Residency in Scotland for Ukrainian emerging authors: in search of a shared language

PEN Ukraine and StAnza: Scotland’s International Poetry Festival reflect on the residency for young Ukrainian poets Iryna Kupchynska and Illia Rudiiko and Scottish poets Rebecca Ferrier and Robbie MacLeòid at Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre in Scotland.

In March 2024, a poetry translation workshop Phrases: New Poets in Translation took place in Ivano-Frankivsk during the second edition of the Propysy Festival. Four finalists of the festival’s professional program – Ivan Hnativ, Iryna Kupchynska, Yuliana Lesniak and Illia Rudiiko – participated in the workshop. For two months, they worked with four poets from the Scottish side on mutual translation of their poetry, Alyson Kisner, Rachel Rankin, Rebecca Ferrier, and Robbie MacLeóid, and presented their achievements in March at Propysy in Ivano-Frankivsk and at a joint event with StAnza in St. Andrews.

After the end of the Propysy Festival, two of the workshop participants, Iryna Kupchynska and Illia Rudiiko – were invited to an international residency at Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre in the Scottish Highlands to work together with their Scottish colleagues Robbie MacLeòid and Rebecca Ferrier. The residency lasted for two weeks; along with the workshop Phrases: New Poets in Translation within the Propysy Festival, it was made possible by the partnership of PEN Ukraine with StAnza and Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre and was supported by the UK/Ukraine Creative Partnerships program established by the British Council and Ukrainian Institute — Український інститут.

"A mountain residency surrounded by woods, pastures full of sheep and even deer in a pen is a dream itself. But having different writers nearby who write in different genres and different languages, like Tamil, Irish, Gaelic, Māori, who research history, literature, and explore the possibilities of language, equates the inner beauty of the place to the outward fairytale. It was like a poetic daydream," says Iryna Kupchynska. She worked in pair with British author Rebecca Ferrier – while translating each other’s poetry and writing a poetic dialogue, both dived deep into words’ meanings and searched for idioms’ equivalents.

"The opportunity to bring my working relationship with Iryna off the screen and to an in-person setting was invaluable, especially when that setting was the beautiful Moniack Mhor. Through the Phrases residency, I was able to reflect on my own creative process, while also collaborating with a talented, generous and vibrant poet who I found so much in common with," says Rebecca Ferrier of her work with her Ukrainian colleague.

Illia Rudiiko, another young Ukrainian resident of the Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre, says that the residency provided him with a precious opportunity to listen to our voices from outside and to hear the outside voices closely. "But understanding how powerfully these voices resonate when speaking about the most painful things for us today, like the war, our losses, the year 2014 that turned up to be a difficult one for both Ukraine and Scotland, as well as about support and compassion, was something even more precious for me. It was a heartbreaking experience of finding a common ground for Ukrainian and Scottish cultures, even though we are located on the opposite sides of Europe. It was a pleasure and honour for me to talk and work together with the Scottish poets whom I am beyond delighted to call my friends now," he added.

Illia worked with Scottish poet Robbie MacLeóid who writes in Gaelic. Rudiiko says that it was a great challenge to translate MacLeóid’s poetry into Ukrainian because of many polysemantic words and alliterations.

As for Robbie MacLeóid himself, he said of the Ukrainian-Scottish workshop: "It was a wonderful opportunity to spend time with Illia at Moniack Mhor, talking deeply about translation, poetry, and culture. Particularly since I was working in Gaelic, being able to discuss matters of culture and minoritised languages in the Highlands of Scotland themselves was especially valuable. Even the Northern Lights came out to put on a show for us all!"

Iryna and Rebecca, along with Robbie and Illia, presented their achievements at an international poetry reading in Abriachan Village Hall to an enraptured audience.

"Rebecca and I read each other’s texts in translation and then recited a poem each from our polylogue of an outraged woman and a calm bird. That felt like flying beyond time and space, a game you cannot allow yourself in Ukraine while working with difficult issues," says Iryna. She refers to poetry from the residency as a game, an experiment, and an exhale.

Illia Rudiiko and Robbie MacLeóid presented their joint series of poetry about the Scottish mountains. This work was rooted in the thrill of Gaelic language that includes over a dozen words to indicate a mountain depending on its form and height. "I think that this idea of a language being forged by the wider world around us and being able to actually create the wider world unites Gaelic and Ukrainian languages," says Illia.

"I had a chance to realize from my personal experience that mutual poets’ work on each other’s translations can be incredibly well done even though they may not speak each other’s language. In case they have drafts of translations and can stay together for some time, talk and explain all the linguistic nuances of their texts to each other, we get translations that could hardly have emerged otherwise – like Ukrainian to Gaelic and vice versa. I’m happy that our poets had this experience and we got these new high-quality translations," says Ostap Slyvynsky, curator of the Propysy Festival, writer and vice president of PEN Ukraine.

PEN Ukraine, StAnza, and Moniack Mhor look forward to presenting a selection of the work that has come from this residency.. Film poems from the readings of Illia Rudiiko, Iryna Kupchynska, Rebecca Ferrier, and Robbie MacLeóid will be presented online as part the StAnza: Scotland’s International Poetry Festival that will take place on March 14-16, 2025.

The poetry translating workshop Phrases: New Poets in Translation within the 2024 Propysy Festival, as well as the Scottish residency in September, was made possible by the partnership of PEN Ukraine with StAnza and Moniack Mhor, Scotland’sCreative Writing Centre and was supported by the UK/Ukraine Creative Partnerships program established by the British Council and Ukrainian Institute — Український інститут.