The Book of the Lion. Selected

Bogdan Igor Antonych (Богдан Ихор Антонич, 1909–1938) is an original poet, a classic of Ukrainian literature. The “Book of the Lion” is composed of selected works that were included in the poet’s three lifetime collections (“Greetings of Life”, 1931; “Three Rings”, 1934; “Book of the Lion”, 1936), two posthumous ones (“Green Gospel”, 1938; “Rotations”, 1938), as well as texts that were not included in separate editions, including the collection “Great Harmony” [1932–1933] prepared by the author himself (but not published). The section “Sketches, Plans, Fragments” includes selected materials from the poet’s notebooks. The collection of selected works concludes with his speech "Position of a Poet", delivered upon receiving a literary award on January 1, 1935.

Translations from Ukrainian were made by the best poets of the 20th century, including Eduard Akulin, Mikola Alakhnovich, Ryhor Baradulin, Gennady Buraukin, Sergei Zakonnikov, Vasily Zuyonak, Sergei Paniznik, as well as the editor and commentator of the publication Vyacheslav Rogoysha. Prose fragments for the publication were rewritten by Tatiana Kobrzhytskaya.

The epigraphs used are excerpts from the prefaces by Nil Gilevich and Dmytro Pavlychka to the previous version of this collection, which was published in 2011 by the Kamenyar publishing house (Lviv) in a small edition. The new edition, published 12 years later, is a good opportunity for the Belarusian reader to discover the work of the modernist author, who had a tremendous influence on the development of Ukrainian poetry in the 20th century.