On February 25, at the invitation of Ihor Ostash, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Lebanese Republic, employees of the International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations, Lviv Polytechnic National University, took part in the embassy’s online celebrations of Lesia Ukrainka’s 150th anniversary.
The highlight of the event was the presentation of the first volume of Lesia Ukrainka’s prose works in Arabic translated by Imadeddine Raef, a well-known Lebanese translator, writer, journalist, Ukrainian and Slavic scholar. The publication was supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the Community of Ukrainians in Lebanon.
According to Ihor Ostash, Lesia’s life and work «are closely connected with the Arab world, but only in recent years her works have become available to the Arabic reader. Lesia Ukrainka, like her colleagues I. Franko, A. Krymskyi and P. Kulish, admired oriental studies, history, mythology and customs of the Eastern world. Her poetry, dramas and translations are permeated with the Arabic theme. At the age of 19, Lesia Ukrainka wrote a textbook for her younger sister, Ancient History of Oriental Peoples, which was in fact the first Ukrainian textbook in this field».
«This is another gift for Lesia Ukrainka, said in her speech Iryna Kliuchkovska. Translations of Lesia Ukrainka’s works are another step for the integration not only of the great poetess’ work into the cultural space in a world heritage, but also for the integration of Ukraine in general».