Bio

Ukrainian-born self-taught translator from English and German, Olha Svyripa, is an author of several translations of world-known classics, like Friedrich Hölderlin and Georg Heym, along with the works of contemporary authors, like Esther Kinsky, Dana Grigorcea, and David Abram. Her translations were awarded by Ukrainian prizes ‘Metaphora’ (2013) and ‘Top 10 translated books of the year’ (2017). She is working on a translation of the ecological book by David Abram, “The Spell of the Sensuous,” and writes her own diaries on surviving the full-scale war in Ukraine.

Project

During my stay I plan to continue my work on translation of the book written by David Abram “The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World.” In this work, David Abram draws on sources as diverse as the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand magician to reveal the subtle dependence of human cognition on the natural environment. This major work of ecological philosophy startles the senses out of habitual ways of perception.