It has been a year since the legend of Ukrainian translation passed away. His name was Ilko Korunets. He was a prominent professor at my Alma Mater- Kyiv National Linguistic University.

Mr. Korunets was an outstanding scientist and a well known fiction literature translator. Professor Korunets wrote over 100 scientific, methodological works, translated lots of books from English and Italian, including works by James Fenimore Cooper, Arthur Rambo, Oscar Wilde, Gianni Rodari and others.

But it wasn’t his professionalism that has always seemed so astonishing to me. The strength of Ilko’s spirit was the one thing that I could never wrap my brain around. How do you manage to go through so much sorrow and deaths and still be able to smile, be a kind and generous person eager to share your light with people?

Professor Korunets was born in 1922 and survived Holodomor ( artificial famine imposed on Ukraine by Joseph Stalin in 1932-1933). The Second World War broke out when he turned 17. The brave young man managed to survive the battlefields as well as the concentration camp.

I feel so blessed to have been one of his few students during my Master’s year of studies.

Some people are like the whole mysterious universes, Ilko was one of them.

When I found out that he had passed away, I cried. He wasn’t my family or my close friend but he deeply affected me as a future interpreter/translator. And for that I am forever grateful.

P.S. Ukrainians commemorate the victims of Holodomor on the 4th Saturday of November. Here is a video where Professor Korunets describes the horrors of Holodomor from his own experience.

RIP

We remember…