Isaac Strul, Deserter A Short Story by Liviu Rebreanu

One of Liviu Rebreanu’s most haunting short works, Ițic Ștrul, Deserter is a tense and deeply human story of friendship, prejudice, fear, and moral responsibility set against the brutality of war.

This reader’s edition presents the story in a carefully researched English literary translation designed to preserve not only Rebreanu’s meaning, but also his rhythm, atmosphere, psychological tension, period language, and distinctly Romanian voice.

Rather than relying on a literal word-for-word rendering, the translation considers Romanian idiom, historical vocabulary, military terminology, social register, diminutives, and expressions whose emotional meaning can easily disappear in English. The Romanian text was also checked against a lifetime edition of Rebreanu’s work to avoid errors found in some modern transcriptions.

The edition includes:

• The complete English translation of Ițic Ștrul, dezertor…
• Reader-friendly literary formatting
• A note on the original text and publication history
• Translator’s notes on important linguistic and cultural choices
• Explanations of selected period and historical terminology
• Translation methodology and source information

Rebreanu himself believed that a translation could be technically correct and still lose the spirit of a literary work. This edition was created with that principle at its center: to make the story live naturally in English without erasing the character of the Romanian original.

Format: Digital PDF
Language: English
Original Author: Liviu Rebreanu
Original Title: Ițic Ștrul, dezertor…