Lesia Ukrainka. On the Field of Blood

Lesia Ukrainka

Work proposed for translation:

On the Field of Blood 
Plays (1902–1913)
Length: 320 pp.
Copyright: Public domain

Lesia Ukrainka (real name Larysa Kosach, 1871–1913) was an influential Ukrainian writer, poet, publicist and translator. Due to illness, she was only able to receive home education, but she became the most educated person of her time, an emancipated woman with a European worldview, which she strengthened while living in many countries. Thanks to close cooperation with her uncle, Mykhailo Drahomanov, a professor at the University of Sofia and a political émigré, she joined the political life of Europe. She actively collaborated with Galician figures, published literary studies, translations and her own works here. She achieved the greatest success in drama. She is considered the founder of Ukrainian modernism, a classic of Ukrainian literature. Despite the serious illness that caused her premature death (1913), Lesia Ukrainka did a lot in various spheres of culture, becoming a symbolic figure of national revival and self-knowledge.

The collection of selected dramatic works On the Field of Blood includes plays on historical themes. But each plot reflects the author’s inner biography, her difficult choices between life and death, between free artistic realization and social duty, between the need for ideal platonic love and the desire to create a family. The focus is mostly on early Christianity. The drama The Obsessed is dedicated to the relationship between the Messiah, before his crucifixion, and Miriam, his devoted disciple. The tragedy that the author experienced in reality is projected onto a biblical plot and takes on an incredibly expressive sound. The borderline situation is also played out in the drama On the Field of Blood, the main character of which is Judas, who sold Jesus Christ for thirty silver coins and bought a small rocky field near Jerusalem. In the drama Rufinus and Priscilla, a married couple of Roman citizens must choose between faith and love, paying with their lives for their choice. In the drama The Lawyer Martian, the theme of early Christianity unfolds as the story of a secret Christian Martian, a lawyer by profession. In order to protect the community of Christians from persecution by the Roman authorities, the lawyer is forced to make unjustified sacrifices.