humanity, etc. It is important to note that the lyrical protagonist of this book, being a soldier in the Soviet army, realises that he is a Ukrainian who has become a hostage to other people’s interests. He is sometimes a victim, sometimes an aggressor, sometimes he shoots, sometimes he suffers, sometimes he rejoices, then he is sad. He is overcome by conflicting feelings: friendship and resentment, love and anger. Realistic pictures are intertwined with delusions. The white figure at the bedside of the lyrical hero resembles both a nurse and death. The people here are like ghosts, so you have to check with shots which target is a ghost and which is a person. The world depicted in this book is like an hourglass, and therefore, as Vasyl Slapchuk notes, “it has to turn upside down for time to move.”