#Short amharic stories series#

It is a vehicle of universal culture, science and technology. English is the international lingua franca. One will have to make similar efforts in this direction in the future too. This is perhaps the first attempt to produce a book of Ethiopian stories in English. These stories, both by their narrative techniques and subject matter, are closer to the lives and experiences of Ethiopian students and readers than, say, the stories by Nathaniel Hawthorn, Anton Chekhov or Guy de Maupassant. I thought it should also serve as additional reading material for students of English in Ethiopian schools. I had the conviction that Amharic literature вЂ“ or any literature in any of the Ethiopian languages for that matter вЂ“ deserved to be accessible to the non-Amharic reader. The idea of producing this collection dawned on me way back in 1993. I would like to thank the editors of the magazine. I have discovered one of his stories in a now defunct bilingual magazine called Guramayle and I have included it in this collection.

#Short amharic stories series#

He is the author of another novel in English in the African Writers Series entitled The Thirteenth Sun. He has also written a classic novel in Amharic called Adefris. This editor also believes they are representative samples of the modern Amharic short story in the period that witnessed its unique flourishing.Дaniachew Worku wrote short stories both in English and in Amharic. The editor has selected these stories for their intrinsic merit. They experimented with style, subject matter and language. Some of the other authors in this anthology are younger ones. This editor has translated and included it in this collection. His story appeared under the title yefitsame mejemeria (The Beginning of The End). This was on the eve of the publication of the ill-fated Oromay (1985) with which he is alleged to have criticized the former officials and paid for it with his life. He sent it to a defunct Amharic language magazine known as Yekatit (February). He was the modern Amharic novelist and stylist par excellence.Д«aвЂ™alu has written one short story during his literary career. He has influenced quite a number of younger writers and suddenly disappeared from the literary scene under mysterious circumstances back in 1984. He has done so both for the taleвЂ™s merit and the authorвЂ™s special consideration for it in the introduction to the same collection.Д«aвЂ™alu Girma is an Ethiopian writer noted for his fine literary style and language. This editor has taken the story from chapter five of the collection.

although Haddis Alemayehu is a novelist, he has also written folk tales or fairy tales akin to the famous fables by French writer La Fontaine.ДЄ collection of fables by Addis Alemayehu was first published by Kuraz Publishing Agency in 1960 under the title teret teret yemeseret. It was during this time that what many consider to be an Amharic classic, namely the novel by the foremost Ethiopian writer Haddis Alemayehu appearedunder the now household name of fikir eske mekabir (Love unto Death). The 1950вЂ™s and 1960вЂ™s have witnessed the spread of written Amharic literature in the forms of novels and short stories. This is to show how story writing in Amharic began and changed eventually. This editor has included it in this first anthology. Critics maintain that the first published Amharic short story did not appear before ye gulelew sekaram (The Drunkard of Gulele), published some fifty years ago. The Amharic short story dates back to an even later period. Imaginary characters, settings and dialogue. Literary commentators generallyД¬onsider Tobia the first modern novel in Amharic, with a fully developed plot, Novel is called Tobia by Afewerk Gebretyesus. The introduction of modern education and together with it, theДЄdvent of Western culture and ways of thinking and writing were decisiveДЇull-length, and what some critics consider to be the first modern Amharic Long time and the emergence of a rather secular intelligentsia in Ethiopia, for Amharic, although an offshoot of GeвЂ™ez, later on made a sharp break with this ancient tradition and started to serve as a vehicle for the feelings, emotions, aspirations and hopes and frustrations of ordinary Ethiopians. It hardly dealt with secular themes and the lives of ordinary Ethiopians. GeвЂ™ez literature largely dealt with the lives and miracles of saints and angels and largely consisted of church chronicles, so to say. Ethiopian literature has been characterized for many centuries by the unchallenged sway GeвЂ™ez or the language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church held over all aspects of intellectual life including literature.