Lesya Ukrainka’s ‘Your Letters Always Smell of Withered Roses’ (1947): A New Translation

Abstract

Lesya Ukrainka (1871-1913) was a Ukrainian poet, dramatist, and political activist, who transformed Ukrainian literature by expanding its range to include a whole array of characters from classical mythology, scripture, and world literature. ‘Your Letters Always Smell of Withered Roses’ is one of several pieces, unpublished during her lifetime, written after she met and fell in love with Serhiy Merzhynsky in 1897 while both were receiving treatment for tuberculosis. It is likely to have been composed in November 1900. Ukrainka was a staunch believer in her country’s freedom and worked with her brother to promote Ukrainian literature and translation of foreign classics into Ukrainian. Her strong female characters toppled the patriarchal model of the literature of the time, yet she remains one of the most under-translated authors of her day.