Initial commit of ebook 78316 filesHEAD main

author: www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org> 2026-03-28 16:54:54 -0700
committer: www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org> 2026-03-28 16:54:54 -0700
commit: f2a400527411d2ed321f63f1063d9f0db7917ba7 (patch)
tree: dcfa7fd828ef4719d5bc648e1dec91162e52d071 /78316-h
4 files changed, 10054 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/78316-h/78316-h.htm b/78316-h/78316-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fd26c1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/78316-h/78316-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,10054 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+    <meta charset="UTF-8">
+    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
+    <title>
+      Taras Shevchenko: The Poet of Ukraine | Project Gutenberg
+    </title>
+    <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover">
+    <style>
+
+body {
+    margin-left: 10%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+}
+
+h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+    text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+    clear: both;
+}
+
+h3 { margin-top: 1.5em; }
+
+p {
+    margin-top: .5em;
+    text-align: justify;
+    margin-bottom: .5em;
+}
+
+hr {
+    width: 33%;
+    margin-top: 2em;
+    margin-bottom: 2em;
+    margin-left: 33.5%;
+    margin-right: 33.5%;
+    clear: both;
+}
+
+hr.tb   {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;}
+hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;}
+@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} }
+
+div.chapter {page-break-before: always;}
+h2.nobreak  {page-break-before: avoid;}
+
+table {
+    margin-left: auto;
+    margin-right: auto;
+}
+table.autotable    { border-collapse: collapse; }
+table.autotable td,
+table.autotable th { padding: 0.25em; }
+
+.tdl      {text-align: left;}
+.tdr      {text-align: right;}
+
+.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+    /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+    position: absolute;
+    left: 92%;
+    font-size: small;
+    text-align: right;
+    font-style: normal;
+    font-weight: normal;
+    font-variant: normal;
+    text-indent: 0;
+} /* page numbers */
+
+blockquote {
+    margin-top: 0;
+    margin-bottom: 0;
+    margin-left: 5%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+}
+
+.center   {text-align: center; text-indent: 0;}
+
+.right    {text-align: right;}
+
+.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;}
+
+figcaption   {font-weight: bold;}
+figcaption p {margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: .2em; text-align: inherit;}
+
+/* Images */
+
+img {
+    max-width: 100%;
+    height: auto;
+}
+img.w100 {width: 100%;}
+
+
+.figcenter {
+    margin: auto;
+    text-align: center;
+    page-break-inside: avoid;
+    max-width: 100%;
+}
+
+/* Footnotes */
+.footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+
+.footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;}
+
+.fnanchor {
+    vertical-align: super;
+    font-size: .8em;
+    text-decoration:
+    none;
+}
+
+/* Poetry */
+/* uncomment the next line for centered poetry */
+.poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;}
+.poetry-container {text-align: center;}
+.poetry           {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;}
+.poetry .stanza   {margin: 1em auto;}
+.poetry .verse    {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;}
+
+/* Poetry indents */
+.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3.0em;}
+.poetry .indent2 {text-indent: -2.0em;}
+.poetry .indent4 {text-indent: -1.0em;}
+.poetry .indent6 {text-indent: 0.0em;}
+.poetry .indent8 {text-indent: 1.0em;}
+.poetry .indent10 {text-indent: 2.0em;}
+.poetry .indent12 {text-indent: 3.0em;}
+.poetry .indent13 {text-indent: 3.5em;}
+.poetry .indent14 {text-indent: 4.0em;}
+.poetry .indent15 {text-indent: 4.5em;}
+.poetry .indent16 {text-indent: 5.0em;}
+.poetry .indent18 {text-indent: 6.0em;}
+.poetry .indent20 {text-indent: 7.0em;}
+.poetry .indent22 {text-indent: 8.0em;}
+.poetry .indent24 {text-indent: 9.0em;}
+.poetry .indent28 {text-indent: 11.0em;}
+.poetry .indent32 {text-indent: 13.0em;}
+
+
+/* TOC */
+.toc-container {
+	display: flex;
+	justify-content: center;
+}
+
+/* horiz and vert alignment of text in tables */
+.tdli     {
+          text-align: left;
+          text-indent: 2.0em;
+          vertical-align: baseline;
+}
+.tdli3    {
+          text-align: left;
+          text-indent: 3.5em;
+          vertical-align: baseline;
+}
+
+/* faux-h2 for front matter */
+.front {
+  font-size: x-large;
+  font-weight: bold;
+  text-align: center;
+  page-break-before: avoid;
+}
+.frontplain {
+  font-size: x-large;
+  text-align: center;
+  page-break-before: avoid;
+}
+
+/* faux-h2 centered */
+.fh2 {
+  display: block;
+  font-size: x-large;
+  font-weight: bold;
+  text-align: center;
+}
+
+/* faux-h3 centered */
+.fh3 {
+  display: block;
+  font-size: 1.17em;
+  margin-top: 1.5em;
+  margin-bottom: 0;
+  margin-left: 0;
+  margin-right: 0;
+  font-weight: bold;
+  text-align: center;
+}
+
+/* illustrations */
+.illowp05 {width: 5%; max-width: 1em;}
+.illowp65 {width: 65%; max-width: 32em;}
+
+
+/* Transcriber's notes (includes pagebreak before) */
+.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA;
+    color: black;
+    font-size:small;
+    padding:0.5em;
+    margin-bottom:5em;
+    font-family:sans-serif, serif;
+    page-break-before: always;
+}
+    </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78316 ***</div>
+<div class="chapter">
+<figure class="figcenter illowp65">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/frontispiece.jpg" alt="Photograph of Shevchenko in 1860">
+  <figcaption>
+<p class="center">
+<span lang="uk">ШЕВЧЕНКО В 1860 Р.<br>
+Фотографія.</span><br>
+<br>
+Shevchenko in 1860<br>
+Photograph
+</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+
+<h1>
+TARAS SHEVCHENKO<br>
+<span class="frontplain"><i>The Poet of Ukraine</i></span>
+</h1>
+
+
+<p class="front">SELECTED POEMS</p>
+
+<br>
+<figure class="figcenter illowp05">
+  <img src="images/doodad.jpg" alt="Decorative symbol">
+</figure>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center">Translated with an Introduction</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>by</i></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Clarence A. Manning</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">Acting Executive Officer<br>
+Department of East European Languages<br>
+Columbia University</p>
+
+<br><br>
+<p class="center">UKRAINIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION</p>
+
+<p class="center">Jersey City, New Jersey</p>
+
+<p class="center">1945</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span> 1945 by<br>
+<span class="allsmcap">UKRAINIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION<br>
+JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY</span></p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+    <p class="fh2">CONTENTS</p>
+</div>
+<div class="toc-container">
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#INTRODUCTION">Introduction</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">v</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td></td><td></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_ONE">Chapter One—The Literary Scene</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli3"><a href="#CHAPTER_TWO">Two—The Life of Shevchenko</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli3"><a href="#CHAPTER_THREE">Three—The Poetry of Shevchenko</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">36</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli3"><a href="#CHAPTER_FOUR">Four—The Religion of Shevchenko</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">55</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td></td><td></td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#SELECTED_POEMS_OF_TARAS_SHEVCHENKO">Selected Poems of Shevchenko</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">61</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#THE_KOBZAR">The Kobzar</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">63</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli"><a href="#Dedication">Dedication</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">64</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli"><a href="#Perebendya">Perebendya</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">67</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli"><a href="#Poplar">The Poplar</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">70</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli"><a href="#Dumka">Dumka (What do my black hairs avail me)</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">76</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli"><a href="#Osnovyanenko">To Osnovyanenko</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">78</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli"><a href="#Ivan_Pidkova">Ivan Pidkova</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">81</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli"><a href="#Night_of_Taras">The Night of Taras</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">83</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli"><a href="#Katerina">Katerina</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">88</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#THE_HAYDAMAKI">The Haydamaki</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">108</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli"><a href="#prelude">Prelude</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">110</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#TO_THE_ETERNAL_MEMORY_OF_KOTLYAREVSKY">To the Eternal Memory of Kotlyarevsky</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">117</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#Dumka_Water">Dumka (Water flows into the blue sea)</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">120</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#HAMALIYA">Hamaliya</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">121</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#TO_OKSANA_K">To Oksana K.</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">127</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#THE_DREAM">The Dream</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">128</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#TO_SAFARIK">To Šafařík</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">145</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#THE_GREAT_GRAVE">The Great Grave</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">148</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#THE_CAUCASUS">The Caucasus</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">165</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#THE_EPISTLE">The Epistle</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">171</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#THE_TESTAMENT">The Testament (When I die, O lay my body)</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">179</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#IN_THE_FORTRESS">In the Fortress, No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 12</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">180</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#POEMS_OF_EXILE">Poems of Exile</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">184</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli"><a href="#1847">1847 (Songs of mine, O songs of mine)</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">184</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli"><a href="#Sunset">N. N. (Sunset is coming, mountains are shadowed)</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">184</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli"><a href="#Thirteenth">N. N. (My thirteenth birthday was now over)</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">185</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#RETURN">Return</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">186</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli"><a href="#Fortune">Fortune</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">187</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli"><a href="#Muse">The Muse</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">187</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#TO_MARKO_VOVCHOK">To Marko Vovchok</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">189</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#MARY">Mary</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">190</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#HOSEA_CHAPTER_XIV">Hosea, Chapter XIV</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">211</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#Do_Not_Murmur">I do not murmur at the Lord</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">213</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><a href="#THE_APPROACHING_END">The Approaching End</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">214</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli"><a href="#Years_of_Youth">The years of youth are passed away</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">215</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdli"><a href="#Stop">Is it not time for us to stop?</a></td>
+<td class="tdr">215</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTION">
+    INTRODUCTION
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Taras Shevchenko is the poet of Ukraine. There is hardly a Ukrainian
+home from the humblest to the richest that does not contain a
+portrait of the poet who during his short life touched every chord of
+the Ukrainian heart. He shared the fortunes of his people and during
+his unhappy life he suffered all the hardships of serfdom, of exile, of
+police supervision that was the fate of the greater part of his compatriots.
+Seldom has a poet lived and suffered to the full as did Shevchenko
+and rarely has a man so fully incorporated all the aspirations
+of his people.</p>
+
+<p>That is not all. As an artist and a thinker Shevchenko deserves the
+sympathetic knowledge and understanding of the entire civilized
+and democratic world. He deserves it as the representative of his people,
+a nation of forty millions who have so far failed to receive that independence
+for which they have long struggled. He deserves it also for
+himself, for his own writings, since it can be truly said that he is one
+of those men who have a message for all humanity, for the suffering
+and the downtrodden, the victims of injustice and oppression everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>It is the object of this book to make available in English translation
+some of the masterpieces of this poet whose works have lived for a
+century with an ever widening influence and an ever increasing appreciation
+of his genius both at home and abroad. It has been a
+strange fate that has confined knowledge of his works to some scanty
+references in books on literature, while lesser men in other languages
+have received fantastic praises. Such was fate. In his lifetime many of
+the most penetrating critics in Russia saw fit to place him above Pushkin
+and Mickiewicz for his mastery of language and for the depth and
+sincerity of his ideas. Yet they were in the minority, for the vast multitudes
+were only inclined to see in him a young serf writing in his native
+language and they passed him by with a shrug of the shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>He formed part of that great flowering of poetry which commenced
+with the period of Romanticism in Europe and he was one of those
+men who passed by a natural evolution to the great period of realism
+and of sensitiveness to the social problems of the day. Now in the
+twentieth century we are learning as never before to judge him for
+himself, as a flowering of the Ukrainian character and as a man who
+has a message not only for his own times and country but for the entire
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</span>world. He has stood the test of time and he deserves due recognition
+in these days when the entire world is sunk in war and desolation.</p>
+
+<p>There can be no doubt to-day that Taras Shevchenko is one of the
+great Slavonic poets. He is one of the great poets of the nineteenth
+century without regard to nationality or language and his fearless
+appeal to right and truth and justice speaks as eloquently in the New
+World as it did in the Old or in the little village where he was born,
+the city to which he was taken or the treeless steppes to which he was
+exiled.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_ONE">
+    <i>CHAPTER ONE</i>
+    <br>
+    THE LITERARY SCENE
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The half century before Taras Shevchenko began to write saw the
+beginning of those tendencies which were to develop to their full
+power at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth
+centuries. It was a period of transition in which the principles
+and ideas which had dominated Europe for centuries were being
+steadily shaken and losing all authority over the minds of men. They
+were questioned logically by the leading thinkers of the day but
+they were with equal vigor attacked by the uneducated masses who
+were vaguely hoping for better conditions of living. At the same
+time these new ideas with a few exceptions had not been translated
+into effective political and economic action and the resulting situation
+was the despair of both the reformers and the conservatives. There
+was an uneasy stalemate which differed from land to land and even
+from district to district.</p>
+
+<p>On the positive side the successful revolt of the American colonies
+and the establishment of the Republic of the United States left a
+deeper imprint upon European thought, even in the east of Europe,
+than we usually think. There is no need to exaggerate this but for
+good or ill the ideas of federation, as shown by the new country in
+the West, penetrated into distant lands and was hailed as a substitute
+for the centralizing policies of the autocratic monarchs who were
+working to destroy on paper as well as in practice the local liberties
+and traditions which had existed for centuries.</p>
+
+<p>This had been followed by the French Revolution and then the
+Napoleonic Wars. The confusion and hostilities had aided the ambitious
+plans of such rulers as Catherine II of Russia who had used the
+preoccupation of Europe with the West to finish the dismemberment
+of Poland and the annihilation of the last Ukrainian organizations.
+It comes as something of a shock to realize that the Zaporozhian Sich,
+long reduced to only a shadow of its past greatness, was not destroyed
+until 1775, and the last vestiges of the Hetmanate, which had been
+practically turned into an aristocratic regime, were wiped out in
+1783 and the territory was divided into governments and ruled on
+the Russian pattern. Thus so far as Ukraine was concerned, the final
+extinction of the old liberties came precisely at the period of the
+American Revolution. In 1792, with the division of Poland, Russia
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span>took over the region of Kiev, the area where Shevchenko was later to
+be born, incorporated that into its grandiose structure, and reduced
+the population to the status of Russian serfs.</p>
+
+<p>The final end of local liberties was thus hardly carried into practice
+when Russia was compelled to face the Napoleonic Wars. The
+officers of the aristocratic and Europeanized classes were brought face
+to face with the new ideas which they met definitely in Paris and in
+the contact with their allies during the campaigns and they began to
+dream of introducing into their native country some of the modern
+practices which they had seen in the West.</p>
+
+<p>These men were however too weak and too scattered to combine
+their influence for an effective movement and when they attempted
+it in the short-lived Decembrist revolt of 1825, they were decisively
+checked, and their leaders were executed or exiled to Siberia. The
+Polish revolt of 1831 fared little better and by the time that Nicholas
+I was securely established on the throne, he could in his own imagination
+breathe easily and forget that there had been such turmoils
+in the governmental organization.</p>
+
+<p>Thus in the Russian Empire, it seemed as if the powers of the reaction
+had been definitely established. The ideas of the Holy Alliance
+and of Prince Metternich seemed as solid as the monolithic structure
+erected in Moscow by Peter the Great. On the political side the
+conservative and reactionary factions were in full control and the
+rulers no longer, as in the days of Catherine, played with new ideas,
+even if they had no serious intention of practicing them. There were
+peasant disorders but there were no more such convulsions as that
+led by Pugachov and his Cossacks which seriously menaced the established
+order and which demanded the use of large military forces to
+save the regime.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile every step forward in the Europeanization of
+the Russian aristocracy meant an increase in the exactions demanded
+of the serfs. This was a process that had been continuing especially
+since the reforms of Peter the Great, when there was inserted a
+steadily deepening wedge between the manorhouse and the peasant.
+Long hours of forced labor on the nobleman’s lands and the ever
+diminishing size of the serf allotments because of an increase of population
+made the life of the poor unfortunates more and more miserable.
+This was especially marked in those areas where the Russian
+system had been but recently introduced and where traditions of an
+older and happier time still lingered on in the minds of the older
+inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p>
+
+<p>Along with this political and economic stagnation and retrogression
+went a new intellectual and artistic development. This made itself
+felt throughout the whole of the Empire. It had both its good
+and its bad sides. On the positive side, there was in Russia the appearance
+of a new art, a new literature which tried to imitate and
+then to adapt the French pseudo-classic culture of the eighteenth
+century. Nobles who had previously known little but the traditional
+Church Slavonic conceptions, handed down from antiquity, were
+fascinated by the new innovations. New methods of literary composition
+were introduced. A new language was devised. New influences
+from Western Europe came in.</p>
+
+<p>All this could not fail to draw away a large part of the intellectually
+alert landowners from their original moorings. During the
+eighteenth century the Ukrainian educated class tended more and
+more to accept the Europeanized Russian culture. This was the
+easier, because the Ukrainian centres, as the old Academy of Peter
+Mohyla in Kiev, had busied themselves entirely with Church Slavonic
+and theological subjects. The system of education had not included
+any of the results of Western development, the language used was
+artificial and differed markedly from the colloquial speech of the
+villagers, and even such a man as Skovoroda in the eighteenth century
+had not taken any definite step to assault the entrenched system
+except by the power of his own personal refusal to bend himself to its
+demands. Where in the seventeenth century the Kiev schools had
+sent scholars to reeducate Moscow, now after the absorption by Russia,
+they contented themselves with a continuation of the old policies.
+As a result there was a growing exodus of the young men to the
+dominant center of St. Petersburg and there was a consequent fall in
+the culture and educational resources of the Ukrainian lands and a
+rise in Russian influence.</p>
+
+<p>These tendencies were again counterbalanced by a new series of
+developments in Western Europe which could not fail to create a
+reaction throughout the whole of the continent. On the one hand,
+Rousseau in France developed his theories that the natural man had
+a higher moral virtue than the man of civilization and culture. There
+started a return to the primitive which could not fail to turn people’s
+attention to the condition of the serfs, while at the same time the renewed
+theories of the rights of man attracted attention to their misfortunes.</p>
+
+<p>Side by side with this there were the doctrines of Herder as to the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span>superiority of the folk song as a form of literature and the focussing
+of the attention of the educated on the speech of the common people
+and on their poetic productions and artistic practices. Those tendencies
+which had manifested themselves in Percy’s <i>Reliques</i>, a collection
+of Scotch ballads, which had continued with a desire to collect
+German folksongs, in which even Goethe took part, and the later
+interest in the Serb popular ballads naturally spread into Russia and
+resulted not only in the discovery of the <i lang="ru">byliny</i> in the far north but in
+a revaluation of the Ukrainian folk songs which had passed unnoticed
+outside of the villages or which had been treated with amused
+disdain by the polished noblemen. A new wave of interest was therefore
+set into motion and it came so soon after the disintegration of the
+old order that parts of it could be easily absorbed into the new movement.</p>
+
+<p>It was in this environment that Ivan Kotlyarevsky published in
+1798 the <i>Eneida</i>, the first work to be written in the Ukrainian vernacular.
+It is to be noticed that the author in his humorous adaptation
+of the old Latin story to the Ukrainian scene rested rather on the
+old classical traditions of the eighteenth century and the practices of
+the Kiev Academy than on the newer ideas which were beginning to
+appear on the intellectual horizon. Yet the work appeared at a critical
+time and it showed to the people still smarting under the newly imposed
+yoke that it was possible to develop the vernacular and to produce
+outstanding works of literature in it. This was all to the good
+and it in a way corresponded to the revival of the Czech language
+which was being started by the philologically inclined Josef
+Dobrovský.</p>
+
+<p>Yet before the vernacular literature could take a firm foothold,
+some other idea was necessary. This was found in the beginnings of
+Romanticism which swept with startling rapidity throughout Europe.
+This was a complicated movement and its form varied with
+the individual countries.</p>
+
+<p>It made its appearance in Russia largely through the influence of
+Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky, who was for nearly half a century
+the leading critic and adviser of the young aristocratic poets who
+developed at the Lycée of Tsarskoye Selo at the imperial court of
+Alexander I. This circle included Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin,
+the greatest of Russian poets, although in his composition there was
+always more of the older classical ideas and practices than it was
+fashionable to admit at the time.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span></p>
+
+<p>Zhukovsky, who was an excellent translator, acclimatized in Russia
+the whole apparatus of the weird, the supernatural and the
+mediaeval that was being developed in Germany. He early translated
+Bürger’s <i>Lenore</i>, the story of the dead lover returning to claim his
+living bride. He gave his people poems and stories of mediaeval
+chivalry and he translated many of the ballads of Goethe and Schiller.
+Very soon he added to this movement the influence of Byron and for
+some fifteen or twenty years the gilded youth of the Russian capital
+not only imitated Lord Byron’s poems in their writings but they acted
+out his ideas in real life and considered themselves to be wanderers
+persecuted by the world.</p>
+
+<p>With it all, the twenties and the thirties were the Golden Age of
+Russian poetry. Pushkin especially soon outgrew the narrow imitation
+of Byron. He added to the influences to which he was subjected those
+of Sir Walter Scott and Shakespeare. He wrote historical poems conceived
+in a profound admiration for Peter the Great as <i>Poltava</i> but at
+the same time in <i>The Captain’s Daughter</i> and other works he showed
+a strong appreciation of the career of that doughty old rebel Pugachov.
+Yet during the last years of his life he expressed more sympathy
+as in the <i>Brazen Horseman</i> with the sufferings of the poorer class of
+the people. The collapse of the Decembrist movement and the silencing
+of the reforming elements among the aristocracy gave rise to
+the beginnings of a more critical literature based on an attempted
+understanding of Western ideas and sharply divided Russian thought
+between the Slavophiles who were primarily conservative and attempted
+to find differences between Russian development and that
+of Western Europe to the advantage of the former and the Westerners,
+conservative and liberal alike, who sought to emphasize the backwardness
+of Russia and to demand the remodeling of the country on
+western lines. By 1840 these men, led by the furious Vissarion Grigoryevich
+Belinsky, had secured the ear of most of the literary journals
+and were well on their way toward the formation of a realistic
+school and the radical intelligentsia.</p>
+
+<p>The Romantic movement therefore had but a short life in Russia.
+This is not to be wondered at, for the Russian mediaeval history was
+not of a character that lent itself easily to the glorification of the
+past and of the feudal period that was so effective in German.
+Chivalry as an organized movement had not taken root in mediaeval
+Moscow with its strong Tatar and Asiatic influences and Russian
+Romanticism always lacked a certain basis which was found in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span>the Western European countries where for centuries the lords and
+barons had waged petty warfare with many deeds of individual
+daring.</p>
+
+<p>A special position in this movement was held by Nikolay Vasilyevich
+Gogol, the son of one of the early writers in Ukrainian. In his
+<i>Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka</i> and later in <i>Mirgorod</i> and especially
+in his powerful Cossack tale of <i>Taras Bulba</i>, he pictured the
+romantic side of Ukrainian or Little Russian tradition (to use the
+name which he gave it himself) and he told tales of the happier side of
+the life of the region where he had been born. His works really introduced
+into Russian literature a Russianized Ukrainian school of writing
+which by its color and charm attracted wide attention.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand in Poland, even after the division, there was
+the same outpouring of the Romantic spirit. Adam Mickiewicz who
+had started his brilliant poetical career in Wilno and Kaunas and
+had then been exiled to Russia and had finally gone abroad was the
+leading figure. One of that group of Polish patriots which had gathered
+around the University of Wilno, he had raised Polish literature
+to a new level of excellence. He was ably seconded by other writers
+as Juljusz Slowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński, the two other Romantic
+poets who were also forced into exile. The writings of this group were
+more in the conventional Romantic style and exercised an even
+stronger influence on Poland than did the Russian Romanticists in
+the narrow sense. Many of the writers of this time as Antoni Malczewski
+were familiar with the picturesque aspects of Ukrainian life,
+its rich supply of folksongs and its elaborate peasant rituals. As a
+result they introduced so-called Ukrainian themes into Polish literature
+and relying upon their Galician experiences, they made the
+Ukrainians or Ruthenians as they called them really popular.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile the energetic young group at Wilno were preparing
+for revolt which finally took place in 1831. Despite initial successes,
+the Russian Tsar speedily got control of this as he had of the Decembrist
+uprising among the Russian aristocrats. He suppressed it as
+brutally and for some decades the Poles were compelled to maintain
+abroad in France their chief literary activity, which continued
+to emphasize the principles of Romanticism with a strong feeling for
+their dismembered country.</p>
+
+<p>Finally we cannot overlook the first halting steps of that movement
+which was destined to be labelled Pan-Slavism or the Slavonic brotherhood.
+It was really launched in Bohemia by the Slovak Jan Kollár who
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span>in 1824 published a collection of sonnets, the <i>Daughter of Slava</i>, in
+which he pleaded for a brotherhood of all the Slavonic races. His work
+set the key for much of the later Czech literature and his ideas expanded
+in more prosaic form by Pavel Šafařík and others slowly permeated
+all classes of thinking Slavs. To Kollár and his friends this
+undoubtedly meant a free brotherhood with Russia as the most
+powerful member and protector against the Germanic world. To the
+Russians it meant the absorption of the other Slavs by Russia and the
+Slavophiles easily took many of the current ideas of the German
+philosophers and crossed them with conceptions of the Russian Orthodox
+Church to create a theory for their new nationalism.</p>
+
+<p>All of these various impulses combined to influence the newly born
+Ukrainian literature. There was much that directly appealed to the
+writers. For example the Ukrainians were conscious of their past, at
+least those who were conscious of anything. They knew that the exploits
+of the Kozaks were exactly the sort of thing that had attracted
+the attention of the Romantic poets of both Russia and Poland. They
+knew the wealth of their folklore, the number of weird themes that
+they had at their disposal. They realized the potentialities of the description
+of their folk customs. Besides, tales of the unhappy peasant,
+the seduced girl, the serf were common in the Romantic literature
+and the everyday life around them gave them countless examples to
+illustrate their writings.</p>
+
+<p>It required the work of a master to put the new modern Ukrainian
+literature on its feet. Kotlyarevsky had made a start in fashioning the
+language in which they could work. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko had carried
+on the work with his prose tales but there was needed an outstanding
+author who was sincerely devoted to the Ukrainian cause
+and was at the same time a master of the language, to weld together
+the various elements and to produce in Ukrainian works which would
+be on a par with those of the two conquering cultures which were
+then at their highest stage of poetic development. With the loss of
+most of their educated classes and with the hard conditions and the
+scanty opportunities offered to the peasants and the serfs, it might
+seem as if the man could not be found and as if the Ukrainian start
+was from the beginning foredoomed to failure. To the surprise of
+even the most optimistic, a great poet suddenly appeared, Taras
+Shevchenko.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_TWO">
+    <i>CHAPTER TWO</i>
+    <br>
+    THE LIFE OF SHEVCHENKO
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Taras Shevchenko was born in Ukraine in the village of Morintsy
+in the district of Zvenihorod, Government of Kiev on the right bank
+of the Dniper River. The situation of this community was of great
+importance in the formation of the character of the poet. It was in
+this general vicinity that the bloody outbreak of the Koliischchina
+had taken place in 1768, when the infuriated Orthodox population of
+the province had risen against their Polish masters and had burned
+the city of Uman. This war was to be the theme of Shevchenko’s great
+poem, <i>Haydamaki</i>. The revolt was bloodily suppressed, especially
+after Catherine the Great had listened to the pleadings of King
+Stanislas Poniatowski of Poland and had sent her troops to aid in the
+defeat of the rebels who had erroneously believed that they were acting
+in accordance with the will of the Russian Empress.</p>
+
+<p>The only result of the war was the still deeper subjugation of the
+Ukrainian population and the hardening of the rule of the Polish
+masters. The second division of Poland which brought this right bank
+of the Dniper under the control of Russia did not aid the unfortunate
+Ukrainians. They found themselves bound still more strictly to
+the soil and they soon learned to their discomfiture that Russia would
+herself back up the claims of the Polish landlords. The demands of
+the masters were carried to a new high and there was little or no redress
+for the unfortunate victims. They had only their memories of
+the past and the traditions and folksongs which they had inherited to
+remind them that their ancestors and the Kozaks had once been free
+men and able to control their own destiny.</p>
+
+<p>Among the survivors of this merciless struggle was Ivan Shevchenko,
+the grandfather of the poet and he lived well into the lifetime
+of his grandson and was wont to tell him and the other members
+of the family of the savage events of 1768 and the unfortunate consequences.
+He was a living contact between the old and the new.</p>
+
+<p>The old man must have been a superior type of peasant for he had
+seen to it that his son Hrihori Shevchenko had been taught to read
+and write. The son was a prosperous serf at a time when his prosperity
+could bring him few advantages, and he constantly sought for a new
+and better life on the estates of his master, Vasily Vasilyevich Engelhardt.
+After his marriage to Katerina Boykivna, who seems to have
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span>been also a very kind and intelligent woman, the two lived in the
+village of Kirilivka, where his father lived, as a carriage maker and
+he owned a cart with a team of bulls. His father-in-law soon bought
+him a little cabin and some land in Morintsy about a mile away and
+it was in a typical Ukrainian peasant cabin that the poet was born
+on February 25-March 9, 1814. Conditions here were unsatisfactory
+and it was not long before the Shevchenkos returned to Kirilivka
+where Taras spent his boyhood.</p>
+
+<p>Kirilivka was a typical large Ukrainian village of the right bank.
+It was in a fertile region with an abundance of orchards and fruit
+trees and gardens. Picturesquely located, it seemed a real paradise but
+beneath the charming exterior, the institution and the practice of
+serfdom made the village for its inhabitants a perfect hell, where all
+kinds of evil and injustice prevailed and where the hours of forced
+labor demanded by the master made life almost impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Taras was the third of six children and was always attached to his
+older sister Katerina who married when he was still very young. His
+father tried to give him an education but the opportunities were
+very scanty. Taras always remembered his parents with the greatest
+kindness but when he was nine years old, his mother died of poverty
+and of overwork on the lands of the master. This meant the ending
+of the happy period of his life.</p>
+
+<p>With six small children, the father Hrihori could not maintain his
+household without a wife and so he soon married a widow, Oksana
+Tereshchenchikha, from Morintsy. She brought her three children
+with her to her new home. The marriage was not a happy one. The
+stepmother was very cruel to the children of her husband, begrudged
+them the food they ate, and quarreled unceasingly. It was a sore disappointment
+for the young Taras and to avoid the perpetual beatings
+which he received, he used to take refuge with his older sister who was
+married and living in a neighboring village. Finally when he was
+twelve years old, his father died too and the young Taras was thrown
+on his own resources, since his uncle who was his guardian paid little
+attention to him.</p>
+
+<p>As a means of finding some respite from the cruelty that was going
+on at home, he went to a village clerk Bohorsky in an endeavor to
+learn something about painting, for he already had been attracted
+to this and also had developed a fertile imagination. His stay with
+Bohorsky was none too successful.</p>
+
+<p>The clerk was an incorrigible drunkard and besides nearly starving
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span>the poor boy, he tyrannized over him in every way but he did succeed
+in making him literate and in teaching him to read the Psalter. In fact
+Taras became so successful in this that the clerk sent him out to read
+the Psalms at peasant funerals and thus allow himself more time for
+drinking with his friends. Taras finally had his revenge. One day
+when he found his teacher drunk, he flogged him as hard as he could
+and then made off with a volume of art works. This was apparently
+a book containing some of the stock designs for ikon painting and for
+lettering.</p>
+
+<p>Disgusted with the worthless and brutal teacher from whom he
+had imbibed only a feeling that violence was wrong, he made his way
+to the village of Lisanka to study under another clerk. This likewise
+was unsuccessful. For four days the teacher employed him only in
+preparing paints and in bringing water from the river Tykych. At
+the end of that day Taras again disappeared and turned up at Tarasivka,
+where there was a still more locally famous painter of Saint
+Nicholas and of Ivan the Soldier, but here again he met only a rebuff.
+Finally he had exhausted all the clerks in the neighborhood who
+had any reputation for painting, and there was nothing for him to
+do but to return to his native village and there as an orphan secure a
+scanty living by acting as a herdsman for the village cattle and by
+doing any odd jobs that might appear in the community.</p>
+
+<p>It was apparently at this moment when he was about thirteen
+years of age that Shevchenko had his first taste of love. While he was
+pasturing the village sheep, he suddenly started to shed bitter tears
+and a young girl who was gathering hemp near by came over to console
+him and kissed him. Her name was Oksana Kovalenkivna and her
+memory remained with him for many years as a type of sympathetic
+friend and love. That was all. It was only a moment in the drab life
+of the poor boy but it gave him an ideal of sympathy and affection
+that he had not had since the death of his mother and the image of
+Oksana appeared in many of his later verses.</p>
+
+<p>From this idle existence Shevchenko was suddenly torn away by the
+overseer of the estate. He had shown little promise in his efforts to
+master the old fashioned and then decadent art of ikon painting. His
+physical stature did not promise that he would develop into a valuable
+laborer in the fields and yet the overseer had no intention of
+allowing him to live in idleness. So the boy suddenly found himself
+sent into the kitchen of the manor house to work as an assistant
+baker. Again Shevchenko failed to acquire the necessary skill and he
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span>was again in disgrace. Another task was sought for him and this
+time he was appointed a Kozak servant for the young master Pavel
+Vasilyevich Engelhardt.</p>
+
+<p>His work here was boring and insignificant. He had only to remain
+dressed in a Kozak uniform in the anteroom of the master and to serve
+his slightest whims and needs. It meant long hours of doing nothing,
+the hardest kind of useless labor. He had to hand the young master
+his pipe, when he so desired, for it was beneath the dignity of Pavel
+Engelhardt to pick up his own pipe, even if it were beside him. All
+his other tasks were of the same non-essential character and the boy
+accustomed to his freedom was absolutely disgusted with his fate.</p>
+
+<p>There was however one consolation. The master could not prevent
+the young serf from admiring the objects of art that were scattered
+around the house. The mansions of the day were very different from
+the rough houses of the peasantry. The latter were impoverished representatives
+of the past. The mansions were filled with the newest
+productions of western Europe and these gave to the sensitive boy
+a very different conception of art from that which he had received
+from the rude ikonostases of the village churches. He feasted his eyes
+upon them and apparently endeavored in stolen moments to make
+copies of them.</p>
+
+<p>He also had the opportunity to travel. Pavel Engelhardt was perpetually
+going somewhere and he had to travel with an entire retinue
+of servants. This meant that the young Shevchenko was torn away
+from his native village and his native surroundings. In 1829 Engelhardt
+who was a Guards officer took him to Wilno and for fourteen
+years Shevchenko did not see again his beloved Ukraine.</p>
+
+<p>It was at Wilno that an accident happened which determined his
+fate. On December 6 Engelhardt and his wife went out to an entertainment
+and the young Shevchenko was obliged to stay on watch
+until they returned. To wile away the time he set himself to copying
+a print of the Kozak Platon which he had acquired on the way to
+Wilno. He became so absorbed in this that he did not notice the return
+of the master who accordingly found him copying by candle
+light. Engelhardt became enraged at the actions of the boy and
+scolded him violently because he might have set fire not only to the
+house but to the whole city. The next day he gave orders to have
+him soundly flogged. The episode might have ended here but Engelhardt
+noticed that Shevchenko was making an excellent copy of the
+work. This led him to inquire further and he saw some of his other
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span>sketches. So, having roundly punished the young culprit, he sent
+him to the Art Academy of Wilno, where he perhaps studied under
+Jan Rustem. Still later he transferred him to Warsaw to take lessons
+from the celebrated Franciszek Lampa.</p>
+
+<p>It was a critical moment in the life of the young man. Now at least
+part of his ambitions could be gratified but he still remained a serf
+in his master’s service with no hope of any amelioration of his lot,
+for the nobles of the day were only too happy to have under their
+control artists, actors, and learned persons of every description. It
+was a discouraging situation, for there was little hope of fame or of
+satisfaction for a man who was compelled under penalty of flogging
+or banishment to physical labor to draw sketches whenever it suited
+his master’s whim.</p>
+
+<p>While at Wilno Shevchenko had again fallen mildly in love with
+a Polish seamstress, Dunia Haszowska, a free woman who spoke to
+him about the coming Polish uprising. She was an ardent Polish nationalist
+and apparently her influence, intended to win Taras to the
+Polish cause, only drove him further in his devotion to the cause of
+Ukraine.</p>
+
+<p>As the hour of revolt came nearer, Engelhardt suddenly left Warsaw
+and went to St. Petersburg. It was a safer place in case of trouble and
+it also gave him more opportunity for his social inclinations. Naturally
+Shevchenko was taken along with him and here Engelhardt apprenticed
+him for four years to the painter Shirayev in 1832.</p>
+
+<p>There is something strange in this contract. It probably marked a
+change in the plans of Engelhardt for his unusual serf. At Wilno and
+Warsaw he had had him taught by painters in the best sense of the
+word and had apparently not spared money for lessons. Now in St.
+Petersburg he did not send Shevchenko to a portrait or landscape
+painter but to a professional decorator who was already known for
+his work in several St. Petersburg theatres. There was a plebeian and
+unidealistic side to this work in the making of designs and transferring
+them automatically to the walls and ceilings of buildings that
+displeased Shevchenko. He missed all the artistic inspiration that
+had apparently inspired him previously and felt that he was becoming
+a mechanical drudge.</p>
+
+<p>The contract between Shirayev and Engelhardt must have ended
+by law in 1836 but Engelhardt left him to work further as a laborer
+in the atelier of Shirayev who was a determined exploiter of his
+subordinates. Shevchenko had but two methods of relaxation—to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span>make sketches of a fellow serf, Ivan Nechuporenko, and to copy statues
+in the Winter Garden.</p>
+
+<p>In 1837 he suddenly made the acquaintance of another Ukrainian
+artist, Ivan Maksimovich Soshenko, who was then living in St. Petersburg.
+There are two versions of this meeting. The more romantic is
+that Soshenko saw him first during one of the white nights of St.
+Petersburg sketching a statue of Saturn in the Winter Gardens. The
+other, that of Soshenko himself, is that he heard from a relative of
+Shirayev’s of this wonderful young Ukrainian artist and decided to
+make his acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>In either case Soshenko became enthusiastic over the artistic abilities
+of Shevchenko and over his possibilities for independent work.
+He soon took the opportunity to introduce his young friend to the
+leading men in the Imperial Academy of Arts and desired to have him
+enrolled there as a student. This was impossible for no serf was allowed
+to study in this institution. Yet the Secretary of the Academy,
+Vasily Ivanovich Grigorovich, and the celebrated professor, Karl
+Pavlovich Bryulov, both desired to have him enrolled as a student.
+There was only one solution for the difficulty. It was necessary to
+obtain freedom for Shevchenko. Engelhardt was not sympathetic. He
+had expended considerable money on the education of the young
+man and he was not going to be deprived of his services now that he
+was becoming recognized as an artist. He promptly demanded the
+payment of 2500 silver rubles. This was an enormous sum and was
+apparently intended to be prohibitive.</p>
+
+<p>The group of artists interested in Shevchenko was not to be discouraged
+by this demand. They interested in the case Vasily Andreyevich
+Zhukovsky, who naturally had great influence in Russian governmental
+cultural circles. He was the tutor of the Tsarevich, later
+Alexander II; he had been the Russian teacher of the Empress Charlotte
+of Prussia, the wife of Tsar Nicholas I. He was the recognized
+authority on European literature in Russia. With his court connections,
+it was clear that if he would, he could secure the necessary
+funds. He therefore arranged with Bryulov to paint his picture to be
+disposed of by a private lottery. A portrait of Zhukovsky by Bryulov
+was an event for the rich circles of Russia. The money was raised
+and paid over to Engelhardt and on April 22, 1838, Taras Shevchenko
+became a free man for the first time in his life.</p>
+
+<p>Shevchenko was almost overcome by his new happiness. From that
+moment he was free. Like any other citizen of Russia, he was able to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span>apply for a passport, to choose his own abode, to do what he liked
+without any fear of the changeable moods of an autocratic master.
+The world seemed rosy to him and he could hardly concentrate on
+anything. He at once procured new clothes, filed the act of liberation
+in the official bureau, and the next day registered at the Academy as
+a student of Bryulov.</p>
+
+<p>Karl Pavlovich Bryulov was then at the height of his fame. Originally
+of French Huguenot descent, he had been allowed to take a
+Russian name when he won a prize in the Academy of Arts and went
+to Rome. There he had become acquainted with the leading artists
+and literary men who had thronged to that city during the twenties.
+His painting, <i>The Last Days of Pompeii</i>, had taken Italy and then
+France and finally Russia by storm and when he commenced to teach
+at the Academy of Arts, he raised its popularity and became the very
+center of everything artistic and cultural in the Russian capital.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of all this upon Shevchenko can hardly be overestimated.
+Almost over night he had passed from a nobody, a mere serf eternally
+at the beck and call of his master, to an independent student of the
+Art Academy and a favorite pupil of the great Bryulov. His sensitive
+nature could not fail to react to this overwhelming difference.</p>
+
+<p>He worked hard every day in the Academy and made a very
+creditable success. At the end of the first year he won a silver medal
+for drawing from nature. Apparently his earlier instruction here
+came in handy. In 1840 he won a silver medal of the second class for
+his attempt in painting with oils and in 1841 he received the same
+award for a painting on a historical subject and for portraiture. He
+had made good use of his opportunities and had not allowed himself
+to be distracted by the gay amusements of many of the young
+artists, although he apparently had his share of entertainments and
+dinners.</p>
+
+<p>More important than this for the young man were the opportunities
+which came to him for general culture. His early education was
+extremely defective. He had not had even the most irregular schooling
+outside of the elementary instruction in reading and writing offered
+by the local clerks under whom he had gone through the motions
+of studying. Now he was able to read at his leisure and he applied
+himself ardently to making up the defects in his training. He
+read abundantly in Ukrainian history and he probably was already
+fairly well acquainted with what there was in the modern Ukrainian
+literature. Yet he needed more than that and his relations with his
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span>fellow students and still more with Bryulov opened his eyes to the
+classical and Western European cultures.</p>
+
+<p>While he had been in Rome, Bryulov had been the friend of Sir
+Walter Scott, Bulwer-Lytton, and the various writers of France and
+Germany who made Rome their headquarters. His great paintings
+had been on classical themes and we can well ascribe to his influence
+Shevchenko’s interest in classical antiquity, for the younger
+Russian poets were already turning away from the classical tradition
+that had dominated Russian literature through the period of
+Pushkin.</p>
+
+<p>He dined frequently at Bryulov’s home and Bryulov came to dinner
+in his poor quarters. The master warned him against marrying
+on the ground that geniuses should not marry and then introduced
+him to the fascinating actress whom he himself intended to marry
+and from whom he was soon separated.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time Shevchenko was very slow in seeking the society
+of ladies whom he might consider above his own station in life. He
+never forgot his origin and his chief romance in this period was with
+a young girl, the daughter of a neighbor whom he tried to teach to
+read but whom he found an unserious pupil. At times he enjoyed the
+society of a higher class but there was something in him which urged
+him to confine his closest women friends to those of his own class.</p>
+
+<p>At some time during his stay in St. Petersburg, Shevchenko began
+to write verse. It must have been before his emancipation, for the
+oldest known poem is the ballad <i>Prychynna</i> (The Mad Girl) which is
+reminiscent of Bürger, Zhukovsky, and Mickiewicz with a strong admixture
+of Ukrainian folklore. This was exactly the same type of
+poem that was practiced throughout the Slavonic world with the
+coming of Romanticism. It can be dated in 1837 but it is almost too
+perfect to be the first attempt of the young artist and it must have
+been preceded by many experiments. The modesty of Shevchenko
+and his devotion to his painting made him at first very hesitant in
+regard to his poetic performances and it was more or less by accident
+that they were brought to the attention of the public. A few of his
+friends were aware of his activity. Thus in 1838 Hrebinka wrote to
+Kvitka that there was in St. Petersburg a young Ukrainian named
+Shevchenko writing verses and excellent ones. Yet the poems attracted
+little or no comment until at the end of 1839 a Ukrainian
+landowner, Petro Martos, met Shevchenko and arranged for him to
+paint his portrait. As he was sitting in the artist’s apartment, he
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span>happened to notice some poetry on various sheets of paper. He succeeded
+in borrowing them and on reading them became so thrilled
+that he resolved to publish them at his own expense.</p>
+
+<p>The work appeared in 1840 under the title of the <i>Kobzar</i> and it
+marked a new era in Ukrainian literature. Kotlyarevsky had died in
+1838 and his passing made a gap which had seemed irreparable. Now
+the appearance of the <i>Kobzar</i>, small as it was, showed to everyone,
+both friend and foe, that his place had been taken by a still greater
+author. In vain the Russian critics, including Belinsky and the Westerners,
+attacked it as insignificant and peasantlike. The Ukrainians
+throughout the entire area of Ukraine welcomed it and saw in it the
+answer to their confused hopes for a worthy literature of their own.</p>
+
+<p>The next year there appeared the <i>Haydamaki</i>, the longest of the
+epics of Shevchenko. There was the same criticism of his work by the
+Russian and Polish critics and the same enthusiastic reception of it
+by the Ukrainians. The edition was soon sold out and Shevchenko
+received a considerable amount of money for it. More than that, he
+was sought out by all the Ukrainians who had occasion to come to
+St. Petersburg and many of his later friends he came to know in this
+period. He had in a very real sense become a national figure and was
+more sure of himself in his relations with society and with all those
+whom he had to meet.</p>
+
+<p>Yet despite the apparent success of all that he undertook, things
+were not going too well with him. He had many firm friends in St.
+Petersburg and his relation with his teacher Bryulov remained as
+close as before. Yet he seemed to be dissatisfied. He was dissatisfied
+with the Academy, perhaps because he was not making as much
+progress in his use of colors as he would have liked. It is to be noted
+that he won no prize after 1841, that is, after he had become famous
+from his writings, but there is no evidence that this was due to any
+antagonism on the part of the authorities to his ardent Ukrainian
+attitude. It could not be that he had neglected his painting for his
+writings, for it is remarkable that at this same time he had almost
+stopped writing and 1842 was one of his least productive years.</p>
+
+<p>Undoubtedly his dislike for St. Petersburg affected him. He had
+seen his works hostilely reviewed or scorned by the Russian critics,
+especially those of the liberal camp from whom he might have expected
+to receive consideration. He was busy with portraits and with
+his social life, but at the same time he was struck by the contrast between
+the life that he was leading and the misery of his brothers and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span>sisters in Ukraine. He had not seen them for fourteen years and he
+was becoming homesick and he wanted at all costs to pay a visit to his
+native land.</p>
+
+<p>So in the summer of 1843, he succeeded in securing a leave of absence
+from the Academy and obtained permission of the authorities
+to go home. His return to Ukraine was a real event. He paid a visit
+to his family but he was no longer a mere serf. He was the poet of
+Ukraine and all the landowners and the persons of prominence vied
+with one another in entertaining him. His trip was one triumphal procession,
+as he passed from estate to estate. Almost everywhere he was
+asked to paint one or more of the members of the family and the
+trip was successful not only from the social but even more from the
+financial point of view.</p>
+
+<p>Among the families which entertained him, one of the most hospitable
+was that of Prince Repnin, the former governor general of
+Kiev and the friend of Kotlyarevsky. He was now living on his estates
+and was in disfavor with the government, for his wife was a granddaughter
+of Kyrylo Rozumovsky, the last of the Hetmans, and his
+enemies had charged that he was endeavoring to recover the title,
+even at the cost of separation from Russia. Repnin was a good type of
+the Russianized Ukrainian landlord who had not lost his interest in
+the people under him and who was sincerely opposed to serfdom.</p>
+
+<p>It was here at his house that Shevchenko met his daughter, Princess
+Barbara. She was six years older than the poet but the two were attracted
+to one another. The Princess was a little nettled that the poet
+showed more interest in the beginning in a young friend than in her
+but she was sincerely impressed by his personality and ability and set
+herself to induce him to do more serious work and to avoid the company
+of the more frivolous and gay young people to whom he might
+be attracted. Shevchenko appreciated her interest and called her his
+guardian angel. For a while it seemed as if they might fall in love
+but the difference in their social position was a barrier to such a
+union, and although the two were ardently in love, yet neither betrayed
+it except through an extreme friendship in which they addressed
+each other as brother and sister.</p>
+
+<p>By the end of the summer Shevchenko, whose painting had considerably
+improved, seriously considered not returning to the Academy.
+He even went so far as to write to the Secretary, Grigorovich, to
+ask his advice and when he was urged to come back and received a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span>two months extension of his leave, he paid a hurried visit to Moscow
+and was back in St. Petersburg shortly after the beginning of 1844.</p>
+
+<p>Yet this short trip greatly changed the temper and the work of the
+poet. He was able to see the evils under which Ukraine was suffering
+not through the memories of a young serf but through the eyes of an
+enlightened and progressive and successful man of the world. His
+old conceptions based upon the tales of his grandfather that these ills
+were a result of Polish hostility and the suppression of the Koliishchina
+were proved false. The worst evil was in the present and that
+was a direct result of the Russian overlordship and the suppression of
+Ukrainian liberties. The evils which came from the union with Moscow
+by the so-called Treaty of Pereyaslav were more real than the
+danger threatening from an already vanquished and broken Poland.
+Henceforth his poems turned against Russia and he abandoned the
+romantic scenes of the past that had formed such a large part of the
+<i>Kobzar</i>. At the same time he increased his emphasis upon the injustice
+of the villagers among themselves. He had touched this in the
+<i>Katerina</i> but he had learned in his native village of the sad fate of
+Oksana Kovalenkivna whom he had once loved. She had been seduced
+by a Russian and had later become insane, after she had been disowned
+by her parents.</p>
+
+<p>He occupied himself during this year with the bringing out of a
+series of sketches, <i>Picturesque Ukraine</i>, and continued his usual life
+at the Academy and with his friends. The ferment of opposition to injustice
+was however working in him and toward the end of the summer
+he finished the <i>Dream</i>, one of his most powerful attacks on the
+present situation in Ukraine. It was impossible to think of publishing
+such a poem with its caricature of the Empress and its open condemnation
+of both Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. It did however
+begin to circulate in manuscript form among the friends of
+Shevchenko and the adherents of Ukrainian liberties.</p>
+
+<p>This was no exceptional thing under the regime of Nicholas I.
+Even such a masterpiece of Russian literature and such a harmless
+satire on the social life of the day as the comedy <i>Sorrow out of Intelligence</i>
+by Griboyedov was refused publication by the censor, despite
+the fact that it was the favorite reading of St. Petersburg society and
+the work of a distinguished and trusted diplomat. Most of the poems
+of Pushkin and Lermontov were still unpublished, and it was generally
+understood that there was in the two capitals a large amount
+of literature by the leading writers which were known only to the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span>reading public and the police chiefs unofficially. The circulation of
+a poem as the <i>Dream</i> which might have serious consequences would
+therefore not be threatening until it might suit the officials to take
+cognizance of it. Shevchenko probably spent some anxious moments
+when he first showed it to friends but apparently he gave very little
+thought to the possibility that he might be denounced to the authorities
+and he continued during the next years to write his great
+poems attacking the alien domination of Ukraine.</p>
+
+<p>On March 22, 1845, Taras Shevchenko finished the course at the
+Academy of Arts and received the right to call himself a free artist of
+the Academy and later in the same year on December 10 a diploma
+was formally issued to him confirming this fact, granting him the
+rights and privileges pertaining thereto and allowing him “with complete
+freedom and liberty to enter the service into which he as an
+artist desires to go.”</p>
+
+<p>Without waiting for the arrival of the formal diploma, Shevchenko
+returned to Ukraine. In fact he went within two days of his formal
+departure from the Academy. He travelled by way of Moscow where
+he saw again old friends as Prof. Bodyansky and the celebrated actor
+Mikhaylo Shchepkin who had taken part in the first performance of
+Kotlyarevsky’s drama <i>Natalka Poltavka</i>. He spent the summer travelling
+around Ukraine and then in the late autumn he secured a position
+with the Archaeological Commission which had been formed by
+the Governor General Bibikov to study the ancient monuments of
+Ukraine. For this he was recommended to receive the sum of 150
+rubles a year. It was a trifling sum even for those days but there was
+attached a permission to travel and with his fame and the possibility
+of making portraits, it was possible for him to live without too much
+hardship.</p>
+
+<p>The year 1845 was one of his most productive years literarily. It
+was the time when Shevchenko had the opportunity to acquaint himself
+personally with all of the ancient monuments of his country and
+to observe for himself the terrible conditions under which the people
+were living. The year saw the continuation of the tendencies described
+in the <i>Dream</i> and in such poems as the <i>Great Grave</i>, the
+<i>Caucasus</i>, and the <i>Epistle to my dead, living and unborn countrymen
+in Ukraine and not Ukraine</i>, he expressed his bitter indignation at
+the denial of independence and liberty to his people. He was skating
+on thin ice in these poems but the blow which was hanging over him
+was deferred.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span></p>
+
+<p>At this time in Kiev there was a very active intellectual life. There
+had gathered around the University a group of young men who were
+destined to become famous in the Ukrainian movement. Here were
+Mykola Kostomariv, the historian, Panteleimon Kulish, Vasil I.
+Bilozersky, and many others. They were all attracted by the ideal of
+doing something for Ukrainian independence but their patriotic
+fervor was largely tinged with romantic dreams.</p>
+
+<p>The traditions of the Decembrists of 1825 were still alive among a
+large part of the younger Russian thinkers, even though the centre of
+activity had passed away from the aristocratic officers who had risked
+their lives and careers in that abortive movement. They dreamed of
+a liberated Russia and they apparently like most of the Russian conservatives
+and radicals did not conceive of any dismemberment of
+their country. On the other hand in 1824 the Czechoslovak writer
+Jan Kollár had published the <i>Daughter of Slava</i>, a series of sonnets
+appealing for Slavonic liberty and stressing the brotherhood of all
+the Slavonic races. Kollár’s work gradually spread throughout the
+Slavonic world and produced marked reactions everywhere. Some of
+the Russians played with the idea. It found strong repercussions in
+the Balkans. In Kiev it affected this group of young thinkers and its
+influence was aided by the studies of Slavonic antiquities and general
+Slavonic literature by Pavel Šafařík, another Czech scholar.</p>
+
+<p>The immediate result was the organization of the Society of Saints
+Cyril and Methodius in January, 1846. The young enthusiasts of the
+Society dreamed of a great Slav republic which was to embrace all the
+Slavonic nations with the various groups organized as states. Perhaps
+there was much of the Masonic organization in this but there is the
+strong likelihood that the example of the American Constitution
+played a considerable role in the final method of government that
+was proposed. For an internal policy the Society urged the development
+of education to fit the people for their new responsibilities.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing particularly dangerous about this Society. It
+contained the same kind of potential explosiveness as such modern
+organizations as Union Now and similar plans for world organization.
+The members seem to have believed in the possibility of peaceful
+change and the very unmilitary character of the leaders could
+easily have shown the Tsar that they were little more than idealists
+who might have been used to further the interests of the Russian Empire.
+Yet to Nicholas I, anything which savored of free institutions
+was actually and not only potentially dangerous. Russia was rushing
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span>on to the debacle of the Crimean War and the Tsar was engaged in
+a futile effort to stop all discussion and the appearance of western
+ideals. It was evident that danger threatened the entire group and
+they were compelled to act as a secret organization. They adopted
+their own flag, their own seal, and ritual.</p>
+
+<p>During the summer of 1846, the members of this Society scattered
+on their own business. Shevchenko passed the time on various estates
+and dreamed of going abroad to Italy to continue his studies in
+painting. He had received an offer of assistance and he did not realize
+that Anna Bilozerska, who was marrying Panteleimon Kulish, was
+planning to sell her jewels to secure for him the necessary funds
+which were to be given anonymously. At the same time he was building
+high hopes on the possibility of receiving a definite position as
+teacher of painting at the University of Kiev, and this was definitely
+given him in February, 1847.</p>
+
+<p>Everything seemed to be favorable for a happy future, when the
+blow suddenly fell. Shevchenko had returned to Kiev for the wedding
+of Mykola Kostomariv and several of the friends assembled at the
+same time, while Kulish who had been called to St. Petersburg and
+then given a fellowship to travel abroad was on his way to the border.
+Unknown to them, Oleksy Petrov, a student who had lived in a room
+near that of Bulak, another member of the group, had listened to
+the lively discussions that had gone on at various times when some
+of the scattered members had come to Kiev during the preceding
+months, and had become convinced that there was some conspiracy
+afoot. Perhaps he had even made friends with Shevchenko with the
+idea of discovering something about the society.</p>
+
+<p>At all events on February 28, he suddenly informed M. V. Yuzifovich,
+the supervisor of education in the district, of the conspiracy. The
+latter at once suspended Shevchenko from his position with the
+Archaeological Commission on the technicality that he had gone to
+Kiev without permission. Still there was no real suspicion on the
+part of the group. Shevchenko appeared at Kostomariv’s wedding. In
+the meanwhile Yuzifovich had forwarded the complaint to Bibikov
+who was then in St. Petersburg and on March 17, the latter had referred
+the matter to Count Orlov, the chief of the gendarmes.</p>
+
+<p>The police acted speedily, when we consider the difficulties of
+transportation and the transmission of news. On April 5, 1847, the
+thoroughly unsuspecting Shevchenko together with his friends was
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span>arrested and sent to St. Petersburg. He arrived there on April 17 and
+the trial took place almost immediately.</p>
+
+<p>At an inquiry made at the Academy of Arts, Count Lakhtenberg,
+the President, replied after giving Shevchenko’s record at the Academy,
+“It is necessary to add that Shevchenko has a gift for poetry and
+in the Little Russian language has written several poems, respected
+by people who are familiar with the Little Russian language and the
+former life of this region; he was always considered as a moral man,
+perhaps something of a dreamer and an honorer of the Little Russian
+past, but nothing prejudicial came to the knowledge of the Academy.”</p>
+
+<p>In his examination, Shevchenko denied membership in the Ukrainian-Slavonic
+Society but admitted that he had written some insolent
+and satirical works, “forgetting his conscience and the fear of
+God.” He had nothing to say about his associates in the Society.</p>
+
+<p>In the summing up of the evidence Count Orlov placed the case of
+Shevchenko almost entirely upon his verses. “Shevchenko instead of
+feeling eternal gratitude to the persons of the Most August Family,
+which had deigned to free him from serfdom, composed verses in the
+Little Russian language of the most revolting character. In them he
+expressed lamentation for the so-called enslavement and misery of
+Ukraine, proclaimed the glory of the old Hetman rule and the former
+freedom of the Cossacks, and with incredible boldness poured out
+slanders and bile on the persons of the Imperial House, forgetting
+that they were his personal benefactors. Besides the fact that all
+that was prohibited attracted persons of weak character, Shevchenko
+acquired among his friends the fame of a celebrated Little Russian
+writer, and so his poems became doubly harmful and dangerous.
+With his poems which were beloved in Little Russia there could be
+sowed and consequently take root thoughts of the so-called happiness
+of the times of the Hetmanate, the happiness of bringing back
+those times and of the possibility of Ukraine existing as a separate
+country. Judging by the extraordinary respect which all the Ukraine-Slavonians
+felt personally for Shevchenko and for his poems, it at
+first seemed that he might be, if not the active head among them, yet
+the tool which they wished to use in their designs; but on the one
+hand these designs were not so important as they appeared at first
+sight, and on the other, Shevchenko had begun to write his revolting
+poems already in 1837, when Slavonic ideas had not interested the
+Kiev scholars; similarly the whole case shows that Shevchenko did
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span>not belong to the Ukrainian-Slavonic Society but acted separately,
+attracted by his own corruption. Nevertheless by his revolting spirit
+and boldness which passes all bounds, he must be acknowledged one
+of the chief culprits.”</p>
+
+<p>The sentence came on May 26 with the verdict, “The artist Shevchenko,
+for his writing of revolting and in the highest degree impudent
+poetry, as a person of a healthy constitution, is to be sent as
+a private to the Orenburg Separate Corps, with the right of freedom
+through honorable service and instructions are to be sent to the command
+to have the strictest supervision that from him, under no pretext,
+can there come any revolting and satirical works.” The Tsar
+with his own hand added to this “Under the strictest supervision
+with a prohibition of writing and sketching.”</p>
+
+<p>The sentence was carried out at once and by June 11, Shevchenko
+was already in Orenburg and duly outfitted as a soldier. He was attached
+to the 5th battalion of the Corps which was stationed at the
+Fortress of Orsk, 267 versts (about 150 miles) east of Orenburg in the
+heart of the barren steppes. It was an uninviting place amid uninviting
+surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>Shevchenko had no desire to become a soldier and he loathed army
+life and discipline. It seemed to him a worse slavery than that which
+he had known as a serf. Every detail awoke his disgust. It was in vain
+that the commanders endeavored to teach him to drill and to march.
+He was shocked at the filth and the language of the privates who surrounded
+him and with whom he had to associate. They were the
+exact opposite of the cultured and intellectual people with whom
+he had associated at St. Petersburg and in Ukraine. They were a
+tough and foul-mouthed gang of ruffians, and this is not to be wondered
+at for many of them had been sent there as a punishment. Yet
+much of his reaction must be attributed to the dissatisfaction of a
+sensitive intellectual with the dreary life of the barracks in peace
+times.</p>
+
+<p>Besides that, the prohibition of writing and painting took away
+from Shevchenko the inspiration which he might have drawn from
+the unusual surroundings in which he was. He could only dream of
+Ukraine, think of its sufferings, bemoan his fate, and hope and pray
+for something better. He wrote letters to Princess Repnina and to
+others of his friends, lamenting especially the prohibition against
+painting. The Princess interceded for him with Count Orlov and in
+reply merely received a warning against corresponding with such an
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span>evil character. One of his friends sent him some paints. If he tried to
+write verses, he was compelled to do so secretly and to hide them in
+his boot.</p>
+
+<p>Apparently the officers were not too hard upon him, and the intercession
+of friends as Princess Repnina and Count Aleksyey K. Tolstoy,
+the celebrated Russian writer, had some effect, for on January
+30, 1848, Count Orlov had sent to Orsk to inquire about the conduct
+of Shevchenko and the possibility of removing the ban on his painting.
+It is possible that some favorable reply was given for early in
+May, he was attached as a sketcher to an expedition which was setting
+out to explore the east coast of the Sea of Aral. However Shevchenko
+looked upon this unofficial modification of the original sentence,
+the work was difficult and attended with many hardships. His
+mission lasted for a year and half and he returned to Orenburg in
+November, 1849.</p>
+
+<p>The little expeditionary force of infantry, engineers, Kirghiz and
+camels had set out from Orsk, gone to the Sea of Aral, built a fleet of
+ships and then sailing along the coast to Raim, had landed, built a
+fort at Kos-Aral and had passed the winter there. During this time
+Shevchenko made many sketches of the scenery under government
+orders, despite the official prohibition, and during the winter he was
+able to work on several poems. Yet it was a disagreeable journey. The
+Sea of Aral was a salt sea. Its banks were monotonous and bare, quite
+unlike the blooming fields of Ukraine. In addition to that, he was
+definitely cut off from the world. For a year and a half no mail
+reached him or the expedition and he imagined that he was entirely
+forgotten, while his friends at home thought that he had forgotten
+them.</p>
+
+<p>When he returned to Orenburg at the end of 1849, he again presented
+a petition to be allowed to paint and in it he stated—what was
+perhaps not the exact truth—that never in his painting had he ventured
+to commit any impropriety. His officers, knowing his services
+on the expedition, seconded his request.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile they allowed him to live in the city of Orenburg,
+to wear civilian clothes instead of the hated uniform, and to paint as
+many portraits as he desired. The city was filled with Polish and
+Ukrainian exiles and in their company the time passed much more
+pleasantly and fruitfully than during the fatiguing and difficult days
+in the fortress and on the expedition.</p>
+
+<p>It was too good to last. In the spring a certain ensign (it is not sure
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span>whether his name was Isayev or Illashenko) presented a complaint
+that contrary to the Imperial edict Shevchenko was both writing and
+painting. Lieutenant Obruchev, who knew very well that Shevchenko
+had been acting under official authority, was yet afraid that the matter
+might reach the Third Section and make trouble. As a result he
+searched the quarters of Shevchenko and found what he had long
+known were there—civilian clothes, paintings, and writings. The
+poet was immediately rearrested on April 27 and sent back to the
+Fortress of Orsk where his battalion was still stationed. There he was
+placed in the guardhouse and his trial lasted from June 28 to July 5
+before General-Adjutant Ignatyev.</p>
+
+<p>The ground covered was already known to every one. Shevchenko
+denied any deliberate wrongdoing and stated that he had supposed
+that the prohibition against writing had applied only to imaginative
+works and had not been intended to cover private correspondence,
+which the authorities forwarded and which had not violated any law
+of propriety but had been merely personal greetings and requests
+for assistance. There was no defence possible on the charge of having
+civilian clothes, but this was a matter that might become far more
+serious for his superiors who had allowed him to remain at Orenburg
+than for the unfortunate victim. It was to be expected that the Tsar
+would take a more serious view of a private wearing civilian clothes
+than of the other accusations, for that directly touched his personal
+views of discipline. On August 26, the order came to release Shevchenko
+from the guardhouse and to send him to the First Battalion
+at Novopetrovsk under the strictest supervision. His former commanding
+officers were also punished and the results had disagreeable
+consequences for many of the friends with whom he had corresponded.</p>
+
+<p>He arrived on September 13 at his new post. Novopetrovsk was in
+a still more forbidding region on the east coast of the Caspian Sea
+and had been built four years before to protect the region from depredation
+by Kirghiz raiders. It was on a barren peninsula reaching
+into the Caspian Sea from the treeless steppe. His reputation had preceded
+him and also the knowledge that the Tsar himself had ordered
+him not to write and paint. As a result, the commanding officer,
+Colonel Mayevsky, did not feel able to mitigate the Imperial
+order. The company officers, Captain Potapov and Lieutenant
+Obryadin, were men of slight culture and of the most limited military
+outlook. They were willing to enforce the orders to the limit
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span>and were only interested in compelling the poet to become an efficient
+soldier, to drill and march accurately and to go through the
+necessary motions in the proper way.</p>
+
+<p>This was doubly depressing for the poor poet. He was a remarkably
+bad soldier. Whether this was because of his stubborn determination
+not to be a good one but to maintain his theories to the end or
+whether he was temperamentally unmilitary, it is hard to say. It is to
+be noted in this connection that even in his youth he had failed in
+any technical occupation at the Engelhardt estate, while he made
+progress so soon as he was allowed to study art and to write poetry.</p>
+
+<p>For two years the unequal struggle continued. Shevchenko was
+watched minutely and hourly. He was not allowed a scrap of paper
+and during his service at Novopetrovsk there was no opportunity for
+him to write even the shortest poems. He was able to get out only a
+very few letters to Princess Repnina and to some of his closest friends.
+Yet his spirit never wavered. He maintained the same unwavering attitude
+in his feelings, treating himself as a sufferer for the cause of
+Ukraine.</p>
+
+<p>About two years later Major Irakly Uskov was sent to command the
+garrison. He was a more determined and broad-minded man and he
+decided to do what he could to make the fate of Shevchenko a little
+more tolerable. He invited him frequently to his house, acquainted
+him with his family, and asked him to paint their pictures. The favor
+shown to the prisoner was so marked that gossip arose about his wife
+Agatha and Shevchenko and made it very difficult for the old relationship
+to continue. Yet Uskov did not on that account turn against
+the poet. When Shevchenko conceived the idea of painting the altar
+picture in the post chapel, Uskov warmly approved the idea but
+again the authorities in Orenburg sternly forbade it on the basis of
+the Tsar’s orders, and this new hope of enjoyable activity was abandoned.</p>
+
+<p>Nicholas I died February 17, 1855 and a new era seemed to dawn
+for Russia. The new Tsar, Alexander II, was the pupil of that Zhukovsky
+who had had so much to do with the liberation of Shevchenko
+from serfdom. The new reign was opening with an appearance of
+liberality and with a general amnesty and Shevchenko could hope for
+his release. Yet he was not included in the general list of pardons. His
+attack on the Dowager Empress in the <i>Dream</i> had been so bitter that
+she was believed to have influenced her son against the act.</p>
+
+<p>Shevchenko was nearly in despair but his friends at St. Petersburg
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span>did not lose heart. Count Feodor Petrovich Tolstoy of the Academy of
+Arts, and his wife continued to work through all possible social channels
+to secure the release of the poet. It was a hard and thankless task
+but by the spring of 1857 his friend Mikhaylo Lazarevsky could write
+that a pardon had been secured and that the days of Shevchenko’s
+exile were numbered.</p>
+
+<p>Then came one of the hardest parts of his confinement—the tedious
+waiting until the order could travel through official channels to Orenburg
+or Astrakhan and then be forwarded to the isolated post. Mail
+arrived rarely. Shevchenko began a journal and in it he noted down
+with despair the numbers of mails that arrived without bringing the
+desired letter. He was continually passing from the heights of hope
+to the depths of despair as week followed week without the desired
+news. Finally it came on July 21 and as often with such delayed
+greetings, Shevchenko was not on hand to receive it. He was living in
+the city and in the morning he went to the fortress for a shave “and
+from the non-commissioned officer Kulikh I first learned that at nine
+o’clock in the morning a mail boat had arrived. Having shaved, and
+with sinking heart, I returned to the city and, leaving the fort, I met
+Bazhanov who was in charge of the post hospital. And he first
+greeted me with Liberty: July 21, 1857, at eleven o’clock in the morning.”</p>
+
+<p>Shevchenko was now free but he was miles from any vestige of
+civilization and eager to return to his friends in the capital. There
+were two ways of leaving. The official route was via the corps headquarters
+at Orenburg but this meant a journey of 1000 versts across
+the desolate steppe before he could reach Astrakhan on the lower
+Volga. The simpler way was to board a boat and go directly to Astrakhan.
+His definitive orders for departure had not arrived and Uskov
+had no power to approve the direct route. He finally did so and on
+August 2, Shevchenko boarded a fishing boat for Astrakhan.</p>
+
+<p>He arrived on the 4th in the late afternoon. For the first time in
+ten years he was free of military service. For the first time in ten years
+he was able to move around without fear of punishment. He greedily
+looked around Astrakhan and made many friends. The Ukrainians
+there welcomed him as a great poet and it relieved him to find that he
+had not been forgotten during his long exile.</p>
+
+<p>Finally on August 22 he started with some friends on a river steamship
+along the Volga for Nizhni Novgorod. It was a revelation to him
+and he endeavored to make sketches of the scenery along the river but
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span>it was all so new and startling in its beauty after ten years of the
+steppe that he did not complete any of his drawings. He stopped at
+Saratov for a short visit with the mother of his old friend Kostomariv.
+Finally on September 20, the boat reached Nizhni and he was able
+to go ashore.</p>
+
+<p>Here the police were again waiting for him. His amnesty had not
+granted him permission to live in St. Petersburg and Major Uskov
+had from ignorance granted him this permission, when he let him go
+without requiring him to travel via Orenburg. Under any interpretation
+of the orders for his arrest, he would be required to return
+there for a formal receipt of future instructions. Yet he found friends
+at Nizhni and the Chief of Police and the Police physician very willingly
+allowed him to remain and forwarded to Orenburg a statement
+that he was too sick to travel. This left him temporarily safe but it
+postponed his hope of meeting with his friends for it was not until
+March 1, 1858, that he received the desired permission and then
+there was the disagreeable clause added that he was to remain under
+the supervision of the police.</p>
+
+<p>The winter was not an unpleasant one. Everywhere he was received
+as a distinguished writer. He was invited to the Nizhni Club, was entertained
+by all the most distinguished social and artistic circles of
+the provincial city, and painted pictures of most of the outstanding
+persons, supporting himself largely in this way.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time he wrote to Kulish and also to his old friend, the
+actor, Mikhail Semenovich Shchepkin, and asked them to visit him.
+With his usual caution Kulish refused to risk his career by visiting the
+banished poet but Shchepkin came down from Moscow and spent
+Christmas with him. He was the first of his old friends whom he had
+met since his return and it gave the poet great pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>It also helped to precipitate a rather unpleasant episode. Shevchenko
+had never in his heart given up thoughts of marriage and
+while he was in Nizhni, he became enamored with an attractive young
+actress, Katerina Borisivna Piunova. She was apparently of Ukrainian
+stock for he saw her in Kotlyarevsky’s <i>Moskal-Charivnik</i>. She was dissatisfied
+with her position in Nizhni and was trying to secure one in
+Kazan. Shevchenko, fascinated by her and thinking as always of
+Ukraine, tried to use his influence and that of Shchepkin to get her
+to Kharkiv. She seemed to like his attentions but it was not long before
+he discovered that she was merely using them in order to secure
+a better contract and his devotion resulted only in disillusionment.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span></p>
+
+<p>While he was in Nizhni, he had the opportunity of meeting some
+of the Decembrists who had been exiled by Nicholas I in 1825 and
+who were just being released after thirty years of Siberia. He went
+into ecstasies over their high principles. His comments on this group
+were more enthusiastic than on most of his friends of his own age.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact Shevchenko had grown more radical in prison
+or we might perhaps put it better by saying that he had become aware
+that the Russian government was inflicting upon its own people most
+of the same hardships that it had upon the Ukrainians. As a
+result he read constantly the various writings of Herzen and of the
+other radicals which appeared abroad and from this time on came
+to have closer kinship with the leaders of the intelligentsia.</p>
+
+<p>In productive work during this winter he wrote the <i>Neophytes</i>, a
+study of the Christian persecutions under the Roman Emperor Nero.
+The comparison between him and the Tsar is so obvious that the
+poem terrified Kulish and he advised Shevchenko to be slow about
+letting its existence be known. This advice did not satisfy the poet
+who was utterly fearless and not to be swerved from what he considered
+right, but there were no ill effects from its production.</p>
+
+<p>On March 8, he went by sleigh to Vladimir and there he met Captain
+Butakov who had commanded the expedition with which he
+had gone to the Sea of Aral. Shevchenko’s remark on meeting his
+old commander is very significant. “My heart grows cold at the very
+memory of that wilderness, but I think he is ready to settle down there
+forever.” (Journal, March 10.)</p>
+
+<p>From Vladimir he went to Moscow late on the 10th and was taken
+sick with some disease of the eyes and for some days he was not allowed
+to go out on the street. However he disobeyed this order to go
+and see Princess Repnina. She had been his closest friend in the old
+days and now when he saw her, he says only in his diary “She has
+changed for the better; she looks as if she had grown younger, and
+were rushing into matrimony, a thing which I had not noticed previously.
+Has she not met in Moscow a good confessor?” (March 17).
+This seems to have been almost the end of another dream. He saw her
+again on the 24th but the old correspondence seems to have ended.</p>
+
+<p>The years had treated Shevchenko very unkindly. He was only
+forty-four but the exile had made him prematurely aged. His health
+had suffered under the harsh regime and the difficult living conditions
+of the frontier. Even though his spirit remained unbroken, he
+was no longer a young and vigorous man. He still cherished his dreams
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span>of a home and children but from this time on he apparently gave
+up the hope of charming any one who might appeal to his mind and
+fit into the position to which he could honestly feel that he had
+risen. With the loss of his unconfessed love for Repnina and the
+episode with Piunova, Shevchenko turned more and more toward
+the peasantry from which he had sprung.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it did not affect his dealings with men. He had the opportunity
+of making the acquaintance of Sergey Timofeyevich Aksakov, one of
+the grand old men of Russian literature and the author of the most
+delightful pictures of the good side of the old patriarchal life. Shevchenko
+had a sincere admiration for the old Slavophile who was then
+sixty-seven years old and whose early life had been spent in pleasant
+surroundings on the Bashkir steppes very similar to those where he
+himself had suffered. Aksakov invited him to his estates for the summer
+and Shevchenko apparently desired to accept. He also renewed
+his acquaintance with the family of Stankevich and with M. V. Maksimovich.
+At this time also he met the younger Aksakovs, Khomyakov
+and in fact all of the important Slavophile leaders, who accepted
+him as a great poet. Of course his closest friend was Shchepkin who
+was with him constantly but who was unfortunately compelled to
+leave for Yaroslavl.</p>
+
+<p>Shevchenko left the same day for St. Petersburg where he arrived
+on March 27, just about eleven years from the time when he had been
+brought there as a prisoner for his trial and sentence. He went at
+once to his old friend, Mikhaylo Mikhaylevich Lazarevsky, who had
+helped him so much during his exile and then to see Count Feodor
+Petrovich Tolstoy, the Vice-President of the Academy of Arts.</p>
+
+<p>It was largely through the Tolstoys that he had finally been pardoned
+and both the Count and Countess entertained him royally.
+They gave a dinner in his honor and acquainted him with many of
+the leaders of the cultivated artistic and literary set in the capital.
+Among these we may mention Count Aleksyey Konstantinovich Tolstoy,
+the celebrated dramatist novelist and poet, who with all of his
+liberal ideas was attracted and repelled by the strange figure of Ivan
+the Terrible, his cousins, the brothers Zhemchuzhnikov, the poet Lev
+Aleksandrovich Mey, the mathematician M. V. Ostrogorsky, Admiral
+Golenishchev, and many others. They all accepted the broken Ukrainian,
+they admired his poetry and Mey translated several of his
+poems into Russian.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand he also became acquainted with the leading
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span>radicals of the day as Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky and Nikolay
+Aleksandrovich Dobrolyubov. Both of these men were connected
+with the <i>Sovremennik</i>, for which Kostomariv and Kulish also wrote.
+Chernyshevsky relied heavily upon Shevchenko in pointing out that
+the evils that befell the Ukrainians were due to the master-class,
+which was identical whether it was Russian, Polish or Ukrainian. To
+some extent Shevchenko agreed with him and this is greatly stressed
+by the Soviet critics as L. P. Nosenko (Velyky Poet-Revolyutioner,
+Odesa, 1939, pp. 51 ff.). It is very likely that there is some basis for
+their claims but on the other hand in a few poems which Shevchenko
+wrote after his return, his references to Khmelnitsky and to Ukraine
+show well that he had no desire to see his native country in any
+connection with Moscow and the Russian Empire.</p>
+
+<p>He resumed his studies at the Academy of Arts but this time in
+etching. He achieved in this great success and his work under Prof.
+Yordan was so distinguished that in the spring of 1859 he was authorized
+to submit engravings for a promotion to the grade of Academician.
+He did this and on October 31, 1860, he was formally made
+an Academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts.</p>
+
+<p>His life in St. Petersburg was relatively pleasant but he could not
+forget Ukraine and his unfortunate brothers and sisters who were
+still in serfdom. He finally secured permission to go there and left
+St. Petersburg for his last visit early in June, 1859. He planned to
+visit several friends and to pay a visit to his brothers and sister at
+Kirilivka. He met his sister Irina. They sat down under a pear tree, he
+placed his head in her lap, and listened to her sad story of all that she
+had had to suffer, especially since she became a widow. Shevchenko
+told her of his troubles also and asked her to find him a wife, for
+now that he was more or less free, he was determined to marry and
+have a home in Ukraine before he died.</p>
+
+<p>From Kirilivka, he visited other friends and then new troubles
+overtook him. He was suddenly arrested at the town of Moshni. The
+police authorities at St. Petersburg had notified the police of the
+various sections where he would be of his coming and asked them to
+keep watch of him. He seems to have expressed himself incautiously
+to some friends and apparently some Polish landowners reported
+him to the police. He was arrested in Moshni on July 13, taken to
+Cherkasy, and then to Kiev. Here his case was brought before the
+Governor General Ivan Vasilchikov, who studied it with interest
+and very soon decided that Shevchenko had been unjustly accused.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span>He advised the poet to return to St. Petersburg, “where the people
+are wiser and do not worry about trifles, in order to serve well.”</p>
+
+<p>The poet who had been brought to Kiev on July 27, stayed a few
+days longer at liberty under police supervision and then on August
+14, he started back for St. Petersburg. He had been negotiating for
+a little piece of land near Mezhirich on the bank of the Dniper but
+this plan had fallen through with his arrest, and there was nothing
+for him to do but to see a few friends again and make his way back
+to the capital. He arrived there on September 7, profoundly convinced
+that nothing had changed in Ukraine with the accession of the
+more liberal Alexander II.</p>
+
+<p>There was still the problem of his marriage. After his experiences
+with Piunova and perhaps with Princess Repnina, he had come to
+the conclusion that he should marry a peasant girl as much for symbolic
+reasons as for inclination. But where to find one?</p>
+
+<p>By now he had become friendly with Vartolomey Shevchenko
+whom he addressed as his brother. This was not strictly accurate.
+Osip, the brother of Taras, had married the sister of Vartolomey, so
+that Vartolomey was really the brother of the sister-in-law of Taras.
+He had known him earlier but now the two men became very
+friendly, for Vartolomey was a practical and business-like man and
+the manager of the Korsun estate of Prince Lopukhin. He did not
+agree with the poet in his revolutionary and extreme views but
+Taras recognized his fundamental honesty and often was willing to
+follow his advice.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment he met and became devoted to a servant in the
+family of Vartolomey. She was the sixteen year old Kharyta Dovhopolenkivna,
+an attractive but illiterate serf on the estate of Prince Lopukhin.
+She seemed to Taras to represent exactly the type of girl
+that he wished to marry. It was in vain that his friends advised him
+against the union, for they realized that Kharyta could not share in
+any of his higher interests, in his poetry or his painting. It was all in
+vain. Shevchenko insisted on formally offering her his hand. The
+girl solved the problem by refusing him because she was unwilling
+to marry an aged <i>pan</i> and she had no intention of becoming the
+slave to another nobleman. The fame of the poet was so great that
+the girl insisted upon looking at him as a person of a higher social
+stratum and Shevchenko despite his efforts could not disillusion her
+on this point. Besides she already had her own fiancé whom she had
+selected herself.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span></p>
+
+<p>It was another blow to the aged man, but he even yet did not lose
+hope. He spent some time in the composition of his last great poem,
+<i>Mary</i>, an unconventional retelling of the life of the Blessed Virgin,
+largely on the basis of the apocryphal legends. His choice of material
+and the realistic tinge which he gave to the sacred story annoyed many
+of his friends and his enemies used it to spread a charge of atheism.
+The work is however fundamentally religious but the poet modified
+the story to bring it closer to the fate of Ukraine.</p>
+
+<p>He was friendly at that time with a nephew of Aksakov, Karteshevsky.
+The latter’s wife was a sister of Mykola Makarov, a Ukrainian
+landowner and literary man, and at their house many of the Ukrainian
+and Russian writers used to gather for pleasant evenings. It was
+here for example that Shevchenko met Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev,
+although the two men never became close friends. At one of these parties,
+to honor Shevchenko, they dressed in an elegant Ukrainian costume
+a young serf girl, Lykeria Polusmakivna.</p>
+
+<p>She was a clever, coquettish and scheming little creature who knew
+both Russian and Ukrainian but for the occasion she pretended to
+know only Ukrainian. Her charm and beauty completely fascinated
+the poet and still saddened by the rebuff of Kharyta, he decided to
+marry her. He had her taught to read and tried to educate her. The
+girl responded quickly but it was soon clear to all, even to Shevchenko,
+that she was hoping to marry him only to get to Paris and to
+move in society. This completely broke the poet’s heart and he began
+to feel that his chances for a happy married life in Ukraine were
+doomed never to be realized.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, however, he was busy with other plans. He was
+working hard on his etching and was achieving real success. He also
+reopened negotiations with the censor to bring out another edition
+of the <i>Kobzar</i> and he secured it in 1860, provided only it did not include
+poems written after his arrest and exile.</p>
+
+<p>His visit to Ukraine and his new realization of the hardships of his
+family in serfdom aroused in him the desire to have them liberated.
+It was certain that a general emancipation would not be long delayed,
+but the poet would not wait. He opened negotiations with their
+master, V. E. Fliorkovsky, to emancipate, with a little piece of land,
+his two brothers, Mykola and Osip, and his sister Irina with their
+families. Fliorkovsky refused and demanded a considerable sum for
+the emancipation but refused to give them land, even when the Society
+for Aid to Russian Writers, with such imposing names as those
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span>of Turgenev, Kavelin, a professor of the University of St. Petersburg,
+Chernyshevsky and various others appealed to him. Finally on July
+10, 1860, Fliorkovsky succeeded in coming to an agreement with his
+serfs and gave them their liberty in return for 900 silver rubles but
+without land. The poet was angry at this solution but there was nothing
+that he could do. He saw his relatives freed but they were compelled
+to rent their land on disadvantageous terms until 1865 when
+as a result of the emancipation settlement they were able to receive
+some.</p>
+
+<p>During the exciting year when it seemed as if the general emancipation
+would come almost daily, Kulish and his friends worked
+energetically on educational plans for the Ukrainians. Sunday schools
+were established, textbooks prepared in the Ukrainian language, and
+in general the future seemed rosy. Shevchenko was not behind in his
+interest and he set to work on a <i>South Russian Primer</i> for the Ukrainian
+children. It consisted of an alphabet, prayers, and easy selections
+for reading, with somewhat moralizing texts. It was an unimportant
+work which the poet had prepared to meet a real national
+need and it came out early in 1861.</p>
+
+<p>It was about the end. By the fall of 1860, the hardships which he
+had undergone began to tell upon his health. He complained of
+pains in his chest but continued to work. In vain doctors and friends
+tried to persuade him to be careful. At Christmas he insisted upon
+visiting his friends but it was too much of an exertion. In the middle
+of January, 1861, he became worse and for some weeks was unable
+to leave his bed or to go out of his room. A watery swelling came
+in his chest and it grew constantly worse. Towards the end of February
+he was in constant pain. On February 25, his birthday, his friend
+Lazarevsky visited him and the dying poet asked him to write to
+Vartolomey about his condition. Late that evening he came back with
+a friend and they found Taras sitting up, breathing heavily but unable
+to speak. All that night he suffered greatly and could not sleep.
+In the morning he asked to be taken to his study but he had hardly
+crossed the threshold into the hall, when he staggered and fell—and
+never rose again.</p>
+
+<p>The poet had lived to be one day over forty-seven. Out of those
+years he had been a serf for twenty-four, a free man for nine, a Russian
+soldier for ten and under police supervision for four. It was a sad life.</p>
+
+<p>Two days later on February 28, there was an enormous funeral in
+the Academic Church and his friends and admirers gave glowing
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span>eulogies of his life and merits. Among the speakers were Kulish,
+Bilozersky, and Kostomariv. He was buried in the Smolensky cemetery.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile his friends planned to have the body taken back to
+Ukraine. The necessary permission was secured and on May 8, the
+body left the capital. It was taken through Moscow, Tula and Orel to
+Kiev. In every city ever increasing crowds welcomed the funeral procession.
+Finally on May 18, it reached Kiev but again there was a
+question whether the body could be taken to the Church of the Nativity.
+Permission was finally granted by the same Governor Vasilchikov
+who had freed the poet at his last arrest. At the bank of the
+Dniper, his friend Mikhaylo Chaly made a last eulogy: “The poetry
+of Shevchenko has won for us the right of literary citizenship and
+has spoken aloud in the family of Slavonic nations. In this is the great
+merit of Taras Shevchenko and his glory, which will never perish.”
+He told the truth. The Dniper was in full flood but the enthusiastic
+admirers succeeded in getting the body across and in burying it on the
+Chernecha Hora, one of the poet’s favorite spots. In 1892 Vartolomey
+bought this ground and handed it over to the local duma of Kaniv to
+preserve as a memorial to the poet.</p>
+
+<p>Shevchenko lived a life of tribulation and sorrow. There was little
+that was joyous about it. His muse is one of sadness but of firm belief
+in the ultimate triumph of the right and of human brotherhood
+and he saw the Ukrainian cause as a part of this noble movement.
+Whatever he did for it politically, from the standpoint of spirit and
+of literature he placed his native land and literature on a firm basis
+among the Slavonic nations. He perfected the work of his predecessors
+and he still remains the greatest example of the Ukrainian genius.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_THREE">
+    <i>CHAPTER THREE</i>
+    <br>
+    THE POETRY OF SHEVCHENKO
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>In estimating the greatness of the poetry of Shevchenko, we can
+never forget that he must be judged in two different spheres and on
+two different planes. He is first and foremost the poet of Ukraine, and
+his poems breathe the secret longings of every Ukrainian heart. He
+is the spokesman of his people and from his lips we hear in all their
+clarity and intensity the prayers, the hopes, the disappointments of
+the Ukrainians. No one of the other Ukrainian poets has equalled
+him in the understanding of his fellow countrymen and his people
+have accorded him the highest praise and honor that they can bestow
+upon a man.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, his sympathy and compassion range far beyond
+the boundaries of his own people and here he becomes a world poet,
+able to stand comparison with such writers as Pushkin and Mickiewicz,
+the great masters of Russian and Polish verse at their periods
+of greatest excellence. Far more even than they he expressed the sufferings
+of humanity, the evil of injustice and of wrong, the need and
+the inevitability of the triumph of right, of kindness, and of brotherly
+love. His poems in this sphere have a message for all humanity
+and are an appeal for a better, a truer, a more decent life for all men
+and women everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>It is one of the mysteries of genius how the poor serf was able to
+develop into the magnificent poet that he was to become in after
+years, despite the blows that fate hurled upon him, of poverty, of suffering,
+of imprisonment and of ill health. Yet there is no royal road
+to genius and there is no predicting where or when a genius will be
+born. The world can only note it and give due acclaim to the man
+who is thus favored or cursed by fortune.</p>
+
+<p>Let us look a little more closely at the work of Shevchenko in the
+national sphere. For centuries the free Kozaks had been holding up to
+view the principles of a free life and a free political organization on
+the steppes of eastern Europe. They had paid for their liberty with
+their blood. They had fought a losing fight, for disunity and factionalism
+had destroyed them even at the moments when they seemed
+the nearest to success and victory. Social classes had made an appearance
+among them. The Kozak officers had tended to turn themselves
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span>into nobles and to seek from outside powers the ratification of their
+claims. They paid the price for their ambitions and with them the
+people who might have stood out as a strong and self-contained band
+were thrown into serfdom. It was a long, slow process and with unfailing
+psychological truth Shevchenko put his finger unerringly upon
+the defects of the Kozak system. He traced the downfall of his country
+through the ages. He pictured it in its ruin and he never lost hope
+that someway, somehow it would rise again. He was not a soldier at
+heart. He was not a conspirator. He was not interested in the secret
+passwords, the underground existence, the spiritual isolation and
+discipline that must become the dominating features of the life of
+every revolutionist. In childhood he had learned why the Koliishchina
+had failed. As a kindly, loving soul, he could not excuse the
+ferocity of that movement which he painted so vividly. He had seen
+the failure of the Decembrist movement in Russia and of the Polish
+revolt in 1831 and he understood the lessons. Yet he did not waver
+in his belief. He did not express himself as to the manner in which
+Ukraine would become free. He was not a political theorist and did
+not speculate on the form of government which would then come. He
+was too cultured, too modern to believe that the old Kozak system
+could return, that the Hetmans could be reestablished and recover
+their power. But never for a moment did he give up his feeling of
+loyalty to his mother-country. Never for an instant did he mitigate
+or reduce her claims to independence. Full friendship and trust in
+the Moskals could only come when Moscow was ready to greet
+Ukraine as a brother with all the rights and obligations that that
+meant.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time that he avoided political revolution, Shevchenko
+was a bold and defiant revolutionist in the ideal sense of the word.
+He was not satisfied with a revolution which would remove the tsars
+whom he hated and put other men in power with the same privileges.
+To him the goal of human life was freedom, brotherhood, democracy.
+He wanted a society which would not injure the unfortunate
+and the downtrodden, which would not be composed of hypocritical
+Pharisees and snobbish and ambitious and conceited rulers and
+wealthy roués, no matter what terms they applied to themselves.</p>
+
+<p>It is here that Shevchenko far transcended Ukraine and her problems.
+Wherever there was a suffering soul, an oppressed woman or
+child, an enslaved man, the message of Shevchenko demanded unflinchingly
+that evil must be wiped out, that need and want and fear
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span>must be eliminated from the earth, and that greed and lust must be
+annihilated. In holding up these goals which are independent of and
+above national existence, which are in the realm of religion and of
+ethics, Shevchenko has a message for the entire world. His works are
+far more modern in their direct and simple speech than are those of
+most of his contemporaries. They cannot grow old or fade until those
+great ideals which we to-day call by the name of democracy and for
+which the world is fighting, are fully brought to reality. They are the
+dominant factors in man’s struggle to achieve civilization and on
+man’s success in obtaining them depends the future of peace and
+prosperity.</p>
+
+<p>Yet we would be very wrong to think that Shevchenko acquired his
+point of view only from his own meditations and ideas. The picture
+that is often drawn of him as a mere serf who somehow or other appeared
+in literature is far from the mark. Of course he had no formal
+education—but that was true of many of the scholars and gentlemen
+of the early nineteenth century. We often say of them that they acquired
+their knowledge and outlook on life through constant association
+with the outstanding men of a previous generation. This is obviously
+untrue of Shevchenko who was born a serf and passed his
+childhood under the harsh conditions of life in a poor Ukraine village,
+where he could only secure an education from the ignorant and
+inefficient clerks and chanters of the various village churches and they
+were hardly the proper instructors for a young and ambitious man.
+Yet somehow or other Taras Shevchenko acquired a real education
+which enabled him to meet on an equality many of the most distinguished
+men of his time, he won a real insight into the psychology of
+his people, and he mastered their language as no one else has ever
+done. There is needed far more study than has hitherto been undertaken
+as to the way in which he acquired knowledge and trained himself
+for his great work.</p>
+
+<p>We can only dimly trace in broad outlines the process of his development.
+From his earliest boyhood he had ambitions to become an
+artist and his first teachers were the local ikon painters. From them
+he seems to have learned little except to read and sing the psalms,
+but he was so expert in this that his first master used to send him out
+to officiate at peasant funerals, when the master was too drunk to attend
+them himself. Of painting he could learn only how to draw and
+color the general types of saints that were to be found in the local
+ikonostases and the sketchy outlines of the details of hagiography
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span>and printing that were included in the cheap handbooks that served
+the rural workmen as patterns—and we must remember that at this
+period the art of ikon painting as an art was sadly on the decline. He
+also absorbed from his grandfather the latter’s memories of the
+Koliishchina and from the village a knowledge of the folksongs and
+of the dances and other traditional elements of the village culture. He
+had certainly read Skovoroda, Kotlyarevsky, and the other early masters
+of Ukrainian literature.</p>
+
+<p>All this represented the full range of his possibilities until he appeared
+at the Engelhardt manorhouse and was taken with the young
+master to Wilno and Warsaw. He had not only picked up by this time
+a knowledge of the Church Slavonic but he had also a general acquaintance
+with both Russian and Polish and he probably used every
+opportunity to read what books were in the manorhouse exactly as
+he feasted his eyes upon the works of art that were there. Yet we must
+not lay too much stress upon this possibility, for in those days books
+were often more neglected than cherished and there were many great
+nobles whose libraries contained fewer books than windows.</p>
+
+<p>Shevchenko’s opposition to serfdom and his irritation at being
+dragged from his homeland may have colored his own reminiscences
+as to the opportunities that he had for acquiring a knowledge of the
+cultures of the oppressors of his country. At the time he was far more
+interested in painting than he was in writing, and we are better able
+to trace the influences exerted upon his art than those upon his
+poetry. Yet his stay in Wilno was undoubtedly an important factor
+in his development.</p>
+
+<p>At this time Wilno was the cultural centre of the movement for
+the liberation of Poland. Around the restored university there had
+gathered a group of talented young men who were ardent Polish
+patriots. Among them was Adam Mickiewicz who had been arrested
+and removed to Russia in 1824, just six years before the young serf
+arrived in the city. It was possible for him to be affected by the growing
+preparations for the Polish revolt of 1831 and his friendship with
+Dunia Haszowska undoubtedly did much to increase his already
+strong Ukrainian feelings. At the same time from her and from his
+teacher, Franciszek Lampa, he could hardly fail to become acquainted
+with the newer works of Polish literature and with the beginnings
+of the Romantic movement which was basing itself upon the newer
+German and English developments. He was probably already aware
+of the ideas of Schiller and Byron, before he went to St. Petersburg
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span>and there he was again subjected to the same type of influences in
+their Russian form.</p>
+
+<p>During his work with Shirayev, he probably had little time to continue
+this self-education, although it is always hard to say exactly
+what he was reading or what opportunities the poor serf had to
+study. At all events with his meeting with Bryulov and his subsequent
+emancipation, he was brought definitely into contact with men who
+were familiar with Europe and who had known personally most of
+the great writers of the day in all the European literatures. Many of
+their works had appeared in poor and often anonymous Russian
+translations. Even translations of the stories of Washington Irving
+were appearing and an ambitious and intellectually eager young
+man, even with his limited opportunities, was able to assimilate a
+great deal of literary knowledge. Up to the present time there are no
+exhaustive studies of this type of Russian publications, for we can
+hardly call some of these translations by the proud name of literature.
+Many of the students of Shevchenko have sought to confine the influences
+upon him to Polish and Russian. In a sense this is true, for
+Shevchenko gives no sign of learning more than a few words in any
+non-Slavonic language, but it is equally false to neglect the possibility
+that the young man got to know the masterpieces of the world
+through such defective sources. Besides this, he was in touch with
+Zhukovsky, who was the outstanding student of European literature
+in Russia at the day and the foremost translator. The poet was a
+friend of Bryulov and it is not fantastic to suggest that the years of
+his stay in St. Petersburg both before and after his emancipation were
+used to good advantage to give him a knowledge of literature as well
+as of painting.</p>
+
+<p>At all events we do not know what occasion set Shevchenko to
+writing. We do not have any of his first attempts and the earliest
+poem which we know is the <i>Prychynna</i>, (the Mad Woman) which is
+very definitely based upon the weird, supernatural type of ballad
+which was so popular at the time and which had been acclimatized
+in Russian by Zhukovsky and in Polish by Mickiewicz on the basis of
+Bürger’s <i>Lenore</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting in this poem that Shevchenko has completely
+Ukrainianized the scene. The lover is a Kozak who has fallen in
+battle. There is a sympathetic description of the Ukrainian landscape
+and unlike the vast number of ballads of this period, the
+stanza form has been completely neglected and can be marked only
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span>by the rhyming sequence which already has taken the form which
+is characteristic of most of the mature poems of our author. There is
+the same variation in metre which we are to find in his later poems
+and it is with good reason that critics regard this as one of his most
+successful works. Wonder grows when we reflect that this is the work
+of a twenty-three year old poet who was still a serf at the time when
+he composed it.</p>
+
+<p>The same characteristics can be found in the other ballads which
+were included in the original <i>Kobzar</i> and in those which he wrote before
+his arrest. They are ostensibly based upon the Ukrainian folklore;
+they handle the traditional themes in a highly original way,
+but at the same time they fall well within the limitations of the form
+as it was worked out by the general Romantic movement. The same
+question comes up again and again in Gogol’s Ukrainian stories,
+<i>Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka</i>, when there can be no decision how
+far the author is using exclusively peasant material and how far he
+has been influenced by literary models.</p>
+
+<p>A careful examination of these ballads will show that Shevchenko
+was by no means the guileless and unthinking poet of nature that he
+appeared to Russian critics as Belinsky. When the <i>Kobzar</i> appeared,
+Belinsky with all of his critical sense was so hostile to the use of the
+Ukrainian or Little Russian language for literary purposes, that he
+emphasized with malice aforethought the use of the vernacular and
+of peasant words, and regarded the poems as unimportant and unliterary.
+The Russian radicals and progressives certainly interpreted
+the brotherhood of man and the superiority of Russian to the other
+Slavonic languages as organs for their attempts to unify all inhabitants
+of the Russian Empire and their opposition to the Tsar and
+the system of Nicholas I did not lead them to have a shred of sympathy
+for any one who sought for himself the same privileges which
+they were so proudly acclaiming. From the beginning to the end of
+Shevchenko’s career he did not find among the Russian radicals
+any who appreciated what he was really endeavoring to do. They
+might sympathize with his attacks on tyranny and slavery but they
+all looked askance at his use of the native speech of Ukraine as much
+as did the tsarist officials.</p>
+
+<p>In the historical ballads as <i>Ivan Pidkova</i> and the <i>Night of Taras</i>,
+we have likewise the use of Ukrainian subjects and the adaptation of
+the ballad form for historical episodes, such as we find in Schiller and
+Byron. They are filled with the wild ferocity, the careless love of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span>freedom that were the traditional features of the Zaporozhtsy
+throughout their history.</p>
+
+<p>When we turn to <i>Katerina</i>, we are on different ground, for here we
+are dealing with the story of the peasant girl abandoned by her noble
+lover that was familiar in the Romantic period and which had been
+introduced into Russian literature as early as Karamzin’s <i>Poor Liza</i>.
+It is typical also of Shevchenko that he dedicated this poem to Zhukovsky
+who had been so instrumental in securing his freedom. A lesser
+and less outspoken person might have hesitated to do this, for Zhukovsky
+was himself the illegitimate son of a Russian nobleman and
+a Turkish slave girl. Yet apparently there had been a happy outcome
+to this situation, for the girl and Mme. Bunina, the wife, remained
+friendly and Zhukovsky was not faced with the hardships that confronted
+Ivas.</p>
+
+<p>Through all these poems runs the fervent belief in Ukraine and
+her tragedy. Perhaps in <i>Perebendya</i>, Shevchenko modelled his old
+bard on the <i>Lay of the Last Minstrel</i> in the poem of Sir Walter Scott,
+who was himself an apologist for the long overthrown Stuart dynasty
+in England. The minstrel had been compelled to suffer by the changes
+of politics and Shevchenko could easily parallel him to the blind
+bards wandering around Ukraine and singing of the past glories of
+the Kozaks and the Ukrainian people. The Romantic glorification
+of the past fitted in well with his point of view and in the <i>Kobzar</i> almost
+every poem breathes the poet’s sadness over the loss of his country’s
+liberty and the present hardships of the people. They emphasize
+his dislike for Poland and his aversion to the indifference of the
+Moskals to the people of Ukraine.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the <i>Kobzar</i> is far more than a mere imitation of peasant songs.
+It goes far beyond the talented reworking of peasant themes and it
+shows us Shevchenko as already a person well familiar with the literatures
+of Europe as reflected through Russian and Polish, with the
+Russian influence predominating. This was only natural for he was
+living at the time in the Russian capital, and his associates were drawn
+from the Russian cultural circles. The <i>Kobzar</i> appealed to the Ukrainian
+people. It set forth their case and their sufferings as well as their
+past glory, and it naturally won for the poet their love and esteem.</p>
+
+<p>The next year he produced the <i>Haydamaki</i>, the longest of all his
+works. It is a long epic poem describing the revolt of the Koliishchina,
+the last outbreak of Western Ukraine against the Polish domination.
+The movement had been convulsive and brutal and the poet has endeavored
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span>to catch that fierce spirit of revolt that animated the unfortunate
+peasants. He studied the materials available for the history
+of the movement but he was also influenced by the stories which
+he had heard from his grandfather and his associates in childhood
+and like epic poets in general he did not content himself with a mere
+versified history. He followed the better artistic method of creating
+a relatively minor figure as hero, in this case Halayda and here again
+Shevchenko followed the favorite device of Scott, which had also
+been adopted by Pushkin in his novel, <i>The Captain’s Daughter</i>, a
+study of the revolt of Pugachov, the last great outbreak of the Russian
+peasants against the new order in Russia at almost the same time as
+the Koliishchina.</p>
+
+<p>There are passages in this poem, which seem to the modern reader
+unnecessarily brutal but on the whole Shevchenko was not a military
+poet. The parts of the <i>Haydamaki</i> which will live forever are not
+so much the scenes of battle and of bloodshed, as the descriptions of
+Ukrainian nature, the oppression of the peasants by their overlords,
+the blessing of the arms, and the introduction and epilogue which
+give the motif of the poem, “Ukraina’s weeping.”</p>
+
+<p>The work met with the same reception as the <i>Kobzar</i>. The Ukrainians
+in St. Petersburg and at home welcomed the work. It was appreciated
+by many of the foremost Russian poets, but the leaders of
+liberal thought like Belinsky attacked it savagely. The great liberal
+and lover of freedom remarked of it (Vol. VII, p. 214 ff.) “Works of
+such a character are published only for the pleasure and edification of
+the authors themselves.” They rest “on an abundance of vulgar and
+commonplace words and expressions, lacking simplicity of conception
+and story, filled with pretensions and mannerisms natural to all
+bad poets—often not at all popular, although they are supported by
+reliance upon history of song and tradition.” Belinsky had nothing
+better to say than to urge the poet if he desired to help his people “to
+talk to the people in a simple, intelligible language about various
+useful subjects of civil and family life, as Osnovyanenko commenced
+(but unfortunately did not continue) in his pamphlet, <i>Thoughts for
+my dear countrymen</i>.” Incidentally this pamphlet had aroused amusement
+and irritation, because Kvitka-Osnovyanenko as a provincial
+nobleman was giving vent to views on the divine rights of the Tsar
+which had long been unpopular even with the most reactionary circles
+in the capital. Such comments on the <i>Haydamaki</i> can be explained
+only by the ardent desire of Belinsky and his friends to bar
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span>the development of literature in the Ukrainian or Little Russian language
+as they insisted upon calling it.</p>
+
+<p>Belinsky did not change his opinions and about the time of Shevchenko’s
+arrest, the great liberal critic wrote to Count Annenkov in
+December 1846 that “common sense must see in Shevchenko an ass, a
+fool and a scoundrel, and above all a bitter drunkard, a lover of
+spirits because of <i>Khokhol</i> patriotism.”</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it was as a result of these attacks, that Shevchenko came to
+feel himself even more isolated in the Russian capital. He wrote very
+little during the next year and what he wrote breathes with every
+syllable the feeling that he was a stranger in a strange land and that
+the glory of Ukraine had definitely departed. He gradually ceased
+to glorify the past and to hope that it might return and he came to
+bewail the past.</p>
+
+<p>It was in this state of mind that he returned to Ukraine for a visit
+in 1843 and was overwhelmed with the tragedy, the poverty, and the
+unhappiness which he found in his own country and his own family.
+His naturally radical propensities were reinforced and he felt on his
+return that his stay in St. Petersburg was rather taking him away from
+the field of action and of practical life. The pleasant associations
+which he had with Bryulov and his friends, his occupations with
+painting and writing, all seemed to him insignificant in comparison
+with the festering sore which he had seen at home. In <i>Three Years</i> he
+deplored the passing of his youth in unimportant occupations and he
+yearned to be able to do something more positive, more immediate
+for his fellow men. In this he was probably stirred by the general
+note of sentimentalism that swept over Russian literature in the forties
+and the beginnings of definite sympathy with the people and a
+call for the liberation of the serfs.</p>
+
+<p>A striking result of this visit was a mitigation of his hostility for
+the Poles. In the more romantic dreams of his youth, he had harked
+back to the Kozak exploits against the Polish state. Now he definitely
+turned upon Bohdan who had been the first to sign a formal treaty
+with Moscow. It is idle to argue that Shevchenko was thinking only
+of the Russian tsar and the Russian landowners. The whole trend of
+his works, his denunciation of the German bureaucracy, his attitude
+toward individuals all indicate that he sharply differentiated the
+Russians and the Ukrainians and was willing to risk his life in order
+to create again an independent Ukraine.</p>
+
+<p>The poems of the years between his first visit to Ukraine and his
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span>arrest are perhaps his greatest consistent mass of writing and in them
+he allows his imagination to play over the whole field of life. Working
+in the Archaeological Commission, he resented the Russian excavation
+of the Ukrainian funeral mounds and the removal of the contents,
+where they were of artistic character, to the capital. He resented
+the glorification of Peter the Great and Catherine, the two rulers
+who had wiped out the Ukrainian self-government. He resented the
+praise of Bohdan for his subservience to Moscow and the condemnation
+of Mazepa for his joining with Charles XII against Peter. He
+resented the Russian advance in the Caucasus and the attempts of
+Russia to strengthen her power without solving her internal difficulties.
+He resented the willingness of many of the Ukrainian landowners
+to climb upon the band wagon of Moscow and to avoid their
+own culture. He hated the injustice of the people themselves towards
+the unfortunate girl who had been seduced, especially by a Russian
+stranger. His moral indignation urged him to speak out against every
+form of oppression.</p>
+
+<p>He therefore willingly accepted the ideas of Kollár, a Slovak, when
+he wrote the <i>Heretic</i> and glorified Jan Hus as a Slav hero, but it is to
+be noted that in the introduction which was dedicated to Šafařík, he
+definitely criticized Pushkin’s views on the necessity of Slavonic union
+under Russia and demanded a real Slavonic brotherhood in which all
+the Slavs would appear as brothers.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally the Society of <abbr title="Saints">Sts.</abbr> Cyril and Methodius and the association
+of the United Slavs made a strong appeal to him. Here was a
+group of young idealists who seriously believed, following Kollár,
+that all the Slavs should be brothers, that the German influence
+should be eradicated, and that a great Slav republic should be set up.
+Like the Decembrists a quarter century before, these young leaders
+had very little idea as to the ultimate consequences of their acts and
+the methods by which they would realize their ideals. Shevchenko
+saw in them a standard which would help humanity and he turned to
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally it was impossible for any author to express these thoughts
+openly under the iron rule of Nicholas I. To the administration, the
+problem of Ukraine had been settled when the country had been
+divided into governments and the full Russian administrative system
+introduced. It was therefore necessary for the poet to indicate
+rather than to state definitely the goals for which he was striving and
+hence it is that we have such poems as the <i>Dream</i> and the <i>Great Grave</i>.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span>There is much that is unclear about them. The <i>Great Grave</i> is a
+masterpiece of allusion and of vague indirection but the reader is
+able from it to grasp a full sense of the indignation which Shevchenko
+felt over the ruin of his country and his guarded expressions of hope
+that it will rise again free of Russian domination. The old nostalgic
+note of sorrow for the failures of the past still continues but the
+pressing needs of the present and the realization that there is much
+internal reform, much increase of brotherhood, much hard and unromantic
+work to be done, before the glorious days of the past can
+return, now take precedence over the old laments for a golden age.
+Shevchenko had come to realize that it was internal disunion as well
+as foreign pressure that had brought the country to its present state
+and he believed that this had to be fought at home as well as on the
+field of battle.</p>
+
+<p>Just as before Ukraine is pictured as a poor widow, an orphan,
+abandoned by all in a cold world, and he poured out his heart over
+it. At the same time he expressed his bitter condemnation of the court
+and in the <i>Dream</i> he produced an unforgivable and unforgettable
+satire on the slavish manners of the court itself. He must have been
+aware that he was risking his own personal liberty and fortune on
+such attacks. At times they were hardly tactful or in good taste but
+the bitterness which rankled in Shevchenko’s soul made him oblivious
+to this.</p>
+
+<p>It is perhaps idle to wonder what change would have taken place
+in him, had he received a fellowship to study abroad. He had already
+come a long way culturally from the little village where he was born
+and he was familiar with the accomplishments of the world outside.
+He lacked that personal knowledge that even a short trip to the West
+would have given him. We cannot tell how he would have reacted to
+a freer and a better life. He might have become a potent factor as
+an emigré in the life of his country as Drahomaniv was in after years.
+He might have, but it is hardly likely, been swept from his feet by the
+allurements of the outside world. Almost certainly his active mind
+would have drawn some lesson for his people, would have gained
+some experience, had he had the opportunity to make friends and to
+observe.</p>
+
+<p>It was not to be and perhaps we are not going too far when we
+ascribe to the introduction of the second <i>Kobzar</i> which never appeared
+a fairly good summary of Shevchenko’s views on the very eve
+of the catastrophe. He had planned to publish some of his poems and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span>they were already in the hands of the censor when he was arrested.
+In the introduction which he submitted with the text and which was
+only discovered in the files of the police in 1906, he bewailed the fact
+that all the Slavonic races were able to print freely, Poles, Czechs,
+Serbs, Bulgars, Montenegrans, Moskals but not his own people, and
+he complains even more bitterly that a large part of the Ukrainian
+educated class are ashamed of their own mother tongue and try to
+read and write Russian. “Do not pay attention to the Moskals; let
+them write in their fashion, and let us write in ours. They have a
+people and language—and we have a people and language, and let
+people decide which is the more beautiful. They rely upon Gogol,
+because he wrote not in his own language, but in Muscovite, as on
+Walter Scott, because he did not write in his language. Gogol grew
+up in Nizhen and not in Little Russia, and does not know his own
+language; and W(alter) S(cott) in Edinburgh and not in Scotland—and
+perhaps there was some reason why they gave it up.... I do not
+know. But Burns was also a great folk poet, and Skovoroda would
+have been, had he not been beaten from his course by Latin and then
+by Muscovite.” “Why were not V. S. Karadjić, Šafařík and others not
+turned into Germans (it would have been easier for them) and why
+did they remain Slavs, sincere sons of their mothers, and acquire
+good fame?” This and other passages disposes of the widespread idea
+that Shevchenko was only opposed to the Russian autocratic rule.
+The whole trend of his thinking and development shows that he
+regarded Ukraine and the Ukrainians as entirely different from the
+Russians and on a par with the other Slavonic races. His comparison
+with Scott and Burns shows his general feelings and also his acquaintance
+with what European literature had to offer. He had
+worked through many of his original difficulties, and if he was of a
+radical term of mind, he still viewed his radicalism only through the
+eyes of his own people. It naturally made it harder for him in the
+capital and it alienated him from many of his more easy-going countrymen
+and more than that it prepared the way for the great catastrophe
+that was to overtake him.</p>
+
+<p>Up to this time with the single exception of the <i>Heretic</i> he had
+confined himself entirely to Ukrainian themes. But during these
+years his understanding had broadened. He was as devoted as before
+to the cause of Ukraine but in his shift from the Romantic glorification
+of the past of his country to an eloquent plea for the elimination
+of the evils which he saw there, he had come to realize that these evils
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span>were universal. The sins of injustice, of cruelty, and of meanness
+were everywhere and the poor of all nations suffered as did the
+Ukrainians. This gave to his poetry a far wider human significance
+than before. From this time on, the suffering and insulted girl who
+had been conceived as a Ukrainian phenomenon now becomes a
+universal figure. This type which had figured in world literature and
+been naturalized in Russian, Polish, and then in Ukrainian, now is
+seen as a universal phenomenon. The appeals for justice for the
+mother, for the poor are universal appeals, placed in a Ukrainian
+setting with a background of Ukrainian nature and reality. They can
+be read with sympathy throughout the civilized world and not merely
+as local peculiarities. A sort of national ethnography had served as
+the basis for many of the early Ukrainian writings and the authors
+had vied with one another to see how accurately they could describe
+the minutiae of village life. Shevchenko was not satisfied with this
+and he laid the weight of emphasis on the individual and the universal
+rather than on the local background.</p>
+
+<p>It all marked another step in the transformation and broadening
+of the poet and the process would have continued with beneficent
+results, had it not been for his unfortunate arrest and exile. During
+the weeks of confinement, his poetry became more purely lyrical,
+more definitely personal than before and the little collection
+<i>In the Fortress</i>, shows a newer and deeper insight into his own psychology
+and that of his people. He realized that it meant the shattering
+of his hopes, the possible ending of his career, and the regret that
+he could not have done more burned him deeply. Yet it is interesting
+that in this very series, there grew in his mind the comparison between
+Ukraine and the poor girl driven from her own village. This was to
+be one of the main themes of his later verses.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the stunning sentence that he was to be exiled and put
+in the army without permission to write or paint. He at first made
+attempts to have the ban on painting lifted. We cannot tell whether
+this was because painting was nearer to his heart or because it was his
+verses that had brought his condemnation and he believed that since
+his pencil and brush were less guilty of political opposition, he
+might be granted more mitigation of his sentence on this score than
+on the field of poetry in which he had definitely offended the Tsar.</p>
+
+<p>The sentence was carried out spasmodically. Thus at Orsk he was
+apparently able to write a little. During the winter at Kos-Aral, he
+had still more liberty and while he was at Orenburg, he was able both
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span>to write and paint. It was only after his second arrest that the ban was
+ruthlessly and rigorously enforced for some years and apart from some
+reworking of old themes in Russian, he did not attempt anything.</p>
+
+<p>Life in the army was not kind to the poet. The needlessly harsh and
+stern discipline hurt his sensitive soul. His companions were largely
+ignorant peasants; many of them were political exiles and criminals.
+Their rough and obscene language, their brutal cynicism disgusted
+him as much as did the ignorance and lack of culture of many of the
+officers. He never became a good soldier and by his rigid performance
+of his duties never won some sort of alleviation of the hardships
+of his life. In addition, even on the expedition to Kos-Aral, there was
+a surprising lack of the necessaries of life for all, high and low, willing
+and unwilling. All this coupled with the prohibition of indulging
+openly in his favorite pastimes wore him down and his health was
+gravely shattered by scurvy and other diseases. In short by the time
+of his liberation, he had become a prematurely old man.</p>
+
+<p>Intellectually he was, like Dostoyevsky at almost the same period,
+cut off from all the currents of literature and confined in his reading
+to the New Testament. Unlike him, Shevchenko did not grow and expand
+his range of interest during this period. He did not drink in
+and transcend his new experiences but he retreated more into himself
+and maintained his intellectual poise by meditating upon the same
+themes which had been stirring in his brain before he was arrested.
+He deepened his meditations and his thoughts and universalized
+them instead of absorbing the world around him and meditating
+upon it.</p>
+
+<p>It is highly typical of Shevchenko and indeed of all the Russian
+intelligentsia of the period that this sudden forcible intrusion into
+a new and strange life did not produce in his writings any pictures
+of his experiences. The treeless steppe and the impoverished and
+nomadic Kirghiz might become the proper subjects for his painting
+and sketching. They leave on his poetry only his feeling of isolation
+from Ukraine. The hardships on the expedition do not rouse
+him to song to describe them nearly as much as do his memories of
+the green fields of Ukraine and the sufferings of the unfortunate serfs.</p>
+
+<p>More than ever his poetry re-echoes the same motifs that we
+have already seen—the unwedded mother, a comparison of her with
+the widowed and desolated Ukraine, his solitude, his dreams of
+liberty. A Lermontov or a Tolstoy could thrill to the beauty of the
+Caucasus, the grandeur of the mountains, the sandy desert. Shevchenko
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span>could not but every step, every new event only increased his
+nostalgia and led him to a deeper and deeper lyricism which contrasts
+with the narrative themes which he reworked with slight variations.
+We can explain this in many ways, his feelings of alienation
+from his surroundings, his dislike of the army, his sufferings from
+the discipline, but the fact remains that his experiences remained
+apart from his poetry and his mind dwelt upon the past and the
+dreams that he had once cherished.</p>
+
+<p>In Orenburg he came to know many of the exiled Poles and Ukrainians.
+On his release he met some of the Decembrists who were returning
+after a quarter of a century in Russian prison camps. The period
+taught him to overlook many of the Polish misdeeds in Ukraine.
+This was foreshadowed by that memorable passage in the epistle
+where he told his countrymen that the Kozaks had overthrown Poland
+but that her fall had ruined them. So in the poem <i>To the Poles</i>
+he was able to plead for a renewal of brotherly relations.</p>
+
+<p>The Decembrists impressed him but it is highly significant again
+that not one word of his poetry pleaded for a reconciliation between
+them and Ukraine. He viewed them as martyrs, he eulogized them,
+but the fact that Pushchin, the Decembrist, the poet, and the friend
+of Pushkin, had an illegitimate daughter just like a gay hussar,
+shocked him to the depths. He must have remembered that passage
+in <i>Katerina</i>,</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Yes, the Moskal loves you lightly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Lightly he will drop you.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p>But there is a difference in his last period. He returned unbroken
+in spirit and almost his first experiment in poetry was the <i>Neophytes</i>
+written while he was detained at Nizhni Novgorod. His friend Kulish
+who was always cautious and fearful warned him that the poem was
+dangerous but that made no difference to Shevchenko. Even after his
+experiences in the army and while he was still in doubt as to whether
+he might be returned to the cheerless steppe, he wrote a poem which
+pointedly drew a comparison between the Russian tsar and the Emperor
+Nero. It is a sharp criticism of the abuse of Christianity by the
+modern despots. In form it is a retelling of a story that might have
+been the theme of a painting by Bryulov, the picture of decadent, luxurious,
+persecuting Rome, and the fate of the early Christian martyrs.
+In a sense the poem offers a conventional picture. Shevchenko chooses
+however, and this is in line with his development, the emotions of a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span>mother of a martyr who is converted by her son’s courageous death
+to a belief in the Crucified. There are phrases which express the
+poet’s dissatisfaction with organized Christianity but they reveal
+nothing more than his belief that truth and right are being mocked
+by their so-called observers and believers. We can read the story as it
+stands or we can take the very obvious comparison of the mother and
+Ukraine, and read the moral that Ukraine can only arise when truth
+is restored to its supreme position on earth, and men live again as
+brothers.</p>
+
+<p>Shevchenko’s return to St. Petersburg was almost a triumphal procession.
+He was entertained everywhere by the Slavophile leaders, as
+Sergey Timofeyevich Aksakov who had pleasant memories of that
+remote area among the Bashkirs which was somewhat similar to the
+land where Shevchenko had suffered. In St. Petersburg he met Count
+Aleksyey Konstantinovich Tolstoy and his relatives. He also became
+friends with Chernyshevsky and this friendship is of course exploited
+by the Communists who have tried to translate Shevchenko into
+their own language. It is true that the great radical spoke of the 1860
+edition of the <i>Kobzar</i> in terms more favorable than did Belinsky but
+it is equally clear that he persisted in seeing in it only the folk elements
+and refused to grant it a proper place in the literature of a
+civilized nation. To him like Belinsky, Ukrainian had no right to
+exist except as a vehicle for folksongs. He rebuked the language and
+the writers for borrowing Russian and European words and believed
+that one East Slavonic language was all that had a right to appear and
+be counted. He denied to the Ukrainians that right which Russian
+in the eighteenth century had so generously utilized of modernization.
+He could quote Shevchenko on the abuses of serfdom with an
+easy conscience but both he and Turgenev were very sceptical of the
+validity of the underlying thesis of Shevchenko that Russia had its
+people and language and so had Ukraine.</p>
+
+<p>Shevchenko had returned broken in body. His fiery will was unbroken
+but he was weary and the main notes in his later poems were
+a universal call for action against injustice and a personal lamentation
+for his bachelor life outside of Ukraine. Only rarely as in the
+attack on Bohdan did he revert to direct laments for the fall of his
+country. For the most part his works are adaptations of the Old Testament,
+breathing the moral indignation and the call to repentance
+that inflamed the Old Testament prophets. Again and again he emphasizes
+the need for truth and love and brotherhood, if mankind is
+to be truly happy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span></p>
+
+<p>To this series may be ascribed <i>Mary</i>. This is a striking study of the
+Blessed Virgin and Shevchenko deliberately changed the sacred story
+in order to make Mary typical of the lot of the average peasant
+woman. He also used apocryphal tales that were current among the
+peasants. Yet despite the surface variations in the story which take
+away much of the scriptural character, the story cannot fairly be
+called irreverent. It is not even unmiraculous in character, for the
+Star of Bethlehem, here called a comet, certainly plays a distinct
+role.</p>
+
+<p>In writing this poem Shevchenko prefaces it with a glorious invocation
+of the Blessed Virgin, but exactly as he did in the <i>Neophytes</i>,
+the emphasis is laid upon the devoted woman, that truly human
+figure who carries on the work of her Son in the great cause of human
+freedom and human brotherhood after his untimely death at the
+hands of evil men. There is none of that spirit of deliberate blasphemy
+which appears so markedly in Pushkin’s <i>Gavriliada</i> or in most
+of the attempts to humanize the sacred story. It brought down upon
+the unfortunate head of the poet a great deal of criticism but here as
+elsewhere a more careful reader will see the fundamentally religious
+nature of the poet, even when he at first sight seems to turn his back
+upon the adherents of conventional religion.</p>
+
+<p>The other note of his last days is the more personal one of grieving
+over his own unfortunate fate. His one ambition in life was to have
+a wife and a little home on the banks of the Dniper and his last years
+were a pathetic search for the girl who was to share it with him. His
+last poem written only a few days before his death is a real swansong
+and a definite assurance that it will be in the next world that he can
+satisfy these innocent desires.</p>
+
+<p>Taras Shevchenko finished his sad and thwarted career at the age
+of forty-seven. For only nine years was he free to write as he would
+and even during that period publication was denied his works. He
+could be known officially only by the <i>Kobzar</i> and the <i>Haydamaki</i>. A
+second edition of the <i>Kobzar</i> was stopped by his arrest. Another edition
+which did appear in 1860 could contain only those early poems
+which had appeared before his arrest. All his other works were known
+either by manuscript copies which were in the hands of devoted
+friends and were circulated at the risk of arrest and imprisonment
+or were buried in his own notebooks or in the more inaccessible files
+of the Imperial police. All this makes it more remarkable that he was
+so widely known and highly valued during his own lifetime.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span></p>
+
+<p>There is a deceptive simplicity about his works. He seems to be
+the mere imitator of the folksongs and the traditions of his people
+but he is far more than that. He possessed a command of language
+and a degree of metrical skill which overshadows that of many of his
+famous Slavonic contemporaries. Pushkin was content to ring
+changes upon the iambic metre. Shevchenko uses with equal skill
+iambics, trochees (perhaps his favorite) and anapaests. He was a
+master in the art. He could employ the simple measures of the folksong
+and give them a real dignity and he was equally at home with
+the formal rhythms but always he was the master of his medium and
+the freedom which he uses in his system of rhyming and of accentuation
+show a skill in technique that is not rivalled by any poet of his
+own or later times. The very simplicity and artlessness which he reveals
+conceal the master artist and are the more amazing when we
+realize that he has left us no hints as to the way in which he attained
+his skill, for the earliest poems which we possess from his pen are as
+perfect in their own way as are his greatest masterpieces.</p>
+
+<p>Shevchenko commenced his work at the height of the Romantic
+period, when the poets of eastern and western Europe were heavily
+under the spell of the supernatural and the historical and from there
+with the ripening of his talent, he passed by evolutionary stages into
+the age of realism and of social reform. Through it all there is a majestic
+dignity that is characteristic of the finer passages of the Old
+Testament together with a tender and sympathetic understanding
+of all the sufferings and sorrows of humanity. It is this characteristic
+that has made him a timeless poet of the human heart and has given
+to his works not only national but permanent and universal value.</p>
+
+<p>It is now nearly a century since the promising career of Taras
+Shevchenko was blighted by arrest and exile. The Russian authorities
+hoped that they had silenced him and with him the cause for which
+he stood and the uncomfortable and dangerous ideas which he was
+expressing. They failed miserably. They isolated him for ten years
+and warped his spirit; they broke his health but he never wavered in
+his ideas and to the end of his life he proclaimed the selfsame undying
+truths. Year by year his poems have been recovered, they have
+been studied, edited and reedited. Year by year his fame has increased
+and to-day it is abundantly evident that he was not a petty revolutionist
+and plotter, a poet who repeated in more or less agreeable form
+the old village folksongs, the last remains of a passing phase of life in
+one small period of human history, but that he was a man who
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span>against tremendous obstacles developed his heaven-given gift of song
+by long and serious study, who assimilated the best that the civilization
+of his time had to offer, and who was a flaming guide to the
+hearts of men and a prophet of a new and better world in which all
+that stains and ruins and tortures the human spirit will disappear.
+The poet of Ukraine, he is also a poet of humanity. His works have
+more than a purely local significance. To-day we realize as never before
+that freedom and truth and justice and mercy and brotherhood
+must be worldwide in scope and universal and eternal, if man is to
+be free and happy and peaceful. There are poets who express some
+of these ideals. There is none who speaks out more clearly, more artistically,
+and more touchingly to men everywhere than Taras Shevchenko.
+Those qualities which are local and temporal disappear. The
+underlying merits come to the surface and shine more brightly. Efforts
+to deride him or to bend him to the uses of aggressors and tyrants
+must fail and Taras Shevchenko appears to-day as some of the more
+keensighted and understanding of his contemporaries both at home
+and abroad realized, a poet of the first rank who deserves the ear and
+the study of every civilized man.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_FOUR">
+    <i>CHAPTER FOUR</i>
+    <br>
+    THE RELIGION OF SHEVCHENKO
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>What was Shevchenko’s attitude toward religion? The best critics
+of the poet, whether they are Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Greek
+Catholic, or Protestant, have come to the conclusion that he was
+fundamentally a religious man but that at times he employed certain
+phrases which have allowed the advocates of militant atheism to
+claim him for their party. Yet to prove their point, this latter group
+is compelled to believe that he distinctly concealed his own thoughts
+to satisfy the dictates of the censorship in a way that he did on no
+other subject and their comments are so biassed that it is difficult to
+take them too seriously.</p>
+
+<p>There can be little doubt that, especially after his visit to Ukraine
+in 1843, Shevchenko was carried away by his bitterness over the lot of
+the Ukrainian people. This is expressed again and again in his attack
+on the official representatives of the Orthodox religion, which
+had been definitely bureaucratized by Peter the Great, destroyer of
+Ukrainian freedom, and Shevchenko could not resist the temptation
+to attack the Church on all counts. Thus in both the <i>Dream</i> and the
+<i>Caucasus</i> there are lines that reflect his distaste for the established
+Church of Russia. In the <i>Heretic</i> he employs his choicest invectives
+against the condemnation of Hus. Later while he was in exile, he
+expressed himself very sharply about the role of the Jesuits in Poland.
+After his return he inserted certain phrases in <i>Mary</i> that vary
+from the traditional thought of the Church.</p>
+
+<p>All this might be interpreted as an extreme form of that type of
+anti-clericalism that is not uncommon in nineteenth century authors,
+except for the fact that at times when his sense of social injustice gets
+the better of him and he is writing with a burning zeal against the
+social order, he seems at times to include God Himself in his condemnations.
+It must be admitted by the best friends of the poet that
+on occasion he indulged in decidedly intemperate language.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand there are remarkable examples of Shevchenko’s
+deep interest in the religion of the people. We must remember that
+the Russian occupation of Ukraine had led to a transfer of the clergy
+from the supervision of Constantinople (where it had been during
+the great days of Kiev) to Moscow and that the change bore as hardly
+upon the religious life of the villages as it did upon the political and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span>cultural. The Russian tsars were trying to standardize and organize
+everything under their own supervision and upon their own system
+and while they did not change in any important degree the native
+rites and practices, they tried to fit them into a different framework.</p>
+
+<p>Nowhere in the whole of the poet’s writings does he cast any shadow
+of contempt or brand as superstitious the peasant practices of making
+the sign of the cross or of lighting candles or praying. The normal
+religious life of the village where it concerns the peasants and God he
+treats with the greatest respect. He recognized very clearly that there
+was in it a something that answered the religious needs of the people,
+that brought them into contact with a superior Power that alone
+could make life tolerable, and he never deliberately cast any aspersions
+upon it. It was part of the poet’s endeavor to build his future
+Ukraine on all sound principles in the national life.</p>
+
+<p>Similarly he makes absolutely no attacks upon the teachings of
+Christ, on His pleas for brotherly love, on the Crucifixion and the
+Resurrection. The birth of Christ and the redemption of humanity
+form the central point in the entire history of mankind. He acknowledges
+and glorifies His teachings, even if at moments of vexation he
+complains that God is waiting too long, is allowing too much innocent
+blood to be shed, too many abuses to continue on this planet.</p>
+
+<p>So too with the Blessed Virgin. In the introduction to the poem
+<i>Mary</i> he pays a glowing tribute to her, as sinless, the sacred power of
+all saints, and he implores Her to give to the suffering poor the power
+of Her martyr Son. In the introduction to the <i>Neophytes</i>, he again appeals
+to Her as “Blessed among women, the holy, righteous Mother of
+Her holy Son on earth.” All these references fit in strangely with the
+arguments that the poet was in any way hostile to religion.</p>
+
+<p>Besides this, there is abundant evidence that Shevchenko knew the
+Bible thoroughly. In his letters from exile, he writes to Princess
+Repnina that he read the Gospel constantly and he asked her to send
+him also a copy of Saint Thomas à Kempis. He declares that only a
+Christian philosophy could encourage a person in his hopeless position.
+We certainly do not need to assume that in these passages he
+was writing only with an eye to the effect that it would produce upon
+the Princess, his friends in the capital and the censors.</p>
+
+<p>More than that, Shevchenko drew heavily upon the Bible for
+themes for his poems, especially in his later years. A favorite device
+might almost be called a meditation upon the Old Testament, particularly
+upon passages where the ancient prophets condemned severely
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span>the abuses and the faults of their own day. Then in a direct
+manner he used the present situation in Ukraine to illustrate the great
+truths of the past. It is certainly interesting that it is not in these
+poems that he resorts to expressions which are really in bad taste, for
+the great majority of these occur in the poems written after his first
+return to Ukraine, when he was deeply shocked by the conditions
+which he saw there. Again on his last visit he apparently made remarks
+that irritated some of the Polish landowners and involved him
+in trouble with the police and the authorities.</p>
+
+<p>The religious development of the poet thus seems to move along
+with the general development of his thought. In the poems of the early
+period through the <i>Haydamaki</i> and <i>Hamaliya</i>, when he was interested
+in picturing the romantic tales of the Kozaks, he accepts without
+a murmur the popular rites and devotions. There is a deep sincerity
+in the picture of the priests blessing the army before the uprising of
+the <i>Haydamaki</i>. It is a scene of deep piety and also one that a cynic
+could easily have turned into an attack on religion. The same is true
+of the prayers of the Kozaks in prison in <i>Hamaliya</i>. Even in <i>Katerina</i>,
+while he recognizes the harsh treatment of the poor mother, he goes
+little further than to ask God why such things are allowed to exist on
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>It was after his visit to Ukraine in 1843 that the horrible position of
+his people burst upon him with all of its terror, cruelty, and injustice.
+To him the violation of the Christian law of love and charity was the
+overwhelming fact in life. He became openly rebellious against every
+institution—whether religious or civil—which seemed even remotely
+to imply toleration for a social order that could be so near a hell on
+earth. Yet even in his attacks on these institutions, we can always feel
+the underlying belief of the poet that religion and God are being
+deliberately misrepresented and that all would be well, if we could
+only break through the iron wall that seems to surround this world
+and penetrate the mystery beyond. There is much of the spirit of Job
+in these poems, although the author could not at all times hold fast to
+his vision of God’s justice and mercy. Here there is undoubtedly a
+limitation on the thought of Shevchenko but it is a limitation that
+is liable to confront any forthright thinker who bounds his horizon
+with this planet and with life on earth. He was not a mystic to indulge
+in the contemplation of the Divine but a man suffering for the sad fate
+of his fellowmen, who believed with all his heart in truth and justice
+and who was willing to sacrifice himself for the good and true.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span></p>
+
+<p>His arrest and imprisonment undoubtedly had a definite effect
+upon him. We know from his letters to Princess Repnina and others
+that he attended church services during his stay in the fortress. Later
+he endeavored to secure permission to decorate both a Roman Catholic
+and an Orthodox chapel and it can hardly be supposed that he
+did this only to have an opportunity to draw and to paint. It was
+rather the feeling that he could dedicate some part of his work to God
+at the moment when it seemed impossible for him to carry on his
+work for his country.</p>
+
+<p>On his return to St. Petersburg, he was of course thrown into company
+with the fashionable radicals of the day with their deliberate
+and unadulterated atheism and we might expect that he would give
+some definite sign of their influence. He does nothing of the kind.
+Rather he turned to the Old Testament for its harsh judgments on
+kings and rich men who robbed and oppressed the poor and the
+downtrodden. He had long dreamed of analyzing the character of the
+Blessed Virgin as a typical mother and it is this that he does in <i>Mary</i>.
+While he might have been influenced by some of the more irreligious
+of the popular authors, the work emerged on an entirely different
+plane with an ardent religious introduction and a reverent treatment
+of the entire theme. So too with all of his writings.</p>
+
+<p>In his last days Shevchenko had to some degree softened in his
+ideas. Perhaps he had learned by experience. He certainly was not
+terrorized. The man who had spoken so boldly in the <i>Neophytes</i> that
+he had frightened the timid Kulish would hardly have added a religious
+introduction merely to silence opposition. Such an idea conflicts
+with all that we know of Shevchenko’s character but he came to
+differentiate more carefully between those elements of evil in the
+formal religion of the day and religion itself and sharp as are some of
+his criticisms, it is impossible for any honest scholar to claim that his
+works are deliberately irreligious.</p>
+
+<p>An additional sign of this is his <i>Primer</i>, which he secured permission
+to publish only a few months before his death. It was definitely
+written for the Sunday Schools which were springing up in Ukraine
+under the new order. Shevchenko introduced a large amount of religious
+material into it and he shows again in this the same interest
+in seeing the social ideas of Christianity worked to the fullest possible
+extent. It would have been so easy for him to have created a purely
+secular book, had he been so inclined.</p>
+
+<p>Thus at every stage of his life, we can find distinct traces of the religious
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span>interests of Shevchenko. He was no trained theologian, he was
+not a mystic, he was not a man who sought to evade the troubles of
+earth by taking refuge in heaven. He felt that here on earth there was
+a crying need for reform and human brotherhood and he never indicated
+for a second that there was any other possibility for achieving
+this than through the pure and applied teachings of the Gospel.</p>
+
+<p>We know that he was familiar with the ideas of Skovoroda and of
+other writers of a similar character. We know too that in his own time
+there were various movements aiming for a new social order. He was
+influenced by the ideas of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius,
+and he was led to revolt against the more formal and ritualistic
+sides of a Christianity which neglected its task of teaching the people
+and was willing to follow the dictates of a tyrannical government.</p>
+
+<p>Despite all criticisms, the overwhelming impression that the poems,
+the stories, and the letters of Shevchenko leave upon the careful reader
+is that he is a man who profoundly appreciates the Crucified and
+Risen Savior and who is only too ready to support his teachings and
+suffer for his fellowmen. Some of his outbursts may be extreme but it
+is very doubtful, if a single intelligent reader has ever found his faith
+shaken by any poem of Taras Shevchenko. When we subtract from
+his criticized remarks those that may be influenced by literary models
+and those that come from blazing indignation, we shall find an amazing
+residue of serious moral instruction, of deep respect for the worship
+and practices of his people, of his own deep and abiding belief
+in the traditional teachings and doctrines of Christianity in their
+true development and application. His prayers and invocations are
+no sham, no attempt to curry favor or to escape responsibility. They
+are a product of a believing mind and a great soul.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="SELECTED_POEMS_OF_TARAS_SHEVCHENKO">
+    SELECTED POEMS OF TARAS SHEVCHENKO
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">The day doth come, the night doth come,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And with your head in hands clasped tight,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You wonder why there does not come</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The Herald of the truth and right.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_KOBZAR">
+    THE KOBZAR
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The eight poems included in the <i>Kobzar</i> were selected by Shevchenko
+himself for publication in a single volume of poems and are
+the only group which appeared during his lifetime and under his
+editorship as a collected whole. They date from his early residence in
+St. Petersburg before his visit to Ukraine in 1843 and reflect the
+thoughts and interests of the poet in his first phase, when he was still
+under the influence of Romanticism. They consist of ballads, supernatural
+and historical, written under the influence direct or indirect
+of the Western Romantic writers. They emphasize Shevchenko’s feelings
+that he was a stranger in a strange land in St. Petersburg, and
+that however much he was enjoying his work in the Academy of Arts,
+his heart was back in Ukraine and he was dreaming of the old free
+life there, of the heroic deeds of the past as contrasted with the sadness
+of the present.</p>
+
+<p>The ideas of the later Shevchenko are all here. Ukraine, bereft of
+her Hetmans and the Sich, is tacitly compared to an orphan girl or
+a poor widow. The opposition to the Poles is clearly expressed but his
+dislike of Russian domination is more than hinted and it is certain, as
+General Dubelt, the Commander of the Gendarmes, thought at the
+time of the poet’s arrest that there is a connection in thought between
+the poems which serve to illustrate the various aspects of the sad
+condition of Ukraine.</p>
+
+<p>The Kobzars were the old bards who travelled through the country,
+singing tales of the past and of the supernatural. Shevchenko pretends
+to pitch his poems on the key struck by these wandering singers
+of the people but only a superficial observer does not see that the poet
+is far more than a singer of folksongs, that he has a real literary
+knowledge and skill far transcending the traditional bards and is
+familiar with modern literature.</p>
+
+<p>The first poem which serves as an introduction really enumerates
+all the themes that are treated and it is small wonder that the censor
+in allowing the collection to be published eliminated lines 28-100
+which express the poet’s feeling of exile in the north and glorify
+the past of Ukraine.</p>
+
+<p>The collection well shows the versatility of Shevchenko’s genius
+and the way in which he succeeds in grouping a number of poems on
+varied subjects around the central theme, the sufferings of Ukraine.
+It was received most favorably by his fellow countrymen and made
+him famous almost at once and respected by all who were interested
+in Ukrainian rights and liberties.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span></p>
+
+
+<h3 class="smcap" id="Dedication">Dedication</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent8">Songs of mine, O songs of mine,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">You’re a worry to me.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Why do you stand out on paper</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">In sad rows before me?...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Why did not the wind remove you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">To the steppe as dust?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Why did fate not overlay you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Like a mortal child?</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">For misfortune brought you to this world to mock you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Tears have flowed.... Why did they not drown you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Wash you to the sea, or lose you in the field?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">If so, people would not ask me of my pain,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Would not ask me why I curse my evil fate,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What I seek on earth?... “No, there is naught to do.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There would be no mocking....</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent8">Oh, my flowers, children,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Why did I so love you, why did I caress you?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Is there one heart weeping so throughout the whole, wide world,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As I have wept for you?... Perhaps I should have felt it....</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Mayhap somewhere is a maiden</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">With a heart and coal black eyes,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Who will weep above these songs—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">I can wish no more—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Just one tear from those black eyes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Lord of lords will make me.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Songs of mine, O songs of mine!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">You’re a worry to me.</div>
+    </div>
+<hr class="tb">
+
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent8">For those loving coal black eyes,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">For the dear black brows,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">My poor heart has worked, has laughed,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And has poured out verses,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Poured them out the best it could,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">For the darksome nights,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">For the cherry orchard green,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">For a maiden’s love,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span>      <div class="verse indent8">For the spacious steppes and tombs</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">That are in Ukraina,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_1" href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">My poor heart was sad and would not</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Sing in foreign land,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Would not ’mid the snow and forest</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Summon to a council</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">All the forces of the Kozaks</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">With their mace and banners!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Let the spirits of the Kozaks</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Dwell in Ukraina.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">There it’s broad and there it’s cheerful</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Everywhere you wander.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Like the freedom which has vanished</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Is the sea-like Dniper.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">The broad steppe, the roaring rapids,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And the tombs like mountains;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">There was born and there was nurtured</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">All the Kozak freedom.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">With the szlachta and the Tatars</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">It sowed all the meadows,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Sowed the meadows with the corpses,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Till it wearied sowing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Then it lay to rest, and straightway</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Rose the lofty tomb,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And above it a black Eagle</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Flies just as a sent’nel.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And about it to good people</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Do the Kobzars sing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And they sing just how it happened,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Beggars blind and poor,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">For they know the way but I, I</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Only know to weep.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">I have only tears for Ukraine,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Since I lack for words,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And all evil—be it far!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Who has failed to know it!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And the man who looks unfeeling</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">At the souls of people,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span>      <div class="verse indent8">May he suffer here in this world</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And in that....</div>
+      <div class="verse indent20">From sorrow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">I will never curse my fortune,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Since I do not have it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Let the evil live for three days,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">I will keep them hidden,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Keep the great ferocious serpent</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Right around my heart,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">That my foes may never notice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">How the evil smileth.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Let the song fly as a raven,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">All around and call,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And my heart, a nightingale,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Warble on and weep</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Quietly; men will not notice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And they will not mock it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Do not wipe away my tears—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Let them flow in torrents</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And besprinkle day and night</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Foreign fields I know not</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Till—until my eyes they cover</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">With a foreign dust.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">So it may be!—What will follow?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Sorrow will not help me.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">He who envies a poor orphan,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Punish him, O God!</div>
+    </div>
+<hr class="tb">
+
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent8">Songs of mine, O songs of mine,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">O my flowers, children,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">I have reared you, have caressed you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Whither shall I send you?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Go to Ukraina, children,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">To our Ukraina,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Quietly, as little orphans,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Here—I’m doomed to perish.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">There you’ll find a loving heart</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And a pleasant greeting,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span>      <div class="verse indent8">There you’ll find a purer truth</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And perhaps some glory....</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent8">Welcome, O my darling mother,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Oh, my Ukraina,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Welcome my unthinking children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">As your own dear child.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_1" href="#FNanchor_1_1" class="label">[1]</a> Shevchenko constantly varies between treating Ukraina as a word of three syllables,
+U-krai-na and one of four, U-kra-i-na.</p></div>
+
+
+<h3 class="smcap" id="Perebendya">Perebendya</h3>
+
+<p><i>Perebendya</i> is a picture of the last of the old Kobzars. To earn a
+scanty living he is forced to sing to the people all the songs of the
+peasant village but he does not fail to include in them the story of
+Ukrainian vengeance on their enemies as Chaly who was killed in
+1741 for betraying the Haydamaki and the final story of the downfall
+of the Sich.</p>
+
+<p>Yet he is more than this and when he retires to the tombs to
+commune with nature, he is really the voice of Ukraine past, present,
+and future, the embodiment of the national spirit and the spirit welcomes
+him for his unbending allegiance to the cause of his nation.</p>
+
+<p>Some scholars have tried to see in him a representation of Shevchenko
+himself. Others have sought to find literary sources for the
+conception in the poems of Mickiewicz and in Pushkin’s <i>Prophet</i>.
+Much scholarship has been expended to little purpose upon the
+subject. <i>Perebendya</i> remains one of the great poems of Shevchenko
+and the picture of the old bard, whatever its source, throws light
+upon the poet’s feelings for his country and its present fate. It forms
+a poetic introduction to the rest of the work, not so personal as is
+the first poem in which Shevchenko speaks for himself, but more
+fully national and in a more spiritual and eternal key.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">Perebendya</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent8">Blind and aged Perebendya—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Who has failed to know him?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Everywhere he wanders slowly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">On his kobza&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_2" href="#Footnote_1_2" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> playing.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span>      <div class="verse indent8">By his songs the people know him</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And sincerely thank him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">For he drives away their sorrows</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Though he too is burdened.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">’Neath the hedgerows as an orphan</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Days and nights he bideth;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Nowhere does he have a cabin;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Poverty ne’er stops her jesting</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">O’er his helpless person.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">But he never pays attention.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">By himself he sits a-singing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">“Do not rustle, meadow!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">He sings on in simple measures</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">That he is an orphan,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">That he’s grieving and he’s weeping,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Sitting ’neath the hedgerows.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Such a man is Perebendya,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Aged, and so moody;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Now of Chaly bold he’s singing,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_3" href="#Footnote_2_3" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Turns unto Horlitsa;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">With the maidens in the pastures,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Hritsya and Vesnyanka,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">With the fellows in the tavern,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Serbin and Shinkarka;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Feasting with the newly married</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">(Where one mother’s bitter)</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Of the poplar and misfortune</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And then “In the forest.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">On the square, he sings of Lazar,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">But, that all may know it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Tells with dignity and feeling</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">How the Sich was ruined.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Such a man is Perebendya,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Aged, and so moody,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And he sings, but while he’s smiling,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Brings tears to his hearers.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span>      <div class="verse indent8">Wings may blow and keep on blowing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">O’er the fields a-straying;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">On a tomb the bard is sitting,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">On his kobza playing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Round him spreads the steppes unbounded</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Like a deep blue ocean.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Tombs and tombs in rows extending</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Far as eye can follow.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">See, the wind his hoary mustache</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And his hair is tossing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">As it comes and softly listens</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">How the bard is singing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With a smile in his heart, while his blind eyes are weeping.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It listens, then blows on....</div>
+      <div class="verse indent28">The old man is hidden</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">’Mid tombs on the steppe, where no eye may behold him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The wind can sweep off his sweet words as they fall,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No ear to give heed,—’tis the message of God.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">His heart can converse with the Lord without fear</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As it warbles unceasing the glory of God.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And his thoughts, rising up, wander free ’mid the clouds,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Like a grey winged eagle, which soars ever higher,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Until it is lost in the blue of the sky;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It rests in the sun and it asks of the orb,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where it spends the night? How it wakes at the dawn?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It harks to the sea and the words which it speaks,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And it asks the black mountain why it is so mute,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And again to the sky, for there’s sorrow on earth,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And in all its expanse there is not e’en a corner</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For him who knows all and who hears every sound,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Both what the sea says and where sleepeth the sun—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No one on the earth has a place for that man,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He is lonely among them, as is the great sun,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The people know him, for the earth bears him ever,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But if they should hear how, alone in his sorrow,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He will sing to the tomb and will talk with the sea,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They would all of them mock at the word of the Lord,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They would call him a fool and would drive him away,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And would say, “Let him wander above the wide sea.”</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span>      <div class="verse indent8">Thou art noble, aged poet,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Father, you act wisely,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">That to sing and to hold converse,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">You the tombs do visit.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Wander on, my noble spirit,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Till your heart grows silent</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And sing on your choicest songs</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Where men will not hear you.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And that men may not avoid you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Fit their whims, my brother!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Leap, just as the lord gives order;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">That is why he’s wealthy.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent8">Such a man is Perebendya,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Aged, and so moody;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Singing songs of joy and gladness</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And to sadness turning.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_2" href="#FNanchor_1_2" class="label">[1]</a> The kobza is a stringed instrument of the type of the violin, and was the
+favorite instrument of the wandering bards of Ukraine.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_3" href="#FNanchor_2_3" class="label">[2]</a> The poet lists folk songs of various types, each of which was sung at the appropriate
+occasion. They range from historical ballads of the deeds of the old
+Kozaks to spring songs, drinking songs, and songs of domestic unhappiness and
+tragedy.</p></div>
+
+
+<h3 class="smcap" id="Poplar">The Poplar</h3>
+
+<p><i>The Poplar</i> is a good example of Shevchenko’s union of Ukrainian
+folk motifs and the literary usages of the Romantic poets. The supernatural
+was dear to Romanticism, the transformation of maidens
+into trees is a theme that can be traced back to the classical authors
+and yet it received a new interpretation in the early nineteenth century.
+Shevchenko gives us a purely Ukrainian scene, he describes the
+tragedy that often happened in the days of the wandering Kozaks,
+he feels the horror of the enforced marriage arranged between the
+parents and the bridegroom without the willing consent of the
+bride, and he unites all these motifs in a work which is in the highest
+degree both national and literary.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">The Poplar</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Through the oaks the wind is blowing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O’er the field it revels,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Near the road it bends the poplar</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Till the ground it touches.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Tall its form, its leaves are spreading,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Why so green it’s growing?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Round about the field is spreading</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Wide as sea of azure.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Here the carter comes and marvels</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And his head bows downward.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the shepherd sits a-playing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On the tomb so sadly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For he looks—his heart is grieving.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There’s but grass around him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And it dies just like an orphan</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In a foreign country.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Who has reared her slender, pliant,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the steppe to perish?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Hearken to me, I will tell you.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Listen to me, maidens!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Once a happy black-haired maiden</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Loved a Kozak hero,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Loved him—and she did not heed it;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And he went and perished.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Had she known that he would leave her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She would not have loved him;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Had she known that he would perish,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She would have detained him;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Had she known, she had ne’er wandered</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Late at night for water,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Had not stood until the midnight</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With him ’neath the willow;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Had she known!...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent18">Oh, that’s the trouble—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In advance to reckon</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What to us will later happen ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You know not, O maidens!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Do not ask about your fortune!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But your heart will tell you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Whom to love. Let it now perish,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">While they it will bury!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For not long, you black haired maidens,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With black eyes a-sparkling,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And your white face deeply blushing,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">’Tis not long, O maidens!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">By the noonday it will wither</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And your brows grow paler ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Love and take your fill of loving,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">While your heart will bid it.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Now the nightingale is warbling</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On the little bushes,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And a Kozak young is singing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the little valley.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He sings on, until a maiden</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Comes from out her cabin,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then he turns and asks the question—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Does your mother know it?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So they stand embracing closely,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">While the bird is singing;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So they listen, then they’re parting,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Both are very happy ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No one notices the meeting,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No one asks the question—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Where were you, what were you doing?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She knows what she wishes.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She was happy, she was loving,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And her heart was singing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For a little while she heard it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Could not make a murmur,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Not a word—she stayed and waited.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Day and night she’s cooing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Like a dove without its darling,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And no one doth notice.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Now the nightingale sings never</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There above the water,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Never sings the black haired maiden</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Underneath the willow;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She sings not—but like an orphan,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Shuns the burning daylight;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He is gone—her father, mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Seem like unknown people;</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">He is gone—and now the sunshine</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Seems like hateful leering;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He is gone—the tomb surrounds her</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">While her heart still’s beating!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">One year passed and then another—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There is still no Kozak;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She dries up as doth a flower.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No one ever asks her.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Why are you thus pining, daughter?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Mother does not ask her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But unto an old, rich master</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Secretly she joined her.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“So, my daughter”, says the mother,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Do not dally always;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He is rich, and he is lonely,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You will be a lady!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“I don’t want to be a lady,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I won’t marry, mother!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With the towels I have woven,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let me now be buried!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let the priest sing o’er my coffin,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let my friends bewail me;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I would rather now be buried</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Than be living with him.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Mother paid her no attention,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Carried out her project.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But the black-haired maiden noticed,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Pined away in silence.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To a witch she went in darkness,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To consult her fortune,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Whether she could live here longer,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Live without her lover.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Mistress, Oh, my trusted teacher,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O my heart and guider!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Tell me now the truth though bitter;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where is my beloved?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Is he well? Does he still love me?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or has he forgotten?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Tell me now where is my lover!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">I will fly unto him!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Mistress, Oh my trusted teacher,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Tell me, if you know it!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For my mother soon will wed me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To an aged husband.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I would go, drown in the river ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Suicide is evil ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">If my lover is not living,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Grant to me, my angel,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That I never reach my cabin,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It is bitter to me—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There’s the old man with his wooers,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Tell me all my fortune.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Fine, my daughter! Rest a little,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Do as I now bid you.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">If you have remained a virgin,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I can know the trouble;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It is past and I have learned it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I give help to people.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Your whole fortune, O my daughter,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Last year I have noticed.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Last year all the herbs I gathered</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For this very purpose.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then she went and brought a vessel</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Hidden ’neath her clothing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“This is made to tell your fortune!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Go unto the fountain;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And before the songs they’ve finished,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Wash in the cool water,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Drink a little of this potion.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It will cure the evil.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Drink and run and do not tarry;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">If you hear some shouting,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Look not back until you’re standing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where from him you parted.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Rest right there. And when there rises</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The bright moon in heaven,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Drink again; if he’s still absent,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Drink again the third time.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">At the first, you’ll be as handsome</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As you were before him;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">At the second, you will notice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That his horse is stamping.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">If your Kozak still is living,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He will dash to meet you ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">At the third, my darling daughter,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Ask not what will happen!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Make no cross, remember surely—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It will spoil the water.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Go, my darling, and recover</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All your former beauty.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then she took the herbs and answered,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Thank you, mistress teacher!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Left the cabin: “Come what happens,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I shall never wed him!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So she went and washed and drank it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Seemed to change her person,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then a second and a third time,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sang as if a-sleeping:</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Swim, O swim, my swan beloved,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Here across the blue sea!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Grow, O grow, O little poplar,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Higher and yet higher!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Grow so tall and yet so slender</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To the clouds of heaven,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Ask of God, if I shall find him</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or not wait this marriage!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Grow and grow and look around you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Far across the blue sea!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On that side is my good fortune,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On this, only sorrow.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There my black-haired love is going</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O’er the meadow happy.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I weep, my years I’m wasting,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I seek to find him.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Tell him, O my heart so loving,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I am mocked by people;</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Tell him that I soon will perish,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">If he does not hurry!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For my mother now is seeking</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the earth to lay me ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Who then will her needs provide for,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Guard and care, protect her?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Who will care for her and cheer her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Help her, when she’s older?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O my mother, O my fortune!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">God, O God most gracious!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Rise and look, O little poplar!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">If he’s gone—weep sorely</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Till the sunrise in the morning,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That no one may notice.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Grow apace, O little poplar,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Higher and yet higher!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Swim, O swim, my swan beloved,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Here across the blue sea!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thus sang on the black-haired maiden</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On the steppe a-lying,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then the herb produced a marvel—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She became a poplar.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Through the oaks the wind is blowing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O’er the field it revels,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Near the road it bends the poplar,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Till the ground it touches.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h3 class="smcap" id="Dumka">Dumka</h3>
+
+<p>This is a lament of an orphan girl and can be read exactly as it is
+written. It naturally follows the Poplar as a simple expression of disappointed
+love. On the other hand, the reader cannot overlook the
+fact that already the poet has compared Ukraine to a weeping mother
+and himself to an orphan. To the Gendarme General Dubelt, the
+poem seemed an introduction to the following poem to Osnovyanenko.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">Dumka</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">What do my black hairs avail me,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or my black eyes, sparkling,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What do youthful years avail me,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Cheerful and a maiden’s?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All my youthful years are passing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Passing to no purpose,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And my eyes are weeping; meanwhile</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Winds turn pale my tresses.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My heart sinks, it shuns the daylight,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As imprisoned birdlet.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What avails me all my beauty,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">If I’ve no good fortune?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It is hard for me, an orphan,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To live on hereafter;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All my people are as strangers—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I have none to talk with;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I have no one to ask questions</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Why my eyes are weeping.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I have no one to tell freely</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What my heart is wishing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Why my heart, just as a dovelet,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Day and night is mourning.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No one wishes to ask of it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Knows it not nor hears it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Strangers will not ask me of it—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Why should it concern them?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let the orphan go on weeping,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let her waste her hours!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Weep, my heart! My eyes, keep weeping,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Till you close forever,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Cry aloud, complain unceasing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For the winds to listen,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And take all my lamentations</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Far across the blue sea,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To the false and black-haired lover,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To his bitter sorrow!</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span></p>
+
+
+<h3 class="smcap" id="Osnovyanenko">To Osnovyanenko</h3>
+
+<p>Hrihori Kvitka-Osnovyanenko (1778-1843) was the leading Ukrainian
+prose writer between Kotlyarevsky and Shevchenko. He was
+an aristocrat and a conservative but in his prose tales, he expressed
+well the Ukrainian village and the difference between the people
+and the Moskals. He had published a story on Antin Holovaty some
+time before and Shevchenko now appeals to him to write more of
+the same type of story.</p>
+
+<p>Antin Holovaty after the destruction of the Sich and the flight of
+many of the Zaporozhians to Turkey secured permission for the
+establishment of the Black Sea Army from Catherine the Great. This
+was really the beginning of the Kuban Kozaks. Shevchenko rightly or
+wrongly valued Holovaty highly for he saw in this new foundation an
+attempt to replace the vanished Sich, even if it was not on the same
+territory.</p>
+
+<p>Later after his return from the army, Kulish persuaded Shevchenko
+to omit the reference to Holovaty. Growing disagreement between
+Osnovyanenko and the poet over the conservatism of the former
+led Shevchenko to dedicate the poem in the edition of 1860
+merely to a Ukrainian writer. The poem forms a transition to the
+definitely historical ballads that follow it. At the same time it very
+definitely emphasizes the sad present of Ukraine in comparison with
+its past.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">To Osnovyanenko</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Rapids roar. The moon is setting,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As in former ages.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There’s no Sich, and he is perished,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He, the famous leader.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There’s no Sich. The rushes murmur</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">By Dnipro’s swift waters:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“What has happened to our children?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where do they now revel?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the gull cries, flying over,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Weeping for the children;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Warm’s the sun, the wind is blowing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where the Kozaks wandered.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On the steppe the tombs are scattered</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And they mourn in sadness,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Asking of the stormy breezes,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">“Where are our men ruling?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where are they now ruling, feasting?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where have you been staying?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Come on back! And look around you;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All the grain is leveled,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where your horses used to pasture,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where the grasses rustled,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where the blood of Poles and Tatars</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Reddened all the water!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Come on back!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent14">“No, nevermore!”—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The blue sea repeated.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then it added: “Nevermore!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They are lost forever!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">True it is, ’tis true, O blue sea;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Such is their misfortune!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Those you seek are gone forever,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Gone the ancient freedom,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Gone are all the Zaporozhtsy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Gone are all the hetmans.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Their red tunics nevermore</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Will protect Ukraina,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Like a torn and ragged orphan,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She weeps o’er the Dniper;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It is bitter for the orphan</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And no one will notice,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But the foe is smiling brightly.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Smile, O foeman evil,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Not for long, for all will perish—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Glory will not perish,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Will not perish but will tell men</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What the world has witnessed,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Whose the right and whose the evil,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And whose children we are.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_4" href="#Footnote_1_4" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Without gold and without jewels,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Without clever phrasing,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">But as clear and always truthful</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As the Lord’s own utterance.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Is that so, my master, father?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Am I singing truly?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Yes, I am!... And I must say it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But I have no talent.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And in Muscovy I’m staying,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Strangers are around me.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Do not notice”—you may tell me,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But what will come of it?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They will laugh at the sad message,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That I fashion, weeping.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They will laugh. ’Tis hard, my father,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To live with the foemen!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Still perhaps I would be struggling,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">If I had the power,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Would be singing, had I knowledge</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the gift of verses.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That is why it is so bitter,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O my dearest father!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For I wander in the snowdrifts;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Do not murmur, meadow!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I can do no more, but, father,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sing to them, my dearest master,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of the Sich, the barrows,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">How they heaped the earth upon them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">How they buried heroes;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of past ages and the marvels</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That have been and ended ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You know, father! Let the wide world,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Learn against its wishes,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What was done in Ukraina,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Why it now has perished,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Why the former Kozak glory</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Through the world is famous.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">You know, father, noble eagle!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let me keep on weeping,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let my eyes again be gladdened</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">By my Ukraina;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let me once again soon listen</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">How the sea is playing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">How the maiden ’neath the willows</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sings of Hrits’s wooing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let my heart once more be smiling</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In a foreign country,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Till a foreign land receive it</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the grave of strangers.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_4" href="#FNanchor_1_4" class="label">[1]</a> In the first edition follows here this reference to Holovaty:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Our unyielding Holovaty</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Will not die or perish;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There, O people, is our glory</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And Ukraina’s glory.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h3 class="smcap" id="Ivan_Pidkova">Ivan Pidkova</h3>
+
+<p>In <i>Ivan Pidkova</i> we have the first of the two historical ballads,
+showing the Zaporozhians at the height of their power and discipline.
+During the early part of the seventeenth century, they were strong
+enough to make several raids upon Constantinople and the neighboring
+region. The real Ivan Pidkova aimed to be ruler of Moldavia
+and was executed by the Poles at the inspiration of the Turkish Sultan
+in 1578 but Shevchenko found certain sources that identified
+Pidkova with one of the Kozak atamans who stormed Constantinople
+and so developed his theme. His apparent object was to represent the
+type of discipline that was enforced in a free community during the
+raids when military order and control were indispensable.</p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">Ivan Pidkova</span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>To V. I. Sternberg</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">I</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">At one time in Ukraina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Cannons roared like thunder;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">At one time the Zaporozhtsy</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Knew the path to power.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So they ruled and they acquired</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Glory, yes, and freedom;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That is past—they’ve left behind them</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Tombs upon the meadows.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And those tombs are high and lofty,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Where they laid to slumber</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The white body of a Kozak</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Wrapped in cloth of crimson.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And those tombs are high and lofty,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Black as gloomy mountains.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the field they speak of freedom</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Softly to the breezes.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And they speak to passing breezes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of the past and serfdom.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the grandson reaps the harvest,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Singing songs they fashioned.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">At one time in Ukraina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There was evil dancing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sorrow vanished with the drinking</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the jolly circle.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">At one time in Ukraina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Life was good and merry.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let us tell it! Our hearts, maybe,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Can thus find some solace.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="center">II</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">From Lyman a black cloud covers</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Both the sun and heavens;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The blue sea, an angry monster,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Groans and tosses wildly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And Dnipro’s great mouths are flooded.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Come now, boys, and revel!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To the boats! The sea is playing—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let us go to revel!”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">So the Zaporozhtsy started,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Filled Lyman with vessels.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Play, O sea!”—they started singing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As the waves were foaming.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Waves rose round about like mountains,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Earth and sky were hidden.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Hearts might waver, but the Kozaks</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Found it what they wanted.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Now they’re sailing and they’re singing,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Storm birds keep on flying ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the ataman who’s leading</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Takes them where he wishes.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Up and down his deck he strideth,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">His great pipe neglecting;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And he looks in every quarter</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For a proper mission.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">His black mustache he is twisting,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Pulls his black hair fiercely,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Lifts his cap—The boats come closer.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Let the foeman perish!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Atamans, not to Sinop,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O my daring heroes,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But to Tsargrad to the Sultan</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We will go for feasting.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Fine, ’tis fine, O noble father!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Comes a roar resounding.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Thank you, sons!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent18">Again he covers.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The blue sea keeps foaming.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Up and down his deck he strideth</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In unceasing motion,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the ataman in silence</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Gazes at the tempest.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h3 class="smcap" id="Night_of_Taras">The Night of Taras</h3>
+
+<p>This poem describes the victory of the Kozaks under Taras Tryasilo
+over the Polish troops of General Koniecpolski at Pereyaslav in
+1630. Kozak tradition described this as one of the greatest victories of
+the Kozak armies and Shevchenko followed the tradition. It is striking
+that he contrasts more clearly than in <i>Pidkova</i> the present acquiescence
+of the younger generation in their state of slavery with
+the valor of their ancestors who were willing to fight even against
+overwhelming odds. The concluding sections of the poem have been
+often taken to be an appeal for the renewal of open hostilities but it is
+hardly likely at this time with the collapse of the Polish revolt less
+than ten years previously that the poet went as far as this. And even
+General Dubelt in his attempt to read all possible evil intentions into
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span>the poems did not regard it as a direct incendiary appeal but as a
+poem written to drive home the evil of the present time and to rouse
+the people to anti-Russian thoughts, if not actions.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">The Night of Taras</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">At the cross roads sits the kobzar,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Playing on his kobza;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Round about are boys and maidens,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Red as poppy flowers.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Plays the kobzar and he’s singing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Telling in his stories</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">How the Poles, the Horde, the Moskals</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Struggled ’gainst the Kozaks;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">How the brotherhood assembled</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Early on a Sunday;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">How they buried a young Kozak</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In a boat of green leaves;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Plays the kobzar and he’s singing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But his smile is evil.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Formerly we had the Hetmans,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That is gone forever;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Formerly they knew to govern,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Nevermore we’ll do it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Yet the former Kozak glory</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We are ne’er forgetting!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Ukraina, Ukraina!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My dear heart! My darling!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When I tell of your misfortune,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then my heart starts weeping!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What has happened to the Kozaks</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With their crimson tunics?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where are vanished our old freedom,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Standards, and the Hetmans?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What has happened? Are they ashes?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Has the blue sea swallowed</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All your noble, holy mountains</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And your tombs so lofty?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Mountains speak not, plays the blue sea.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the tombs are mournful,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">While above the Kozak children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Heathen pagans triumph!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Play, O sea! Speak up, O mountains!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Blow, winds, o’er the meadows!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Weep, O children of the Kozaks!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Such is now your fortune!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“From Lyman a cloud is rising,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From the field, another;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Ukraina’s plunged in sadness—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Such is its misfortune!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Plunged in sadness, drenched with weeping,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Just as little children.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There is no one who can save her</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the Kozaks perish;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Lost is glory and the country;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Nowhere it is sheltered.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So the little Kozak children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Grow up unbaptized,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They must love apart from marriage;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Without priests, they’re buried;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To the Jews the faith is traded;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Churches are barred to them ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As the crows the meadows cover,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So the Poles and Uniats</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Fly around—and there is no one</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Who can give good counsel.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Nalivayko gave the signal,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He is gone forever.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then Pavlyuha raised his banner—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Quickly too he vanished.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then Taras Tryasilo challenged</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With his tears so bitter;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">‘Oh my wretched Ukraina,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Whom the Poles have trampled.’</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">———————</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">———————</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">———————</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">———————</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span> Taras Tryasilo challenged</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That the faith he’d rescue.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Gave the signal, the gray eagle,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let the Poles know of it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Pan Tryasilo gave the signal:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">‘There’s enough of weeping!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let us go, my noble brothers,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">’Gainst the Poles to struggle!’</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“More than three days and three nights too</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Fought there Pan Tryasilo.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From Lyman unto Trubaylo,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Filled the field with corpses.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The poor Kozak was exhausted,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And was filled with sadness,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">While the cursed Koniecpolski</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Felt more happy daily,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For he gathered all the szlachta,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To produce a triumph!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But Taras called to his Kozaks,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Asked them for their counsel;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">‘Otamani and my comrades,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Brothers dear, and children!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Give to me your wisest counsel,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What can we accomplish?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Now the Poles are celebrating,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For we have no leaders.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let them banquet for their pleasure</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And for their successes!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let the cursed devils banquet,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Till the sun is setting.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Mother night will give good counsel;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Kozaks Poles can locate!’</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“The sun set behind the mountains,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then the stars appeared,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Like the clouds, then came the Kozaks</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the Poles surrounded.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When the moon reached the high heavens,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thundered out a cannon.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Then the little Polish masters</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Fled—but found no refuge!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then the little Polish masters</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Fled—to rise no more;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But at sunrise, Polish masters</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Lay stretched out in masses.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Like a winding serpent crimson,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Alta bore the tidings,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That the ravens were assembling</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To consume the masters;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That black ravens came together</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To awake the nobles,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">While the Kozaks came together</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto God to pray.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The black ravens cawed and cried out,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Eating out the eyeballs;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But the Kozaks kept on singing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of that wondrous battle,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of that night that was so bloody,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That created glory</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For Taras and for the Kozaks</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Who the Poles had vanquished.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“O’er the river in the meadow,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Now a tomb looms blackish;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where the Kozak blood was flowing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Now green grass is growing;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On the tomb a raven’s sitting</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And it shrieks in hunger.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When a Kozak thinks of Hetmans,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As he thinks, he’s weeping.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">The sad kobzar ceased his music,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For his hands betray him!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Round him all the boys and maidens</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Strive to hide their weeping.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Formerly the Kozaks cherished</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Freedom and great glory.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Glory lives but bitter slavery</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Freedom has devoured.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Formerly they knew to govern.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Nevermore we’ll do it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But that former Kozak glory</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We remember always.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Down the street the kobzar wanders</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With his sorrow playing!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Round about the boys are dancing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And he says on parting:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Let it be without a sequel!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sit upon the stove, my children.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For the inn I’ll sadly enter</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And a burning drink I’ll ask for,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Ask for, drink it to the bottom,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I’ll laugh at all those foemen.”</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h3 class="smcap" id="Katerina">Katerina</h3>
+
+<p>The theme of the country girl seduced by a nobleman and deserted
+by him was very popular in all European literature from the time of
+the sentimental novels of the eighteenth century. It was carried into
+Russian by Karamzin in <i>Poor Liza</i> and into Ukrainian by Kvitka in
+such a story as <i>Serdeshna Oksana</i> (The Unfortunate Oksana). Shevchenko
+followed the tradition in this poem but he added the other
+idea of making the lover a foreigner. The message of the bard in the
+beginning specifically warns the Ukrainian girls against the Moskals
+and there is not a word to imply that the manners of the ordinary
+Russian soldiers as distinct from the officers would be any different.</p>
+
+<p>The poem completes the original collection of the <i>Kobzar</i> with a
+tragic story of the present. It is the only poem that definitely pins the
+stigma of oppression upon the Russians, although this is inherent in
+the other poems. When we remember the frequent identification of
+an orphan or a widow with Ukraine, we can see that the poet wants
+the readers to see in the sad fate of Katerina driven into banishment
+the fate of Ukraine but at the same time he is pleading the case of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span>seduced girls who have been driven out of their homes. The poem
+fittingly concludes the <i>Kobzar</i> with its comparison of the past and the
+present and the survival of that past only in songs and legends.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">Katerina</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>To V. A. Zhukovsky</i><br>
+<i>In memory of April 22, 1838</i>
+</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center">I</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">Have your love, you black haired maidens,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But avoid the Moskals,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For the Moskals—they are strangers,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And they treat you foully.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Yes, the Moskal loves you lightly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Lightly he will drop you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Goes away unto his country,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And the maiden’s ruined.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Were that all, it would be nothing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But her aged mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Who into God’s world once brought her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She must perish with her.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">So her heart will pine a-singing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">If she knows the reason;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">People will her heart not notice,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And they’ll say: “She’s nothing.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Have your love, you black haired maidens,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But not with the Moskals,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For the Moskals—they are strangers,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And they always mock you.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">Katerina did not listen</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">To her father, mother,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But she went and loved a Moskal,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">As her heart had urged her.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">So she loved the youthful stranger,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Went into the garden,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And she ruined there her fortune</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And herself, unthinking.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Mother calls her to have supper,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Daughter does not listen;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Where she dallies with her Moskal,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">There the night she spendeth....</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Not two nights she spent caressing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">His black eyes so charming,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Till the gossip in the village</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Had condemned her roundly.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Let the people talk about her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Say whate’er they’re thinking;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She’s in love and will not notice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That there’s evil brewing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Suddenly bad news is coming—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">He must go on service—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Unto Turkey went the Moskal,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">It Katrusya startled.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She cared not, as ’twere a trifle,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That her head was covered,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For her lover she would either</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Sing or grieve at random.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">He, the black haired lover, promised,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">If he did not perish,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That he would come back unto her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And then Katerina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Should become herself a Moskal</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And forget her sorrow;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In the meanwhile let the people</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Say whate’er they’re wishing—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Katerina does not worry!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Wipes away her weeping,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For the maidens who surround her</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Sing their songs without her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And she takes the pails at nightfall</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">To go for the water,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That her foes may never see her;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">To the spring she’s coming,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Takes a place beneath the bushes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And of Hrits she’s singing;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">So she sings and so repeats it</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Till the bushes sorrow.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She comes back—in perfect quiet</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That no one may see her.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Katerina does not worry,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">She has no forebodings;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In her new and modern kerchief</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She looks out the window.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Katerina looks around her—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Six months now are passing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">At her heart a pain is gnawing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And her side is aching.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Katerina feels her illness,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">It prevents her breathing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She recovers. In her cradle</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">There’s a child now lying.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And the women foully murmur,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Jest unto her mother,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That the Moskals are returning</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And in her are resting.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“Yes, you have a black haired daughter,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And she is not lonely,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">On the stove she has in training</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">A good Moskal baby.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She has now a black haired baby,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Mayhap she has studied.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">May the devil, scandalmongers,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Beat you as severely</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">As that mother whom you’re mocking</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For her little baby.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Katerina, O my darling!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">You are so unhappy!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Where can you go to find refuge</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">With a little orphan?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Who will feed you or receive you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Without your dear lover?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Father, mother now are strangers,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Hard ’tis to live with them.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">Katerina was now healthy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Left her little quarters,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Looked upon the street around her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And caressed her baby;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">As she looks, there’s no one friendly!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">What is next to happen?</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">If she went into the garden,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">People there would see her.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">At the sunrise Katerina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Walks around the garden,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In her arms her son she carries,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And her eyes she covers;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“Here I looked at them parading,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Here I used to greet him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">There, O there ... my son, my baby!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">More she never uttered.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">In the garden soon the cherries</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Hung all full of blossoms.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">When the first came out in flower,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Katerina walked out,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Walked out but she was not singing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">As was her old custom,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">When she waited for the Moskal</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In the cherry orchard.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Now the black haired maiden sings not,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Curses her ill fortune,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">While the bitter, hateful women</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Say whatever moves them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Hammer out their unkind speeches.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">What will be her future?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Were the black haired lover present,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">He could stop their talking.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But the black haired lover’s distant,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Hears not, does not notice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">How her enemies laugh at her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">How Katrusya’s weeping.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Has the black haired lover perished</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">By the quiet Danube?...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Or in Muscovy he’s staying</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">With another darling?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">No, the lover has not perished,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">He is well and living.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Where can he find eyes so handsome,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Black hair so alluring?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">There in Muscovy the distant</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Or across the blue sea—</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">There he has no Katerina.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Here she’s doomed to sorrow!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Mother knew to give her black hair,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Coal black eyes to give her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But she knew not how to give her</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Fortune for her lifetime.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Without fortune is her beauty</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But a fading flower;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In hot sunshine, raging breezes,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Soon it ’gins to wither.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Wash your white face every hour</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">With your tears so bitter,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For the Moskals have gone homeward,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Other roads they’ve taken.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center">II</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">Sits the father at the table</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">With his shoulders drooping;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">He cannot behold the sunshine,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Heavy is his sorrow.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Near him sits the aged mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">On the bench hand-carven.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Through her tears she’s speaking coldly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Speaking with her daughter.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“When’s the wedding, O my daughter?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Where is he you’ve chosen?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">When’s the wedding party coming</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">With its chiefs and boyars?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">There in Muscovy my daughter!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Go and search and find them;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Do not tell there to good people</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That you have a mother.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Cursed be the day and hour</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">When I bore you for us!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Had I known, I would have drowned you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Ere the sun had risen....</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">You have turned into a monster,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And into a Moskal ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">O my daughter, O my daughter,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">Once my rosy flower!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Like a berry, like a birdlet</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">You have lived and changed</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Into evil ... O my daughter,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">What have you done to us?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">So you’ve thanked us.... Go now after</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Moskals as your kinsfolk.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">You have not obeyed my warnings,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Now give heed to others!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">O, my daughter, go and find them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Find them and address them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Be content among strange people,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Never come back to us.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Come not back to us, my daughter,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">From a distant country ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Who will bury my old body,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">When you have departed?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Who will weep above my coffin</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">As my child would sorrow?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Who upon my grave will set out</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">The dark red <i>kalynas</i>!&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_5" href="#Footnote_1_5" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Who without you will remember</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">My poor soul so sinful?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Oh, my daughter, O my daughter,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">O my darling daughter.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Go from us now.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent18">Coldly, coldly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She gave her a blessing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“God be with you!”—and as dying</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">On the floor she’s fallen.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then the aged father added:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“Why are you delaying?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Katerina started sobbing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">To his feet she’s fallen:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“O, forgive me, O my father,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For my awful misdeed!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">O, forgive me, dearest father,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Dearest, loving falcon!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">—“Let the Lord Himself forgive you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And good people likewise!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Pray to God and go your own way—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">I shall feel far better.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then she rose and said a farewell,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Silently departed;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">While her aged parents stayed there</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Just as two poor orphans.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She went to the cherry orchard,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Said a prayer on leaving,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Took some earth from ’neath a cherry,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">On her cross she placed it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then she said: “I’ll come back never!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In a distant country,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In strange earth I shall be buried</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">By the hands of strangers,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But this earth which I am taking</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Lies upon my spirit</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And repeats to foreign people</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">All that I have suffered.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Do not tell it, treasured keepsake!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">May I ne’er be buried,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That the people ne’er may notice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">I’m a ruined sinner.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Say it not—and who will tell them</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That I am his mother;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">O my God! My woe unbounded!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Where can I be buried?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Son, I soon shall myself bury</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Underneath the water,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And you will my sins atone for</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">As an orphan lonely,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">With no father!—”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent18">Katerina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Wept as she departed.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">On her head her little kerchief,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In her arms her baby.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">Going from the village sadly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Back she scarcely glances,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But her head she cast down earthward</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And began lamenting.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Like a poplar in the meadow,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She stood on the highway;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Like the dew just at the sunset,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">So her tears were gleaming.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Through the bitter tears she’s shedding,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Nothing she can notice,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But she pressed her baby closer,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Kissed him while she’s weeping,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And her son, the little angel,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Pays it no attention.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">His small arms he stretches to her</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And he seeks her bosom ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then towards sunset, ’mid the oakwoods</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Glows the sky with crimson;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She lost hope and she turned backwards.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Walked ... and only sorrowed.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In the village evil gossip</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And unkind was spoken</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But her father and her mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Did not hear the stories.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Why, O why do people always</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In this world harm others?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">One they bind, and one they murder,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">One they joy in hurting ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Why is this? The saints can tell us!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For the world is spacious</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But there is no place upon it</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Where a man’s unbothered.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">One his fortune has predestined</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Everywhere to wander,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">While another will be buried</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Where his home was ever.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Where, O where are there good people</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Who wish only one thing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">To live with and love their fellows?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">They have gone, have vanished.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">There’s on earth a fortune,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Who can it discover?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">There’s on earth a freedom,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Who can e’er possess it?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">On the earth are people</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Who reap gold and silver,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">They succeed in ruling</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And they know no trouble.—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Neither that nor freedom!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">With their woe and sorrow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Others don their tunics.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Take your gold and silver</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And be rich in treasures.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">It is tears I’m choosing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">To shed them in plenty;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">I will drown misfortune</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">With my bitter weeping.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Slavery I’ll trample</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">With my feet unshodden!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then I will be happy</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And I’ll be so wealthy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">If my heart is able</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">To remain in freedom!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center">III</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">Owls are calling, sleeps the forest,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Stars are shining brightly.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">O’er the path and o’er the bushes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Larks are singing freely.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">All good people now can slumber,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Each has been so wearied.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Joy or tears have wearied each one</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But the night doth hide them.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">The dark night is come to hide them</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Like a bird a-nesting;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Where has it Katrusya hidden—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In the woods? a cabin?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Or is she her son amusing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">’Neath an open haymow?</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">In a forest is she fearing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Wolves behind each treetrunk?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">God grant that no one may ever</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Have such fine black tresses,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">If they must such heavy payment</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Make for their possession!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">What can yet the future give her?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">’Twill be evil, evil!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Yellow sands are on her pathway,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Strangers are there many;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Savage winter will confront her ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And the man she’s seeking,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Will he know his Katerina,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Give his son a greeting?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">With him would the black haired maiden</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Roads, sands, woe not notice;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">If he greets her as a mother,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Speaks as does a brother ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Let us notice, let us listen ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And meanwhile—I’m resting</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And I’m asking at this hour</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For the road to Moscow.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">It is far, my noble brothers,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That is true, I tell you!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Now my heart is chilled and downcast,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">When I think upon it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">I have measured it before this,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">May no one repeat it!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">I would tell about the hardships—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">No one would believe them!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“He who tells them sure is raving,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">(That’s their talk in secret)</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">He is only telling stories</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">To deceive the people.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That’s your truth, your truth, O people!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Why should it concern you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That I shed my tears before you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">From my hard bought knowledge!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Why is this? Each living person</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Has his own misfortune!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">Devil take it! At this moment</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Give to them tobacco</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And a match, that they may never</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Be at home unhappy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Or they will tell you so quickly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">They have evil visions.—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Let the devil seize them firmly—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">’Tis my task to notice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Where my wretched Katerina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">With her Ivas travels.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">Far past Kiev and the Dniper,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">’Mid a darksome forest,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">On the carters’ road they’re going,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Of the Owl they’re singing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">There she is, a-pressing onward,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Like a pious pilgrim!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Why is she so sad and gloomy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Why are her eyes weeping?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">On her head is but her kerchief,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">On her back a basket,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In one hand her staff she carries,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Bears her sleeping baby.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She has met with some stray carters,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Has the baby hidden,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And she asks of them, “Good people!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Where’s the road to Moscow?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">—“Road to Moscow? You are on it!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But it’s a long journey.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“Yes, to Moscow, I implore you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Give me money for it.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That’s the first step—how she hates it!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Begging is not easy!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Why is this? The baby needs it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And she is his mother!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">So she wept, pressed on her journey,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In Brovary&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_6" href="#Footnote_2_6" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> rested,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">With the coin she bought a cookie</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For her little baby ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Long, so long she walked exhausted</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And she asked assistance;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then at last, all spent and weary,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">’Neath a hedge she rested....</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">O, why was she granted those black eyes so sparkling,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For them to weep sorely beneath a strange hedge!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O maidens, look now and regret when you’ve seen her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That you had no need for your Moskal to search,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That you did not need, as Katruysa is needing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So then do not ask why the people abuse her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And why they will turn her away from their doors,—</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">Do not ask, O black haired maidens;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">People cannot answer.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Him whom God deems right to punish</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">They will punish also.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">People bend as do the willows</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">As the wind is blowing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For an orphan, when the sun shines,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Warmth is always lacking.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">People would obscure the sunlight,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">If they had the power,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That it might not light the orphan,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Dry away his weeping.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Why is this, O God most loving?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Why is light so painful?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">What has she done unto people?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">What do they want of her?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That she weep? O my poor darling!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Weep not, Katerina!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Do not show your tears to people,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Hold them till you perish!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Let not your bright face be darkened</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">With its clear black tresses—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Until sunset, in the forest</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Wash your face with weeping!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">Weep away!—they will not notice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And they cannot mock you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And your heart can find some solace,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">While your tears are flowing.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">So notice, O maidens, how great is the evil!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The Moskal has lightly forsaken his love.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Misfortune sees not him with whom she was loving,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And people may see but no mercy they know.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“’Tis right, so they say, that this wretched girl perish,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For she did not know to be careful with love!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Restrain yourselves, beauties, at times inauspicious,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That you may not need a bad Moskal to seek.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">Where’s Katrusya straying?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She slept nights beneath the hedgerows,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Rose up in the morning,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Unto Muscovy she hastened.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then the winter opens.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">O’er the fields the blizzard’s howling.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Katerina travels</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In light sandals—it is awful—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And without warm clothing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Katya goes—her feet grow sorer—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And she sees disaster.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then behold, here come the Moskals—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">No ... her heart is dying ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She flies up and goes to greet them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Asks: “Is there among you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">My own Ivan, my dear lover?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But they say: “He is not.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then as is the Moskal habit,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">They laugh loud and murmur,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“What a woman! We have talent!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Whom are we not fooling?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Katerina looked in wonder,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“But you seem like people!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Do not weep, my son, my burden!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">What must be, is coming!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">I’ll go further—I’ve been coming ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And perhaps I’ll meet him.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">I will give you up, my darling,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And myself will perish!”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">Meanwhile howls and roars the blizzard,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">O’er the field it eddies.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In the fields is Katya standing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Weeping without measure.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then the blizzard seems to tire,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Here and there relaxes;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Katerina would be weeping,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But her tears are lacking.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then she looked upon the baby;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Drenched with tears, it’s ruddy</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">As the flower in the morning</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Shining in the dewdrops.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Katerina smiled a little,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But her smile was bitter;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Round her heart, a coal black serpent</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Wound itself around it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Near at hand she heard some voices.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Nearby is the forest.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">At its edge, hard by the roadside,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">There’s a little cabin.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“Let us go, my son! ’Tis twilight.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">They may let us enter.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">If they don’t, within the courtyard</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">We can find some shelter.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Near the cabin we will rest us,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Ivas, my poor baby!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Where will you find nightly shelter,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">When I am not with you?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">From the dogs, my darling baby,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">You must seek for friendship!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Dogs are evil—they will bite you.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But they will not blame you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Will not say amid their jesting,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">‘Go, eat with the puppies!’ ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">O my poor, unhappy person,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">What will happen to me?”</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span>    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">A parentless dog will have its own fortune.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">An orphan can find a good word in the world;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They beat him, growl at him, and bind him in fetters,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But no one tries ever his mother to mock.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Ivas they will ask and before he can answer,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They give not the child e’en a moment to speak.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">At whom on the street are the dogs wont to bark?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The naked and hungry who sleep ’neath the hedge.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Who leads the blind beggars? The black-haired young bastards ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For one is their fate.... They have little, black eyebrows,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And people all envy the beauty they have.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center">IV</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Beneath the hill’s a narrow valley</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And like the brows of noble sires,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The oaks of Hetmans proudly stand;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There is a pond, a dam, and willows,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The ice holds fast the little pond,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A very little open water</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Is shining like a kettle red—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">By heavy clouds the sun is shaded,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The wind blows up and how it howls,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There’s nothing near, around all’s white,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And loud’s the roaring of the woods.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">So the blizzard moans and whistles,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Howling through the forest.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Like the sea, the field is whitened</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">By the driving snowflakes.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">From the cabin comes a woodsman</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">To inspect the forest.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">What is that? It is a pity</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That you can see nothing!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“That is wild and devilish music!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Keep from out the forest!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In again!... But what is coming?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Who the devil are they?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Misery has sent them onward,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">It must be real trouble.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">O the devil! Just look at them!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">See, they are snow-covered!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">—“Are these Moskals? Are they really?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">—“What is this? You’re crazy.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">—“Where are now my darling Moskals?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">—“Here they are. Look at them!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Katerina came a-flying,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And she did not falter.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Maybe Muscovy this moment</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Comes where she can find it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For she only knows in sorrow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That she calls a Moskal.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Through the stumps and through the hedges</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She flies out, scarce breathing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Stood barefooted in the roadway,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Rubbed her face—it’s freezing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then the Moskals came to meet her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Every one on horseback,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“This is ill! This is my fortune!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">With them, as she’s looking,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In the van the captain’s riding.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“Ivan, O my darling!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">O my heart! my dearest lover!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Where have you been hiding?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She ran to him, caught his stirrup ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">He looked on in wonder ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">With his spur his horse he’s striking ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“Whither are you fleeing?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">You remember Katerina?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Have you now forgotten?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Look again, my darling sweetheart!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Look again upon me!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">I am your beloved Katrusya!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Why do you dash from me?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But his horse he spurred on wildly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And he will not notice.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“Wait a moment, darling sweetheart!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">See, I am not weeping.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Ivan, have you now remembered?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Darling, look one moment!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">Yes, by God, I am Katrusya!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">—“Fool, let go my stirrup!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Take away this crazy woman!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">—“God! you do this, Ivan!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Are you leaving me forever?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">After all you’ve promised?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">—“Take her off! What is the matter?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">—“What’s this? Take me from you?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Why? O tell me, O my darling!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">To whom are you giving</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Your Katrusya, who once followed</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">You into the garden,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Your own Katya, who bore to you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Your own son and baby?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">O my father, darling brother!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">If you will avoid me!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">I will be a servant to you ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Go and love another ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Love the world!... I will forget it</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That you were my lover,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That I bore a son unto you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Bore it out of wedlock,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Wedlock! What an awful scandal!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Why must I die for it?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Leave me now, forget me always,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But don’t fail your offspring!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">You’re not leaving? O my darling!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Do not hurry from me.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">I will bring your son to see you....”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She has dropped his stirrup,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Rushes to the house. Returning</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She is bringing Ivas;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Dirty, swaddled, stained with weeping</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Is the child unhappy.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“Here he is! Just look upon him!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Where have you been hidden?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">He is gone and vanished, baby!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Father has disowned you!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">O my God! My child unhappy!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">What can I do with you?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">O you Moskals! O my darlings!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Take him with you from me!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Oh, my friends! Do not forsake him!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">He is but an orphan!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Take him with you; hand him over!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">He’s your captain’s offspring!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Take him with you! I will leave him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">As his father left him,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">May God grant an evil hour</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Will not leave him also!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">’Twas in sin your mother bore you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Into God’s bright world.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Grow on up, a jest for people.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">On the road she laid him.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“Let him go and seek his father,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">As I have been seeking.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then she vanished in the forest,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Leaving him behind her.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">The child wept—It made no difference</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Unto them—They left it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">There it is and to its sorrow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Did the woodsman find it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Katya, barefoot, ran a-crying,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Ran into the forest,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Cursing Ivan, her base lover,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Weeping, weeping, pleading.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">So she ran into the clearing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Cast one glance around her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Saw the pond, ran to it, stood there,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Waited for a moment,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“God, accept my sinful spirit!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Pond, you take my body!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In she leaped—passed ’neath the surface,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And the water gurgled.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">So the black haired Katerina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Found what she was seeking.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then the wind howled o’er the surface—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">There was no trace of her.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">It is not the stormy breezes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">That the oak will shatter.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">’Tis not hard and ’tis not evil,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">When the mother dieth;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Little children are not orphans,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Who have lost their mother,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For her good name stays behind her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And her tomb stays also.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Evil people all are laughing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">At the little orphan;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">At the tomb his tears are flowing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But his heart is quiet.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But what is there for that orphan,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">What can be left for him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">When his father has not seen him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And his mother leaves him?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">What is there for that poor bastard?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Who will speak unto him?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">He has neither folk nor cabin;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Woe and sand and highways ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Noble face and mother’s tresses ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Why? For men to know him!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She has stamped him, cannot hide it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Would his beauty withered!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center">V</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">Unto Kiev went a kobzar,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Sat him down to rest him;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And his escort was well burdened</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">With a pile of baskets.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For a little child was escort.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Now he drops to slumber.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">At that moment the old kobzar</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Sings a song of Jesus.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">All who pass, come up and offer</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">One, a roll; one, money</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">To the old man and the children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Come to the young escort.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">All the beauties look and marvel</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">When they see him ragged:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“See what wondrous hair fate gave him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But it gave no fortune!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then along the road to Kiev</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Comes a coach resplendent,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In the coach there is a lady</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">With her lord and family.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">See, it stopped beside the beggars</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And the dust soon settles.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Ivas ran up. Through the window</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">A soft hand has beckoned.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then the lady looks at Ivas</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And she gives him money.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">The man looked—but turned so quickly—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For he recognized him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Recognized the black eyes sparkling</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And the black hair also,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Knew his son stood there before him</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And he would not take him.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For his name the lady asked him.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">“Ivas”—“That is pretty!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then the coach moved on and Ivas</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In the dust was hidden.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">They picked up the things they’d gathered,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Stood up, both poor devils,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Made their prayers at sunset hour,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Went along the highway.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_5" href="#FNanchor_1_5" class="label">[1]</a> The kalyna, Viburnum opulus, is used extensively to mark graves and memorials
+in Ukraine.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_6" href="#FNanchor_2_6" class="label">[2]</a> Brovary is on the boundary separating Muscovy from Ukraine.</p></div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_HAYDAMAKI">
+    THE HAYDAMAKI
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The <i>Haydamaki</i> is the longest of all the poems of Shevchenko and
+the most striking historical epic in Ukrainian literature. It describes
+the bloody revolt of the Koliishchina which broke out under the leadership
+of Maksim Zaliznyak and Gonta in 1768 and culminated in
+the massacre of the Poles at Uman. It was the last and one of the most
+terrible convulsions that shook Ukraine in its relations with Poland.</p>
+
+<p>Shevchenko lays great stress upon the murder of the sexton which
+actually took place in 1766 and throughout the poem there are similar
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span>cases where he has changed the historical course of events for a
+better artistic effect but this is common to all epic poems.</p>
+
+<p>The story is briefly this: a group of Polish szlachta attack a Jew and
+to save himself he tells them stories of the wealth of the Orthodox sexton
+in Vilshany. They go there and torture him and he dies under
+their ministrations. In the meanwhile his daughter Oksana, who loves
+the poor orphan Yarema, comes to the aid of her father and is carried
+off. Yarema, knowing nothing of the fate of his beloved, goes to seek
+his fortune at the Sich. He joins the forces of Zaliznyak and his fury is
+redoubled when he learns of the fate of his beloved. The Haydamaki
+with the aid of the Zaporozhians rise in revolt. For his desperate and
+ferocious bravery, Yarema receives the name Halayda, “the homeless
+one.” He succeeds in rescuing his beloved from a tower where the
+Haydamaki are besieging her captors and finally takes to a convent
+and returns to marry her. The Haydamaki continue their course and
+capture Uman, and savagely destroy their foes.</p>
+
+<p>The poem is a true expression of the wild and merciless character
+of these peasant revolts against the hardships and oppressions inflicted
+upon them by brutal and careless masters. Shevchenko could
+feel this popular frenzy and describe it but he was not himself primarily
+a soldier and the finest parts of the poem are the lyrical descriptions
+of Ukrainian nature and the pictures of Ukrainian peasant life,
+even under the utmost hardships. He was too humane and cultured to
+enter fully into the wild emotions of the revolting people and to revel
+in the details of the battles. We could not imagine him enjoying the
+society of the atamans and hetmans of the past whom he consistently
+tried to applaud.</p>
+
+<p>Rather he was deeply moved by their successes and failures. His
+heart was in the glorious past and the terrible present but it is of the
+latter that he sings the most sweetly, as he pleads also for the development
+of a new and better Ukraine. Yet this does not make him any
+the less rebellious that his people have been overthrown and are now
+in poverty and misery. It does not make him any milder to their oppressors.
+The <i>Haydamaki</i> is his last great outburst of hatred against
+the Poles and really it completes the cycle of the <i>Kobzar</i> which aims
+to picture Ukraine in the past and present through the Romantic
+tradition.</p>
+
+<p>We include here the poet’s preliminary description of himself and
+of Ukraine.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span></p>
+
+
+<h3 class="smcap" id="prelude">The Haydamaki—Prelude</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">All things ever come, ever pass, without ending ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Oh! whence are they coming? And whither they go?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The fool and the wise man know naught of the future.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Each lives and each dies.... One plant bursts into bloom,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Another has faded, has faded forever ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The winds spread abroad all the yellowing leaves,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The sun still arises, as in the past ages,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The stars are as bright as they were in the past,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And so will they be.... Come thou, moon, with thy white face,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Come out to make merry across the blue sky,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Come out to admire the stream and the fountain,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The infinite sea; thou still dost shine on</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">As o’er ancient Babylon and its fair gardens,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">So over the fate that will call to our sons.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">Eternal and endless!... I love to hold converse</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">With thee just as if thou wert brother or sister,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And sing to thee tales thou hast whispered to me.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Oh! teach me once more how to deal with my burden!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I am not alone, and no orphan am I;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">For I have my children, what fate will they suffer?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To bury them with me? My soul is alive!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Perhaps it will find that life there is less bitter,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">If some one repeats all those bitter sweet words</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Which it has so generously poured out with weeping</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And which it so humbly has sobbed o’er their cradles.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">No, I will not hide them, my soul is alive!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">As heaven is blue and it has no fixed limit,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The soul also has no beginning or ending.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And what will it be? Not mere words of deceit.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Oh! let some one cite them again in this world,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The unknown dread always to pass to the future.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">So speak up, my maidens, for you need to speak!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">It loved you, my maidens, the world’s pretty flowers,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And it loved without ceasing to sing of your fate.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Until it is sunrise, feast on, all my children,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And I shall think how I can find you a host.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span>    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">Sons of mine, O haydamaki,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Broad’s the world, and freedom,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Sons of mine, go out to revel</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And to try your fate!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Sons of mine, who still are youthful,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Children still untutored!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Who in all the world will greet you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">If you have no mother?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Sons of mine! My little eaglets!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Fly to Ukraina!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Though the evil spreads around you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Still you’re not ’mid strangers.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">There a soul sincere will meet you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">’Twill not let you perish.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">There, O there ... ’tis hard, my children!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">When they let you in a cabin,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">They will meet you, ridicule you,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Those, you know, are people;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">They are learned, reading, cultured,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And the sun they censure,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">“For it rises where it shouldn’t,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Shineth incorrectly.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">It should change its stupid doings.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">What can you do with them?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">You must listen; perhaps truly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The sun never rises</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">As in books the learned read it ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Surely they are clever.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">But what will they say then of you?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Yes, I know your glory.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">They know how to scoff and mock you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Hurl you ’neath the benches.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">—“Let them stay there,”—they will answer,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">“Till the father rises</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And will tell us in our language</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Of his famous hetmans,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Or the fool will sing unto us</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">In dead words that bore us</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And present some old Yarema</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span>      <div class="verse indent2">In his sandals. Fool! They beat him</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">But they taught him nothing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Of the Kozaks, of the hetmans,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Lofty tombs are with us—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Nothing else remains among us,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And these too they ruin.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And he wishes us to hearken</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To the elders chanting.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Vain the labor, O sir brother!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">If you wish for money,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">You will sing what they desire!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Sing about Matyosha</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Or Parasha, who’s our pleasure,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Sultan, spurs, and parquet.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">There is glory! But he’s singing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">‘The blue sea is playing.’</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And he’s weeping, and your hearers</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">In their peasant costumes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Weep with you.” ’Tis true, O wise man!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Thank you for the counsel!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Warm’s the furcoat, but I’m sorry</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">That it doesn’t fit me.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And your wise words are embroidered</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">With a lie accursed.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Pardon me—shout for your pleasure,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I will still not hearken,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Will not call you to my circle;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">You are wise, good people,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I’m a fool and unattended</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">In my little cabin</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I will sing and sob unceasing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Like a child unhappy.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I will sing; the blue sea’s playing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And the wind is blowing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Black’s the steppe and with the breezes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Speaks the tomb forsaken.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I will sing—and then there opens</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Wide that tomb so spacious.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To the sea the Zaporozhtsy</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The broad steppes all cover.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span>      <div class="verse indent2">Atamans on swift black horses</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">With their banners waving</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Dash ahead; the thundering rapids</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">’Mid the reeds all hidden</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Howl and groan and rage in fury</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And their roar strikes terror.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Yes, I hearken and I worry</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And I ask the elders:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">“Why are you so sad, my fathers?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">“Son, it is not cheerful,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">For the Dniper’s angry at us;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Ukraina’s weeping.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I weep too. That selfsame hour</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">In their shining squadrons</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Atamans set out a-marching,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Captains with their nobles,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And the hetmans, gold-attired;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To my humble cabin</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">They have come, they sit around me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And of Ukraina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">They will speak and tell me stories,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">How the Sich was founded,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">How the Kozaks boldly traversed</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Rapids, rafting downwards,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">How they revelled on the blue sea,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Dashed into Skutari,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">How they lit their pipes beloved</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">At the Polish fires;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Then came back to Ukraina,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">How they nobly feasted ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">“Play, kobzar! Pour out, O tapster!—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Let the feast continue!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Minstrel, sing!” and all the Kozaks—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">As Hortitsa’s bending—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Leap erect and never stopping</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Start their joyous dances.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Pitchers come and pass around them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Till they all are empty.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">“Revel, sir, throw off your zhupan,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span>      <div class="verse indent2">Revel, wind, a-blowing!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Play, kobzar! Pour out, O tapster,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Till our fortune cometh!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Young and old, the Kozak heroes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Dance the native dances.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">“Fine, O children; good, O children!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">We will be the masters!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Atamans at the rich banquet</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Act as in the council.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">They are walking, are conversing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">But the noble heroes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Feel the spell and join the others</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Though their legs are aging.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And I marvel, I am looking,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Smiling, while I’m weeping,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I marvel, I’m smiling, I’m wiping my eyelids—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I’m not all alone, for I live with those men!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In my little cabin as on the steppes boundless,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The Kozaks are sporting and singing their pride;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In my little cabin, the blue sea is playing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The tomb sadly sobs, while the poplar is rustling,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The maiden is singing, Hritsa, very softly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I’m not all alone! I can live with those men!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">These are all my blessings, money,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">These are all my glory,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And for counsel I will thank you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">For the counsel evil!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Stay with me, while I am living,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">O dead words that bore you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To pour out my tears and sorrow.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Comrades, now farewell!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I must go and speed my children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">On a distant journey.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Let them go—they may be meeting</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Some revered old Kozak,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Who will greet my little children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">With his aged weeping.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">That suffices. I will tell you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Lord of lords it makes me.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span>      <div class="verse indent2">So I’m sitting at the table,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Singing, meditating;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Whom to ask? Who is the leader?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Outdoors it grows lighter.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Fades the moon, the sun is blazing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And the boys are rising,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">They have prayed, have donned their clothing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">They now stand around me.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Sadly, sadly, just as orphans,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">They have bowed in silence;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">“Bless us, father,”—so they beg me,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">“While we have the power,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Bless us that we find our future</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">In the wide expanses.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">—Keep on waiting. Life’s no cabin,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">You are little children,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Foolish too. For who will lead you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">As his gallant comrades?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Who will lead you? And I suffer,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Suffer with you near me!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I have fed you, have caressed you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">You have grown a little.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Now be people; there you’ll notice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">All is clearly written.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Pardon me that I learned nothing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">For you beat me roundly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Beat me well and much you’ve taught me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Of a certain order.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2"><i>Tma</i> and <i>mna</i> I know, but <i>oksiyu</i></div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I cannot explain it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">What will men remark? My children,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">We will go and ask them.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I have now an aged father</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">(Kin I have none living)</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">He will give me counsel with you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">For he in his wisdom</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Knows how hard it is to wander</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">As a homeless orphan;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And he is a noble spirit,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span>      <div class="verse indent2">Kozak through and through.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">He is not ashamed to utter</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Words his mother taught him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">When she reared him in his cradle,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Trained him as a youngster;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">He is not ashamed to utter</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Tales of Ukraina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Which the blind old bards repeated,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Singing in the evening.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And he loves the old true legends,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Sings the Kozak glory,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Loves them. Come, my little children,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To his kindly counsel.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Had he years ago not met me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">In the worst of seasons,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Long ago would I be buried</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">In a foreign country,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Buried and all men would scorn me.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">“He was good for nothing.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Hard it is to fight and conquer,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">If you have no motive.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Times have changed, till dreams are useless.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Let us go, my children!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">If he did not let me perish</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">In a foreign country,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">So he will accept and greet you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Just as his own children,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And from him, with pious praying,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Start for Ukraina!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">Greetings, father, in the cabin!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">On your ancient threshold</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Give a blessing to my children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">For a distant journey.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="TO_THE_ETERNAL_MEMORY_OF_KOTLYAREVSKY">
+    TO THE ETERNAL MEMORY OF KOTLYAREVSKY
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>This is one of the earliest poems of Shevchenko and was apparently
+written soon after he had learned of the death of Ivan Kotlyarevsky
+which took place in 1838. Kotlyarevsky with his parody of the <i>Aeneid</i>
+published in 1798 had commenced the modern Ukrainian literature
+in the vernacular. He had transformed Aeneas and his companions
+into typical exiled Ukrainian Kozaks and had used every opportunity
+to call back memories of the past. It was a frivolous but yet absolutely
+serious piece of work and it aroused an interest in Ukrainian history
+and manners that had been long forgotten. Kotlyarevsky followed
+his poem in after years with the first Ukrainian dramas of peasant
+life, <i>Natalka Poltavka</i> and <i>Moskal Charyvnyk</i>. These two became
+popular and the young Shevchenko on receiving the news of the
+death of the poet poured out his lamentation that the one great
+Ukrainian poet had passed away. It is a sincere tribute to the founder
+of the literature from the man who was to be its greatest exponent.
+There is the same mixture of elements of nature and of history that
+the poet was to employ so often later and it marks that union of
+social and historical themes under the influence of which Shevchenko
+began his work.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">To the Eternal Memory of Kotlyarevsky</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Warm’s the sun, the breeze is blowing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">From the field to valley,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">O’er the water bend the willows</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">With the red kalyna.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">In a bush all solitary</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">There’s a nest a-swaying.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Where’s the nightingale a-straying?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Ask it not, it knows not!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">For the evil, it is absent.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">It is gone and perished</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">For the good, their heart is pining.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Why did it not stay here?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">So I look and think about it;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">When the eve was coming</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">It would sing in the kalyna.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">No one could ignore it:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">For the rich who had good fortune</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span>      <div class="verse indent4">Like a loving mother,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Would steal up and look upon it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Never pass, unseeing;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And the orphan who at dawning</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Rose to go to labor,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Would awake and listen to it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">As if his dear parents</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Were alive and talking to him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And his heart beat gaily,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And the world seemed like an Easter,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">People all were people;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Or the maiden seeking daily</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">For her lover’s coming,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Pines away just as an orphan,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Knows not where to seek him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Goes to wander o’er the pathway,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Weeping ’mid the thicket,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Then the nightingale would warble,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Stop her bitter weeping.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">She would listen and then smiling,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Walk through the dark thicket,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">As if she spoke to her lover.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And the bird was singing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So softly, so calmly, as if he were praying,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Until a foul villain came out to do harm</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With knife in his boot-top—his steps echo dully,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They come and they stop; but the song’s to no purpose.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It cannot restrain the cruel heart of the villain.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He ruins his voice, but can teach nothing good.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let him go on raging, until he shall perish,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Until the crow caws with hoarse voice at his death.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The vale will sleep; in the kalyna</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The nightingale sleeps too.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The wind blows softly through the valley,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The echo passes in the grove.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The echo, like God’s voice, is fading,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The poor arise to go to work,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The cows come out into the thicket,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The maidens after water come,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span>      <div class="verse indent4">The sun is shining—all seems happy!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The willow smiles—and all is good.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The villain weeps, the savage villain.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">It was so once—now look and see:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Warm’s the sun, the breeze is blowing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">From the field to valley,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">O’er the water bend the willows</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">With the red kalyna.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">In a bush all solitary</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">There’s a nest a-swaying.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Where’s the nightingale a-straying?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Ask it not; it knows not!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent4">So recently, recently here, in Ukraina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The old Kotlyarevsky sang sweetly to us;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The poor man is silent, has left just as orphans</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The mountains and sea, where he formerly dwelt,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Where he led his bands of outcasts,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Taking them to travel,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">All is left, and all is saddened,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">As Troy’s ancient ruins.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">All is grieving—but his glory</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Like the sun is shining,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">For the kobzar dies not. Glory</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Ever will proclaim him.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Father, you will reign forever,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">While mankind is living.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">While the sun shines in the heavens,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Men will not forget you.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">O spirit most righteous! accept my poor tribute,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Accept it as stupid and yet as sincere!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Leave me not an orphan as you left the forest,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Fly to me and help me, if but for one moment,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And sing to me songs of my own dear Ukraine.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">O grant that my soul may yet smile in its exile,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">May smile even once, as it hears how you brought</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The whole Kozak glory in words so appealing</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Into the poor hut where an orphan did dwell.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Fly here, O gray eagle, for I am an orphan</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Alone in the world, in a land that is strange;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I look at the sea which is deep and far spreading,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And seek to go over it—there is no boat!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I think of Aeneas, I think of my country,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I think and I weep, as a child that is grieving.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The waves come and roar and they break over there,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And perhaps I am dull and there’s naught that I notice,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Perhaps a bad fate on that side is a-weeping?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The orphan is mocked by all people he meets!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let them keep on mocking, for there the sea’s playing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For there is the moon, and the sun brighter shines,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The grave with the wind on the steppe is conversing;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Were I with them there, I’d be no more alone.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent4">O spirit most righteous! accept my poor tribute,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Accept it as stupid and yet as sincere!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Leave me not an orphan as you left the forest,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Fly to me and help me, if but for one moment,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And sing to me songs of my own dear Ukraine!</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="Dumka_Water">
+    <span class="smcap">Dumka</span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Water flows into the blue sea,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But it never leaves it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A young Kozak seeks his fortune,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Seeks, but does not find it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He has gone where chance has beckoned,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where the sea is playing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And his Kozak heart is playing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But his thoughts arouse him:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Where have you not gone, a stranger?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To what hands entrusting</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Father and your aged mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And your smiling sweetheart?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">People there are not your family,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Life with them is very hard.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">With them there you cannot weep,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Cannot freely talk.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Far from home the Kozak’s sitting,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">While the sea is playing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thinking, he will find good fortune</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But he meets with sorrow.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the cranes hie homeward swiftly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In their ordered row.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Weeps the Kozak,—on life’s pathway</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Piercing thorns have grown.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="HAMALIYA">
+    HAMALIYA
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>During the early part of the seventeenth century, the Zaporozhian
+Kozaks, especially under the ataman Peter Sahaydachny, made many
+raids into the Black Sea and there was hardly a single city of importance,
+even including Constantinople itself, which was not the victim
+of their attacks. They showed to the full the weakness of the shore defences
+of the Ottoman Empire and the defects of its navy. In their
+small boats, hastily constructed below the rapids of the Dniper, they
+dared to put to sea in the middle of the wildest storms that raged
+on the Black Sea and their courage and seamanship stood them in
+good stead against the superior arms and inferior morale of their
+enemies.</p>
+
+<p>This poem seems to be an independent poetical creation of Shevchenko
+to bring out this period of Kozak history and to picture the
+naval exploits of the Zaporozhians. It is in a way a continuation and
+amplification of the poem <i>Ivan Pidkova</i> but it presents a rounded
+picture in concise form of one of these expeditions. The name of the
+leader Hamaliya seems to have been created by the poet, and while
+the sequence of events described is true to history, the poem is not
+based on any specific historical event.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">Hamaliya</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Oh, there’s no wind and there’s no wave now coming</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">From our own Ukraina.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Do they gather and prepare the Turk to battle?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">We hear not in foreign prison.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Oh, blow, Oh blow, O wind, across the waters,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">From Great Luh bring tidings.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Dry our tears and mute our clanging fetters,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Scatter all our sorrow!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Oh, play on, play on gaily, sparkling blue sea,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And beneath the sturdy barges</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Which the Kozaks sail, scarcely can their caps be seen,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And they will come for us.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Oh, God, our God! E’en if they fail us,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Carry them from Ukraina,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We will hear the glory, all the Kozak glory,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">We will hear and then we’ll perish!”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">So sang the Kozaks in Skutari’s strong prison,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So sang the poor devils and loudly they wept,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They pour out their tears and they uttered their sorrow.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The Bosphorus trembled, for never before</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Had it heard laments of Kozaks; with great groaning,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It roused itself mightily like a gray bull,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And roaring aloud, it sent out to the distance</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A wave which resounded upon the blue sea.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The sea then reechoed the Bosphorus message</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And bore it to Lyman, and Lyman repeated</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto the Dnipro the sad voice of the wave.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Our mighty sire ’gan to laugh</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Till from his mustache foam ran down.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">“O brother Luh, don’t sleep but listen!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Khortitsa sister?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent18">Both replied,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Luh and Khortitsa, “Yes, I hear it.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Dnipro was covered with the barges</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And thus the Kozaks loudly sang:</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent4">“Over there the Turk is happy</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">In a well built palace.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Hay, Hay! Sea, play on,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Roar and break the cliffs.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">We will go as guests!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span>    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent4">“There the Turk has in his pockets</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Talars, yes, and ducats,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">We won’t rob his pockets,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">We’ll tear them and burn them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And we’ll free our brothers.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent4">“There the Turk has janissaries,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">A pasha’s their leader.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Hay, there, look out foemen,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">We know not to waver!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">That’s our strength and glory!”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent4">So they sail; they’re gaily singing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Winds hear all the waters;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">In the van sails Hamaliya,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Guiding his boat wisely.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Hamaliya, you are anxious—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Then the sea is maddened,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">He heeds not. They soon are hidden</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">By great waves like mountains.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">All sleep in the harem. As if in high heaven</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Skutari, Byzantium sleep! There’s a roar</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of terror from Bosphorus, groaning and tossing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It seeks to awake the great city from sleep.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Disturb it not, Bosphorus; you will be sorry!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I’ll break your white cliffs into powdery sand,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And hide them away.” Thus the blue sea was roaring.—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Pretend you don’t know what fine guests I now bring</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto the great Sultan.” When thus the sea threatened,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">(For it loved the stedfast, the brave tufted Slavs)</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The Bosphorus feared. So the Turk kept on sleeping</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And in his rich harem the Sultan dozed on.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Alone in Skutari in prison the Kozaks,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Poor devils, sleep not. But for what do they wait?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They pray to their God in the midst of their fetters,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The waves pass along and reecho their song.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span>    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">“O God, dear God of Ukraina,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Let us not die in foreign prison,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Us, free Kozaks, in fetters bound!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">’Twill be a shame both here and there</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To rise from out a foreign coffin</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And to Thy righteous judgement come,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">With our strong hands encased in iron</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And there in fetters before all</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Stand out as Kozaks!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent18">“Slash and kill!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Destroy the unbeliever foul!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The cry’s outside. What can it be?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Hamaliya, your heart’s anxious.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Now Skutari’s raging!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">“Slash and kill”—upon the ramparts</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Thus shouts Hamaliya.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Skutari thunders with its cannon,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The foemen roar and rage apace;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The Kozaks charge without a waver,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The janissaries fall in heaps.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Hamaliya’s in Skutari,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Through the hell he wanders,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">He, himself, breaks in the prison,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Shatters all the fetters.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">“Fly, you birds, fly for your fortune</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To the wide bazaar!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Then the falcons spread their winglets,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Long time none had told them</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Such fine words of Christian speech.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Then the night was startled;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The old mother had ne’er noticed</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">How the Kozaks paid.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Do not fear, but cast your glances</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">On the Kozak banquet.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">It is dark as on a workday</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">But it is a banquet.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The bold boys with Hamaliya</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Eat not leavings calmly</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span>      <div class="verse indent2">Without meat. “We want good lighting!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To the clouds above them</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">With the many masted schooners</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">All Skutari’s burning.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Then Byzantium was startled,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Rubbed its sleepy eyelids,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And it crossed to bring assistance,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">With its teeth a-gnashing.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Byzantium awakes and rages</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And gains the bank with eager hands,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She reached it, screamed, and started back,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Grew mute before the bloody knives.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Skutari’s blazing like a hell;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Through the bazaar red blood is flowing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And turning red the Bosphorus;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Like black birds gathered in a grove,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The Kozaks fly without a care.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No one dares now to interfere,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The fire burns not these brave men.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They wreck the walls. The Kozaks bear</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The gold and silver in their caps</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And load with spoils the heavy boats.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Skutari blazes, work abates,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The brave boys meet, they gather round</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And light their pipes from blazing fires.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Upon the boats—they lounge around</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And cleave the mountain-high red waves.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">They sail forth as from their homeland—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Just as if they’re playing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">That is like the Zaporozhtsy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And they’re sailing, singing:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">“Our otaman Hamaliya,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">He’s a worthy leader,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">He got boys and then he started</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">O’er the sea to revel—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">O’er the sea to revel</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And to gather glory</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span>      <div class="verse indent2">And release from Turkish prison</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">All his captive brothers.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Oh, then sailed up Hamaliya</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Right into Skutari.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">There he found the Zaporozhtsy</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Facing bitter sentence.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Ho! then cried out Hamaliya,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">‘Brothers, we’ll be living,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">We’ll be living, wine be drinking,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Killing janissaries,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And we’ll deck our homes in velvet</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And with costly kilims.’</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">So the Zaporozhtsy sallied</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To sow well their meadows,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Sowed them well and reaped the harvest,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And they sang together:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">‘Glory be to Hamaliya,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Through the world he’s famous—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Through the world he’s famous,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Through all Ukraina,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">For he did not let his comrades</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Die in foreign prison.’”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">They sail and sing. Behind them there</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Courageous Hamaliya’s sailing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Just as an eagle guards its eaglets.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The wind blows from the Dardanelles,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Byzantium can find no rest,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For it still fears that once again</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Chernets may light up Galata</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or the hetman Ivan Pidkova</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">May summon them to give a present.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">So they sail. Behind the billows</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Reddens all the sun.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And before them the kind waters</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Murmur on and call.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Hamaliya, winds are blowing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Here, O here, the sea is ours.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And they hid behind the billows—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And the rosy mountains.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="TO_OKSANA_K">
+    TO OKSANA K ...
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>This was long supposed to be a complete poem written by Shevchenko
+in memory of his first love. Only in 1914 was it fully realized
+that it was the preface to an unfinished poem <i>Maryana Chernetsa</i>
+(Maryana the Nun) and a considerable part of this poem was then
+published. Unfortunately Shevchenko did not complete it and efforts
+to determine the definite form of the poem have been in vain. The
+text as we have it opens with the love of a peasant girl Maryana for a
+poor boy Petrus. He leaves to seek his fortune. The girl promises to be
+true to him, although her mother is determined that she will marry a
+rich old man. The poem was then another in the series dealing with
+the poor girl condemned to marry someone whom she did not love,
+one of the favorite themes of Shevchenko.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">To Oksana K ...</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">(<i>In memory of what was long ago</i>)</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">In the forest winds toss wildly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Branches and the poplars,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Break the oaks, and o’er the meadows</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Sweep the tumbleweed.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">So is fate: one man it crushes,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And another tosses,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Me it carries off; its purpose</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">It can never vision.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In what distant land am I destined to perish?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where shall I lie down for my last endless sleep?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">If there is no fortune and there is no joy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There’s no one to feel. There’s no one to remember</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or say, e’en in jest, “Let him rest in his slumber,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It was his good fortune to perish so young.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It’s true, O Oksana, O black-haired young stranger,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You do not remember that orphan of yore,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In his ragged coat, but who always was happy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">If he could but look at your beauty divine.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When you without speech, without words him instructed</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To speak with his eyes, with his soul, with his heart,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With whom you have smiled and have wept and have sorrowed,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To whom you have sung the sad tale of Petrus?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You do not remember! Oksana! Oksana!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">But I am still weeping, still sorrow till now.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I pour out my tears when I think of Maryana.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I look unto you and for you do I pray.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Remember, Oksana, O black-haired young stranger,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And deck your Maryana with blooms bright and gay,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And smile at Petrus, smile at him and be happy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And be it a joke, yet remember the past.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_DREAM">
+    THE DREAM
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>After Shevchenko’s return from Ukraine in 1843, he had changed
+his mind as to the vital needs of his country. Henceforth Poland takes
+a secondary place among the oppressors and his wrath is concentrated
+more on Russia and the Russian monarchy. It was difficult and dangerous
+to express this opinion in St. Petersburg and almost impossible
+to secure the publication of works which criticized the imperial regime.
+Yet Shevchenko did not hesitate and in a series of poems, partly
+mystical, partly ethical, he spoke out against the oppression of his
+native land.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Dream</i> which he labels a comedy and to which he prefixes a
+passage from the Gospels is one of the bitterest of these attacks. He
+introduces it with a series of criticisms against various types of selfish
+and unpatriotic people and contrasts himself, shedding his own blood
+for his native land and weeping day and night, with these self-satisfied
+and self-righteous egotists. Then he passes to what purports to be a
+drunken dream for reality is so ghastly that he feels it necessary to
+be in an unusual state to dare to notice it.</p>
+
+<p>First he visits Ukraine, the poor and helpless widow, who has been
+abandoned with her population to the mad whims of an autocratic
+despot and the feudal lords. The misery of the people is overwhelming
+beneath the exactions of the upper classes.</p>
+
+<p>In his attempts to flee from the world he is carried to Siberia and
+here he is no more happy for the sound of the fettered prisoners working
+in the mines brings home to him again man’s inhumanity to man.
+He probably alludes to Ukrainian exiles but it is possible that he is
+citing the example of the Decembrists who suffered for their ideals
+and of the Polish revolutionists of 1831.</p>
+
+<p>The capitals are the next places which he visits in his imagination
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span>and here he is completely disillusioned. He condemns the Muscovite
+slavery to the Tsar, the power of the Tsar to beat the highest members
+of his organization and their corresponding right to tyrannize over
+their subordinates, until the lowest of the people, the common man,
+is proud and happy to be beaten indirectly by the Tsar. It is another
+example of Shevchenko’s belief that the Moskals were incapable of
+appreciating liberty and that this sharply differentiated them from
+the people of Ukraine, the worthy sons of which were ready to sacrifice
+themselves for their ideals and for the truth.</p>
+
+<p>Then when he sees the statue of Peter the Great erected by Catherine,
+the two monarchs who had ruined Ukraine, he turns to the
+misery and captivity of Polubotok and the Kozaks who were sent to
+St. Petersburg to build the capital and to perform other severe labor
+under which they died in great numbers between 1720 and 1725.
+Polubotok, the acting Hetman, was himself arrested and died in
+prison in 1724.</p>
+
+<p>He sees the poverty of the people, even the Russians, the girls forced
+by poverty to enter upon prostitution, and he returns to the palace
+where he beholds the ridiculous character of the Tsar and the subservient
+manners even of the Imperial Family, who are unworthy to
+acquire such power and unable to hold it.</p>
+
+<p>Then he wakes up with the renewed explanation that it was all a
+dream.</p>
+
+<p>The poem is a violent attack upon the lack of truth and righteousness
+in the Russian dealings with Ukraine and the injustice which
+emanates from the throne. The attack upon the Imperial Family and
+in particular the Empress whom he called a dry mushroom so infuriated
+Alexander II that the poet was excluded from the general
+amnesty on his accession to the throne. It is the one of the series which
+emphasizes specially the political side of the Russian domination and
+it contains some of the most powerful denunciations of political oppression
+of all of Shevchenko’s work.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">The Dream</span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>A Comedy</i></p>
+
+<blockquote class="center">
+<p><i>The Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because
+it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.</i></p>
+
+<p class="right">—St. John, 14, 17.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">Each man’s fate is special to him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And his own broad highway;</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span>      <div class="verse indent2">One man builds, another ruins,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Or with eye unsated</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Looks a third beyond th’ horizon</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Seeking to discover</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">What to seize and carry with him</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To his grave as booty.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">This man counts as lawful victims</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Kinsmen in his cabin;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">This one, crouching in the corner,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Aims to kill his brother;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">While another, mild and sober,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">With a pious feeling,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Stealthily as any kitten,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Sees when a misfortune</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Strikes you and he slyly buries</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Deadly knife within you.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Ask no mercy! He will hearken</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To no wife or children.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And another, rich and gen’rous,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Builds the churches richly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And he loves so well his country</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">That he sorrows for it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And he therefore most sincerely</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Sheds its blood like water,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And the company all silent</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">With their eyes wide open</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Like the lambs—say, “Let him do it!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">It perhaps is needed!”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">It is needed! For there is not</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Any Lord in heaven!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">You beneath the yoke are falling,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And you’re still believing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">There is paradise above you?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">No, there’s not! There’s not!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Vain’s your effort! Just think sanely,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">All upon this planet,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Be they tsars or be they beggars—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">All are Adam’s children.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span>      <div class="verse indent2">He ... and he ... what do I matter?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Not a bit, good people;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">For I feast and have a banquet</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Sundays and on work days.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Are you bored? Are you complaining?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Heavens, I don’t hear it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Do not shout!—My blood I’m drinking,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Not the blood of others!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">One time returning home unsteady</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From a rich banquet late at night,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I thought upon this all my journey</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Until I came unto my cabin.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">At me the children do not shout,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">A wife’s never scolding,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">’Tis calm as in heaven.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">On all is the blessing of God—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">In heart as in cabin.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">So I could sleep calmly;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">But when a drunken man once sleeps,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">E’en though the guns roared loudly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">He would not stir a hair.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">A dream, a dream unprecedented</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Disturbed my slumbers.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">A sober man would gladly tipple,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">A miser Jew would give a penny</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To have a glimpse of what I saw.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Yes, devils two.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I see as if it were an owl</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">A-flying over fields and banks and thickets,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And o’er deeply cut ravines,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And across the steppes unbounded,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And the forests.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And I fly after her unceasing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I fly and bid the earth farewell.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent6">“World, farewell! Farewell, O earth,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Cruel and unkind land!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">All my bitter torments cruel</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I’ll hide in the cloud.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span>      <div class="verse indent6">Greetings, my dear Ukraina,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Poor and helpless widow!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I will fly to you and meet you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">From the cloud will speak,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">In a quietly sad meeting</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Seek advice from you.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I will fall on you at midnight</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Like the dew of morning.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Let us talk and let us counsel</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Till the sun arises,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Till your poor and little children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Stand upon the threshold.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Then farewell, my darling mother,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Poor and helpless widow!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Help your children, truth is living</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">At the throne of God!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I fly and look. The dawn is breaking</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And the sky grows brighter;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Nightingales in the dark forest</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Greet the rising sun;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Softly blow the morning breezes,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Steppes and fields are clearer;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">’Mid ravines above the waters</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Willows seem far greener;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Flowers bend beneath the dewdrops;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Poplars just as sentinels</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Stand apart and separated,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Talking with the meadows.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Everything upon the landscape</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Is all wreathed in beauty,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Growing green, and being freshened</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">By the morning dewdrops;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Nature all is being freshened</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And the sun is greeting ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Nowhere is there a beginning,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And there is no ending.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">No one can perfect its beauty,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">No one can it ruin, ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">It is full and fair.... My spirit!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span>      <div class="verse indent6">What do you know of it?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Oh my poor and wretched spirit,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Why do you weep vainly?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Why do you complain? For the ills you don’t notice?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">When you cannot hear how the people do weep?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Then look and look well! For I now shall be flying</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Above, far above the swift-moving blue clouds.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">No rulers are there, nor are punishments known.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The people’s loud cries and their laughs are not heard.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">But see, in that paradise which you are leaving,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">They strip the patched clothing from off of the beggars,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">They strip with the hides—for the poor must find shoes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">For youthful young princes. They pummel the widow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To pay her poll taxes; they fetter her son,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Her son, her one son, the one child which she has,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Her hope—and they send him away to the army!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">’Tis but for a while—but in mud and in filth</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The boy soon is bloated,—from hunger he dies,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">His mother is reaping the wheat at forced labor.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Do you see him? Eyes, my poor eyes!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Why do you have vision?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Why did you not dry to blindness,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Washed out by your weeping?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Here a ruined maiden wanders,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Wanders with her bastard.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Both her parents cast her off,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Strangers will not take her!...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">All the elders flee her presence,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">The young lord rejects her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">With the twentieth libation</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Drinks away their souls.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent6">Does God from behind the clouds</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">See our tears and sorrow?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">He may see it but he helps us</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Like the giant mountains</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Of past ages which were flowing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">With the blood of humans.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Oh my sad and troubled spirit,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span>      <div class="verse indent6">You are sad and wretched.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Let us drink the bitter poison,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Lie down on the ice,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Let us send our thoughts to God,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Tell them to inquire</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">How much longer it is fated</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Hangmen rule this world!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Fly across the world, my thought, my bitter sorrow!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Gather all the sorrows and the evils too</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">As your ancient comrades!—You were reared to know them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">You have loved them truly; and their heavy arms</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Wrapped themselves around you. Pick them up and fly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And then scatter them throughout th’ entire sky.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Let them turn it black or red,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Let them fan the flames,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Let again the serpent’s venom</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Fill the earth with corpses.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And without you I shall somehow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Bury all my heart</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And shall seek that selfsame moment</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Paradise apart.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">Again I fly above the earth,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Again I say farewell to it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">It is hard to leave the mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">In her roofless cabin,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">But it is still worse to notice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Both her tears and rags.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I fly, I fly, the wind is howling;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Before me is the snowbank white;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Around me are the woods and marshes,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The fog, the fog, a boundless waste.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">No human sound, there is no trace</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Of any human footstep here....</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">Ye foes, and ye who are not foes,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Farewell! I shall not come as guest!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Go on feasting, have your banquets,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I shall yet not notice—</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span>      <div class="verse indent6">All alone for evermore</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I’ll rest in the snowbank—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">But until you know for certain</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">That there is a country</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Not bedrenched with tears and blood,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I will rest here gladly ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I shall rest.... But yet I’m hearing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Sounds of fetters clanking</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">’Neath the earth.... And I will notice.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Oh, the wretched people!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Where are you? What are you doing?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">What are you now seeking</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">’Neath the earth? No, no, perhaps,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I cannot be hidden</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">In the heavens! Why this torture?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Why these woes I feel?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Who has suffered ill from me?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Whose harsh arms have fettered</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">My poor soul within my body,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Have inflamed my heart</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And my birdlike strength—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Have disturbed my thoughts?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">For what,—I know not, but I suffer,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Bitterly I suffer.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And when I repent my evil?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">When will be the end?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I don’t see, don’t know.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">The wilderness has roused itself,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">As from its last and narrow dwelling</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">For that dread final judgement day</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">When all the dead for truth arise.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">These are not the dead, the murdered,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And not asking judgement,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">They are people, living people,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Stricken down in chains,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">From deep holes the gold they’re fetching</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">To pour down the lusty throats</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Of the greedy. They are convicts.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span>      <div class="verse indent6">Why? Almighty God alone</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Can reply.... Perhaps He also</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Has not noticed this!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Here the branded convict stumbles</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">With his heavy fetters;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">He, a tortured ugly bandit,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Grits his teeth in anger—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Tries to kill his lucky fellow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Who has suffered less!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And among them in their torture,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Wrapped in fetters heavy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Is th’ almighty tsar of freedom</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Branded with the selfsame mark!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">In the prison torture quiet,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Weeping not or groaning;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Once your heart is warmed with blessing—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">It will never cool.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">But where are your thoughts, O ye flowers of roses?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Admired and bold, well beloved little children?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To whom did you give them, my friend, to whose hands?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Or are they forever sunk deep in your heart?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">O brother, don’t hide them! No, spread them abroad!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">They’ll gather and grow and go out in the world!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent6">What is this trial, what will it be?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">It is coming, for it’s chilly,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Frost the mind awakens.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">Again I fly. The earth grows darker.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">My mind’s asleep. My heart is aching.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I look—the houses o’er the roadways,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The cities with their hundred churches</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And in the cities like the cranes.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The Moskals formed in solid lines;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Well fed, in splendid boots arrayed,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And laden down with heavy chains,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">They are drawn up; again I look;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Down in the valley like a pit,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span>      <div class="verse indent6">The city glows as in a fire;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Above it hangs a heavy fog</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Black as a cloud—To it I fly ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">A city without end.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">But is it Turkish?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Or is it German?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Or yet it may belong to Moscow ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Palaces and churches</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And pot-bellied lords,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">But not a single peasant cabin.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">It has grown dark.... The fire’s blazing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And spreading all around,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I was afraid.... “Hurrah! Hurrah!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Hurrah!”—they all did shout.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">“Well, well, you fools! Where is your mind?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Why are you glad at this?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">What are you burning?”—“Hey, khokhol!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">He does not know parades.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">We are parading! For He deigns</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Himself to sport to-day!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">“But what is this amazing toy?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">“You see the palace there ...”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I push my way; a turncoat there,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">(I thank you, he confessed!)</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">With all his gaudy uniform;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">“Where did you come from, man?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">—“From Ukraina!”—“So that you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Do not know how to speak</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Like people here?”—“Oh, yes,”—I say,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">“I do know how to speak,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I do not wish to.”—“What a crank!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I know the entrance here;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I serve within, and if you wish,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I’ll try to take you in</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Into the palace. Only, see,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">We are enlightened, friend,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Don’t spare your cash for what you’ll get.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">“Be gone, you fool accursed!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Once more I made a sudden change</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span>      <div class="verse indent6">And was invisible,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And so I boldly walked within.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">My God, my only God!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">It was a heaven! Parasites</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Were there, all wreathed in gold!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And then He, tall and angry too</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Strode out among the crowd.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Beside him came the empress too,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">On whom his love did rest.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">She seemed just like a dry mushroom,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">So thin and long of leg,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And constantly she nods her head</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">To bring both good and woe.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">“Is that a goddess, there, I see?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">The devil take you now!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And I, a fool, who had not seen</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">This game a single time,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Believed your stupid, ignorant</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Verse hucksters as they are.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">O what a fool! And what a price!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">I dared to trust as pledge</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">A Moskal’s word! Go on and read,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And see the faith they have!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Like gods, the nobles are around,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">In silver and in gold,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Like well-matured and aged boars</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">With muzzles and with fat.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Like them they shove, like them they push</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">To be the nearest ones</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Unto the Persons; They may give</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Or deign to offer fruit.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">It may be small but yet it’s fine,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">E’en though but half a pear,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">If They distribute it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">They stood arranged in solid rows,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">All quiet,—not a word—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">A bell.—The Tsar then stammers out,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Likewise Her gracious self,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Just like a heron midst the birds,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span>      <div class="verse indent10">She hops and struts about.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Long time the two walked back and forth</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">As pompous as two owls</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And they conversed in muttered voice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">(Afar I could not hear)</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">About their country, so it seems,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">About the newest ropes,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">About the very last parades.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And then the empress took</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Her seat upon a little stool.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">I look; the Tsar goes up</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Unto the oldest man and then</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">He hits him in the face.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">He slapped him and a younger man</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Upon the belly struck.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Oh, what a shout! The victim struck</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">His junior on the back.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">He chose another lesser man</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And he some one below.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And so it went, till each in turn</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Beyond the palace gate</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Upon the streets kept up the game</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Until they pummeled well</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">The still unbeaten Orthodox</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And they began to yell</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And cry; and how they all did roar.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">“Our father revels, that is sure!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">I had to laugh, it was so good.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">They even gave to me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">The selfsame blessing. Ere the dawn</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">They all were sound asleep.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent10">But here and there the Orthodox</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Upon the corners groaned</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And groaned and groaned and thanked the Lord</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">For all their father gave.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">’Mid tears and laughter I set out</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">To look around the place.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span>      <div class="verse indent6">Night was like day. And so I looked.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">So many palaces</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Above the quiet river stood.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Its bank was edged with stones</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Throughout and so I stood and looked</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Like a benighted fool.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">The job was done with thoroughness</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Amid the mud and slime.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">It was a marvel. So much blood</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Was shed of human kind—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Without a knife! And on that side</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">A fortress and a tower</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Just like a needle overlong,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">’Twas wonderful to see,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And clocks were striking everywhere.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Then as I turn away—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">A horse flies up and with its hoofs</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">It pounds a mighty rock.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">He sits upon the unsaddled horse</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">In cloak of strange design,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Without a hat—his head is wreathed</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">As with a sort of leaf.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">The horse rears up—and towards the stream</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">As if it would leap o’er</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And he extends his lordly hand</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">As if he wished to seize</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">The whole wide world. Who is this man?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I read myself the words</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">That are engraven on the crag.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">“The Second to the First.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">At first it seemed a title strange</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">But now I know the truth.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">It is the first who crucified</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Our own Ukraina;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">The second stabbed with savage blow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">The widow spent and poor.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Oh hangmen! Foes of human kind!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">You both have had your fill,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">You’ve stolen much! What did you take</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Unto that world with you?</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span>      <div class="verse indent6">It was so hard, so very hard</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">For me when I did read</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Ukraina’s sad history!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I stand and sink in heart....</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And still it softly, softly sings</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And yet so sadly too</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">That these were very monstrous deeds.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent6">“From the ancient town of Glukhov</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Have the troops departed</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">With their shovels in due order</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And they sent me with them</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">As appointed hetman.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">O our God of love and mercy!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">O the tsar of evil!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Cursed tsar, and wicked ruler,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Viper never sated!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">What have you done with the Kozaks?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">You have filled the marshes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">With their skeletons so noble!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">You have built a city</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">On their dead and buried bodies!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And in loathesome prison</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Me, a free man and a hetman,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">You have killed with hunger</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">In my chains!... O tsar, O tsar!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">God will never sever</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">You and me. It’s hard and painful</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">To hang o’er the Neva.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Ukraina is not near me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">But it may have perished.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">I would fly and look upon it</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">But God does not will it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Mayhap Moscow’s burned the region</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And has turned our Dnipro</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">To the blue sea! Has it opened</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Lofty tombs, our glory?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">It may be, but, Lord of mercy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Pity us, dear Lord!”</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span>      <div class="verse indent6">All was still. I saw while looking</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">How a white cloud covers</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">The gray sky, and in those clouds</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Like a beast that’s roaring.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">It’s no cloud, a white bird settled</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">As a cloud descending</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">O’er the tsar, the cruel and evil,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And began to speak:</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent6">“We are fettered firmly with you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Murderer and viper!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">At the last great day of judgement</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">We will shelter God</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">From your always greedy eyes.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Us from Ukraina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">You have driven, naked, hungry,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">To the foreign snowbanks.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">You have slain us and have taken</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Our skins for your mantle.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">You have sewed it with our sinews</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And have clad your city</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">In new robes. Look and admire!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Palaces and churches.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Revel on, O savage hangman,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Cursed, ever cursed!”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent6">So we flew and so we wandered.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Then the sun was risen,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And I stood and looked with horror</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">At the scenes occurring,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">For the poor were now in motion,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Hurrying to labor,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And the Moskals at the crossroads</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Were drawn up in order.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">On the streets the girls were running</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Homeward, not to labor.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">They were sleepy, for their mothers</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Sent them out to labor</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">All night long without a respite</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And to earn a living.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span>      <div class="verse indent6">And I stood, depressed and troubled,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Thinking and remarking,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">How severe a task for mortals</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Just to earn their living.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent6">And the brotherhood decided</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">To join in the senate,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Sign its papers and to plunder</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Father, yes, and brother.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And among them all the turncoats</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Seek the way of fortune.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">So they murder like the Moskals,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Laughing and tirading</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">At their fathers who neglected</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">To teach them as children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">To speak German,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_7" href="#Footnote_1_7" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and at present</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">They exploit their sorrows.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Peacocks, peacocks! Mayhap father</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Sold his last poor cow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">To the Jews, before you knew well</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">The new Moscow language.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Ukraina! Ukraina!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">These too are your children,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">These are your fresh youthful flowers,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Spotted now with ink.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Deafened by the Moscow bleatings</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">In the German gardens.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Weep, O weep, my poor Ukraina,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">As a childless widow!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent6">Merely go and look at leisure</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">At the tsars, the palace.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">What is done there! I am going.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span>      <div class="verse indent6">The pot-bellied elders</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Stand in rows; they sigh, they’re snoring,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">And they all are pompous</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Like a turkey, and they’re glancing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">At the door askance.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Sunk in slumber, they are waiting.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Then the bear approaches</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">From his lair. He barely, barely</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Totters on his way.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And he’s swollen, till he’s bluish,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">For his cursed orgy</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Bothers him. And how he bellows</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">At the fatted fellows.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">All the bellies—no exception—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Fall to earth before him.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">He has taken off his bandage</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And all now are trembling,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">That are left. Just as a mad man,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">He strikes at his lessers,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">They fall down; the smaller people—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And they quickly perish.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">He turns to the mass of servants.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">They are lost and ruined.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">To the Moskals—little Moskals,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">There is only groaning.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">To the earth they fall! A marvel</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Is come to this planet.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Then I look to see what follows,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">What my little bearcub</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Will do now. Why, he is standing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">With his head dejected</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Like an orphan. Is he showing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Aught of bear’s true nature?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">He’s a kitten—it is wondrous,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And I laughed about it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Then he heard and how he thundered,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And I too was frightened.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">I awoke, and then I noticed</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">It was a strange dream.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span>      <div class="verse indent10">It was strange. For only mystics</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And the race of drunkards</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Have such dreams. So do not marvel,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Dearest brothers, ever,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">That I told you not my story</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">But what I had dreamed.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_7" href="#FNanchor_1_7" class="label">[1]</a> German. It is usually assumed that Shevchenko is using the word German to
+mean foreign, i.e. Muscovite or Great Russian. There is very probably an allusion
+to the hold that the German bureaucracy had over the entire empire. Only a few
+years before, the famous marshal Suvorov in answer to a request from the tsar as to
+what reward he desired, answered: “Your Majesty, make me a German.” The following
+years had not broken the hold of this clique upon the Russian administration.
+Cf. the Epistle.</p></div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="TO_SAFARIK">
+    TO ŠAFAŘÍK
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>This dedication to Šafařík was used as the preface to the poem the
+<i>Heretic</i> in which Shevchenko glorifies Jan Hus. It expresses, better
+than any other poem, the spirit with which the poet entered the Society
+of Saints Cyril and Methodius and his dreams of a union of the
+Slavs in which all would be truly free. It is interesting that this preface
+is a direct answer to Pushkin’s poem, <i>To the Slanderers of Russia</i>, in
+which he expressed his assurance that the future of the Slavs lay in
+submitting to the domination of Russia.</p>
+
+<p>Pavel J. Šafařík (1795-1861) was one of the brilliant leaders of the
+movement for a Slav brotherhood following the ideas of Jan Kollár.
+He had published a <i>History of the Slavic Languages and Literatures</i>
+and a very valuable work on <i>Slavonic Antiquities</i>, so that his name
+was well known to the entire group of young men at Kiev.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">To Šafařík</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Evil neighbors burned the dwelling,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It was new and modern,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of a neighbor. Then well warmed,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They lay down in slumber,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But they quite forgot the ashes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">By the wind were scattered;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On the crossroads lay the ashes.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Under them there smouldered</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A lone spark of that great fire,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Smouldered, did not perish,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Waited kindling, as th’ avenger</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Waits for the right season,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For the hour. So it smouldered,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Smouldered and it waited</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There upon the traversed crossroads,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And began to perish.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">The Germans once destroyed by fire</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The mighty house and then they scattered</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The Slavic family far and wide,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And stealthily they sent into it</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The cursed snake of family feuds.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There poured out freely streams of blood,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The fire they extinguished,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And then the Germans parcelled out</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The place and the poor orphans.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The children of the Slavs grew up,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All bound in fetters heavy.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In their slavery forgetting</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They were in the world.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But amid the burnt out embers</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Smouldered on the spark</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of their brotherhood and waited</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Firm courageous hands again—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So it waited. For the fire</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You saw hidden deeply</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With your bold, courageous spirit</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And your eye like eagle’s.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Seer, you caught the glimpse of freedom,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Freedom, and of truth!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the Slav wide-scattered family</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sunk in dark and slavery,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You collected all together,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Yes, and e’en the corpses</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And those Slavs no longer. Then you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Mounted on the debris,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Stood upon the crowded crossroads</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As Ezekiel.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">’Twas a marvel—all the corpses</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Rose, their eyes they opened.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Brothers clasped the hands of brothers</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And they promised loudly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Oaths of quiet love and friendship</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Ever and forever!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Into one great sea there gathered</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All the Slavic rivers.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Glory be to you, O wise man,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Czech and Slav together,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That you did not leave to perish</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the German swampland</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All our truth! Your mighty ocean</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of the Slavs, reviving,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Will be full again, ’tis certain</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the boat goes sailing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With its mighty sails wide spreading</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And a helmsman noble</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It will sail on a free ocean</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O’er the boundless waves.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Glory to you, Šafařík,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Ever and for ever!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That you called into one ocean</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All the Slavic rivers!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Welcome in your mighty glory</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My poor, lowly tribute</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That is neither wise nor mighty,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To that Czech renowned,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To the martyr great and holy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Hus the well revered.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Take it, father, I will humbly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Pray to God Almighty</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That the Slavs may be hereafter</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Worthy friends and brothers,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sons of that same light of truth,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Heretics forever,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Like that noble heretic,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Who at Constance suffered!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">May they give true peace to mortals,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Glory too forever!</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_GREAT_GRAVE">
+    THE GREAT GRAVE
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>In the preceding poems Shevchenko laid stress upon the political
+corruption and cruelty of Russia in the <i>Dream</i> and on the general
+ethical conception of Slavonic brotherhood in the <i>Heretic</i>. In the
+<i>Great Grave</i> he summarizes the leading faults in Ukrainian history
+and character. He called the poem a mystery and so it is in the traditional
+sense of the word, for it is a careful and complete exposition by
+means of symbols of all that had led Ukraine to its deplorable situation.
+It also incorporates a definite criticism of Bohdan Khmelnitsky,
+whom the poet was regarding by now as the source of Ukraine’s
+troubles.</p>
+
+<p>The poem opens with the appearance of three souls who are debarred
+from heaven and hell. At first sight their crimes seem negligible
+but they represent three stages in the downfall of the country.
+The first had crossed the path of Bohdan with a pail full of water (a
+good omen!), without knowing that he was going to Pereyaslav to
+submit to Moscow. That act marked the end of the hopes of a strong,
+united and free Ukraine. The great Hetman had almost won his
+country’s independence and his reliance on the word of the Tsar
+caused the division of the country and the loss of everything. This act
+of the first caused the death of “father, mother, self and brother and
+the dogs”—in a word, the death of all Ukraine.</p>
+
+<p>The second soul had watered the horse of Peter after the overthrow
+of Mazepa, who had united Ukraine with Charles XII of
+Sweden in an effort to recover the liberty of at least part of the land.
+The soul represents that part of the country that had been loyal to
+Peter; the slaughtered sister, that part which had fought for liberty.
+Again the mother represents the entire Hetmanate, and the grandmother
+who buried the young girl is almost certainly the whole conception
+of a great and independent country.</p>
+
+<p>The third soul, a mere child at death, smiled at Catherine, when
+she was on her way to liquidate the Hetmanate. It represents that
+Ukraine which was willing to accept ignorantly and gladly even the
+few shreds of liberty left by Catherine and the mother again symbolizes
+all that was left of Ukraine that was forced to yield.</p>
+
+<p>Thus each soul speaks for a smaller and smaller Ukraine, a lesser
+and lesser demand upon Russia, but even by yielding there was no
+salvation. They only succeeded in debarring themselves from the
+heaven of a free country or at least an honorable death.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span></p>
+
+<p>Then come three crows. The second crow, representing Poland, has
+seen the end of the country, has driven the nobles to Siberia, and
+has feasted in Paris with the emigrés after 1831. The third crow represents
+Russia. It has fostered tyranny but despite that has been sold
+out to the Germans.</p>
+
+<p>The first crow represents Ukraine. This crow confesses its evils, its
+treachery, its bloodshed. It acknowledges that during the centuries it
+has destroyed Ukraine by its civil wars, its treachery, and its evil. Yet
+it must weep even now for all that it has done and it predicts the
+coming of twins, one like Gonta, the leader of the Haydamaki, who
+will fight for freedom and the other like the modern people who care
+nothing for virtue. It hopes with the aid of its friends to ruin the first
+and help the second.</p>
+
+<p>Then come the three bards, one blind, one crippled, and one
+hunchbacked. They are all that is left of Ukraine, for they know the
+songs, they can glorify the past, but they are perfectly ready to sing
+of their nation’s glory to please the conquerors, if they can only secure
+a living and some financial return. The tomb of Bohdan is to
+be excavated by the enemy. They see nothing of the disgrace of this,
+nothing of the misery around them. All they ask is a good profit.</p>
+
+<p>They arrive at Subotiv. The people are taking orders from the
+conqueror who expects by this symbolic act of opening the tomb of
+the Ukrainian leader to secure a rich profit. There is nothing there—nothing
+but a few old bones and the disappointed and humiliated
+Russian official flogs the bards for daring to put in an appearance.
+Even their servility has brought them no more than servility brought
+the souls. The mystery ends with the question as to when the Great
+Grave that contains the liberty of Ukraine will be opened.</p>
+
+<p>The poem is obscure, for no open defiance would have stood any
+chance of spreading among the people and would have subjected the
+poet himself to certain punishment. Yet its impression is very powerful.
+It is a formal declaration of war by Shevchenko on the masters of
+Ukraine and it is also an expression of his abiding confidence that
+somehow there will be a better future. It is not based on a political
+program; there is less of the ethical aspects than we find elsewhere but
+it is a definite history of the Ukrainian spirit which can never die.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">The Great Grave</span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>A Mystery</i></p>
+
+<blockquote class="center">
+<p><i>Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision
+to them that are round about us.</i><br>
+<i>Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head
+among the people.</i></p>
+
+<p class="right">—Psalms 44, 13-14 (Psalm 43, 14-15)</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center smcap">Three Souls</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Three snow-white little birds came flying</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Up through Subotiv and they lighted</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Upon a torn and twisted cross</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On an old church.—“The Lord forgive us:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We are now souls, no longer people!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And from this height we’ll see more clearly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">How men will excavate the grave.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The sooner that grave will be opened,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The sooner may we enter heaven.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For so the Lord has promised Peter:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">‘You may admit them into heaven</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When the Moskal has all well plundered</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And has dug open the Great Grave.’”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>First Soul</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“When I was a mortal being,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I was named Prisea.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I was born in this same village</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And was reared right here.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In this churchyard with my comrades</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I was wont to play.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With Yuras, the hetman’s son,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We played blindman’s buff.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And his mother would come out</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And invite us in</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To the nearby house and then</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Raisins, figs, and fruit,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She would often give to me.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She was fond of me.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And when guests came from Chihrin,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Oft the hetman sent</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto me to come and join them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Clothes and shoes they gave me.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the hetman was my escort,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And he used to kiss me.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So here in Subotiv village,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I was reared and blossomed</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Like a flower. All the people</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Loved and welcomed me,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And to no one ever, ever</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Did I speak unkindly.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I was a black haired maiden</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Beautiful, I tell you.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All the boys were wont to court me,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Many sought my hand.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For the moment I was ready</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With my towels woven</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I soon would have consented,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When misfortune came.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Very early, ’twas near Christmas,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Yes, it was a Sunday,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I ran out to fetch some water ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But I found the spring</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Was all muddy, ceased its flowing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I kept on flying ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then I saw the hetman’s party.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I got the water.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With full pails I passed before them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For I had no knowledge</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That he went to Pereyaslav</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For an oath to Moscow!...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It was very hard to carry</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To the house that water.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Why had I not sense to shatter</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All the pails that held it?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Father, mother, self and brother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the dogs I poisoned</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With that thrice accursed water!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">That is why I’m punished;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That is why they keep me, sisters,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From the gates of heaven.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Second Soul</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“This, my sisters, is the reason</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Why they barred me also,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For I watered well the horse</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of the Moscow ruler</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There in Baturin, when he</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Went back from Poltava.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I was but a little maiden,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When at night the Moskals</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Set in flames great Baturin</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And they murdered Chechel</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And they drowned the young and adults</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the river Seyma.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I fell down among the corpses</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the very chambers</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of Mazepa. And around me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Mother and my sister,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Murdered in each other’s arms,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Lay there dead beside me.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then by force and violence</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From my stricken mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They removed me once for all.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I kept on begging</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From a Moscow captain that he</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Would kill me at once.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But they did not. No, they sent me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As a toy for Moskals.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But I fled and found a refuge</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">’Mid the raging fire.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There was but one house left standing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In all Baturin.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In that house they had determined</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That the tsar would stay</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On his way back from Poltava.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I went with water</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">To the house.... And then he beckoned</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With his hand to me.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And he bade me tend his horse.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So I gave it water.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I had no idea I’d wrought</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Such a grievous sin.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I had scarcely reached the building</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When I fell down dead.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The next day, when he departed,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I was safely buried</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">By grandmother, who was staying</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">’Mid the growing fire.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For she laid me out with kindness</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In a roofless building.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On the next day she died too</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And decayed right there,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For in Baturin was no one</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Who could bury victims.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But they well the house demolished</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And they burned the beams,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Turned them into coals with curses.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I must keep on flying</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Over the ravines and meadows</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the Kozak steppes.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But the reason why I’m punished,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That I do not know.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">May be, ’twas because I aided</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Every one in need,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And to please the tsar of Moscow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Watered well his horse.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Third Soul</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“See, my birthplace was in Kaniv.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I was but a baby,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When one day my mother took me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In her arms to see</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">How the Empress Katerina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Came there on the Dniper.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Mother sat with me in silence</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On an oak-grown hill.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I was weeping, but I know not</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Whether I was hungry</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or if something hurt me badly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On that very day.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then my mother tried to cheer me,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Pointed to the Dniper,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And she showed to me the gorgeous</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Golden galley towering</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Like a building.... And upon it</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sat the princes, nobles,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Leaders, and amid the throng</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The renowned tsaritsa.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then I looked, and then I smiled,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I lost my soul!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Mother died. And on one morning</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Both of us they buried.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That is why it is, my sisters,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That I now am punished,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That they still do not admit me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For that grievous sin!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Did I know, a little baby,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That the empress was</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Ukraine’s bitter enemy</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And a hungry wolf?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Tell me this, my sisters!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It grows dark. So let us hasten</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For the night to Chuta,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What is now the next to happen.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There we can find out!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">So the spirits spread their wings</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To the forest flying,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And together in an oak tree</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Rested for the night.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center smcap">Three Crows</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>First</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Caw! Caw! Caw!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Goods Bohdan stole,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Took them all to Kiev,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And he sold to knaves</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All the goods he stole.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Second</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“I have drunk in Paris.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With Potocki and Radziwill</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Three gold coins I squandered.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Third</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“O’er the bridge Satan comes.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The goat is on the water.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Woe is coming! Woe is coming!”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">So called the crows and they flew up</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From different sides and lighted</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On a dead tree upon a hill</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Amid the forest, three of them.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With feathers upright as ’gainst cold,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Each grimly eyed the other crows,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Just as three stern and aged sisters,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Who lived alone and lived alone,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Until they were with moss o’ergrown.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>First</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“That’s for you, and that’s for you!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I have just been flying</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To Siberia and stealing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From a poor Decembrist</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Bits of gall. And so you see</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I have something still to eat.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But in all your land of Moscow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Is there food for you?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">E’en the devil knows there’s nothing.”</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span>    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Third</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Sisters, no, there is abundance.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I cawed out three royal orders</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On one road alone....”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>First</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“On which road? The road of fetters?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No, you have done very well.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Third</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“And six thousand souls I strangled</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In one verst alone....”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>First</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Do not lie, there were but five.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It was with von Korff.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Go on boasting for it shows you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Taking praise for others.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You are only pickled cabbage,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And you, gracious lady,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Take your banquets there in Paris!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O you cursed pagans!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You have shed a bloody river</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And have chased your nobles</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To Siberia—it’s proper</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And you talk about it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What a noble peahen you are!”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Second and Third</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“What have you done better?”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>First</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“It is not for you to ask me!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You were not yet born,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When I poured the wine in plenty</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And shed lots of blood.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Marvel how! You both have read</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Karamzin’s creations,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">And you think that you are like me!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Get away, you blockheads,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You have never been in fetters,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Beggars featherless!”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Second</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“No one dares to touch you.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She did not rise early,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Who was drunk till daylight</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But who drank and slept.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>First</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“You have drunk enough without me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With those priests of yours!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Devil take you! I burned Poland,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With its kings and all.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Without you, you tongue unruly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I would still stand firmly.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With the free Kozaks, my victims,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What have I accomplished?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto whom have I not sold them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto whom betrayed them?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But they live forever, curses!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I believed that with Bohdan</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I had buried them forever—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But the rascals rallied</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With the foul upstart Mazepa.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What was there accomplished!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When I think of it, I shudder.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Baturin I burned,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the Sula there at Romna</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I dammed with the leaders</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of the Kozaks—With the others,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With the simple Kozaks</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Finland’s fields I made to sparkle</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I piled them high</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I sent my children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To Orel ... and in Ladoga</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Band on band I killed</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">As they filled the awful swamps</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">At the tsar’s command,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the famous Polubotok</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the prison smothered.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Oh, that was a holy feast!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And when hell was sated,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Blessed Mary there in Rzhavets</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Once again was sobbing.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Third</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“I have had a splendid living.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I intrigued with the foul Tatars,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With the Torturer I revelled,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I have drank with dear Petrukha,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I sold them to the Germans.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>First</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“You have done your work superbly;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You have chained up all the Kozaks</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">In the German fetters.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Now lie down to sleep!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Devil knows, what sort of person</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They will see in me.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For I handed all to slavery</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the power of the nobles</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I increased with uniforms,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When I introduced these lice;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All of them are nobles’ bastards!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the cursed Sich is loaded</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With the German spawn</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the Moskal’s just as bad.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He knows how to warm his hands!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I am cruel and just the same</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I cannot see calmly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What the Moskals do in Ukraine,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Do unto the Kozaks.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Such an order do they publish:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">‘By the mercy of the Lord,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You are Ours, all is Ours,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Whether good or bad!’</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Now they’ve come to excavate</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The ‘antiquities’</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From the tombs ... for there is nothing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the house to take,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You have plundered all so nicely!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But the devil knows full well</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What they’re seeking now again</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From the worthless grave!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They should wait a little longer</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the church would fall.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then they could describe two ruins</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the journal <i>Bee</i>!”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Second and Third</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Why did you call us to come here?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Just to see a grave?”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>First</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Yes, a grave! Yet now two marvels</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Are about to happen;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On this night in Ukraina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Twins are to be born.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">One will scourge, as once did Gonta,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All the hangmen evil!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the other—will be ours,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Help the hangmen work.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Ours pinches in the belly ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I have read often</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When this Gonta is a man,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All of ours perish.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He will plunder all their goods,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Not forsake a brother,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And will scatter truth and freedom</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Through all Ukraina.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So take care, my dearest sisters,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What they are preparing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They are making fetters ready</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For our knaves and friends.”</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span>    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Third</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“I will close his eyes forever</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With a golden shower.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>First</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“He, the cursed charlatan,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Will not heed the gold.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Third</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“I will tie his hands with tokens</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of the royal honors.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Second</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“I will bring from everywhere</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All the ills and torments.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>First</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“No, my sisters, ’tis not needed.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">While mankind is blind,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There is need to bury him</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or there will be trouble.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">See there; high above our Kiev</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Is his broom uplifted.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O’er the Dniper and Tyasmino</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Is the earth hard shaken.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Do you hear? A groan is rising</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Over old Chihrin.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the whole of Ukraina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Laughs and sobs again.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Both the twins have now been born,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the crazy mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Laughing says that she will call both</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">By the name of Ivan!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let us fly.” And so they flew off,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And they sang, a-flying.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>First</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Then will come our Ivan</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O’er the Dniper to Lyman</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">With his Kuma.”</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span>    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Second</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“The dear lamb will run off</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So as to eat serpents</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">By my side.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Third</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“When I seize him, when I catch him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto very hell I’ll fly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Like an arrow.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center smcap">Three Bards</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">One was blind and one was crippled</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the third was hunchbacked,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Going to Subotiv singing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of Bohdan to people.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>First</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“What is this the crows have uttered?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They have paved the way!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Just as if the Moskals kindly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Made a seat for them.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Second</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“And for whom? They will not seat</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Any man, I’m sure,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Counting stars.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>First</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“You tell the truth.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Maybe they will place</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There a Moskal or a German.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Either of them there</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Can find good support.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Third</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Why do you talk utter nonsense?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What are all the crows?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the Moskals and the seats?</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">May the Lord protect us!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Mayhap they will bid us lay eggs</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And hatch out some Moskals.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For there’s rumors that the tsar is</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Seizing all the world.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Second</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Maybe so! Upon the devil</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They will be on high</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For they are so lofty minded</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That they’ll reach the clouds</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To crawl out ...”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Third</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">“That’s really true.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or there’ll be a flood</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the lords will crawl out there</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And will look and marvel</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">How the peasants have to drown.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>First</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“You are men with sense.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But you have no whit of knowledge;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For they have created</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All these phantoms just for this;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That men may not steal</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">River water and that never</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They will plough the sand</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That is there near Tyasma.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Second</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Devil knows their purpose!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You can’t guess. So don’t talk nonsense!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Just suppose we sit</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Down beneath this tree before us.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And we’ll pause a while.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In my pack I have two pieces</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of dry bread for us.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Let us stop and take our rest</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Till the sun arise.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">(<i>They sat down</i>.) And who, my brothers,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Will sing of Bohdan?”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Third</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“I will sing to men of Yassy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the Yellow Waters,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the town of Berestechko.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Second</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“They to-day won’t fail</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To bring to us splendid profit,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For around the grave</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Is a crowd of people gathered,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And a few of nobles.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That will mean a lot to us.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let us try our songs</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As a sample.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>First</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Not at all!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let us rather rest!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Take our sleep. ’Twill be a good day.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And we’ll sing enough.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center"><i>Third</i></div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“So I say. Come, let us pray</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And we’ll go to sleep.”</div>
+    </div>
+<hr class="tb">
+
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">The bards beneath the tree soon slept.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The sun still slept. The birds are still,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But near the grave men have awaked</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And they have started out to dig.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They dig one day, they dig a second,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And up on the third with toil</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They dug until they reached a wall.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Then they rested briefly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But first they set a guard around,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For the captain ordered</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Not to let a soul come near.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To Chihrin he sent</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“For his chief.” That chief disgusting</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Came without delay,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And he marvelled,—“Yes, we must</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Break the vault at once.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“’Tis the proper course.”—They broke it</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And they were all frightened.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the grave some bones were lying</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As if they were laughing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That they saw the sun again.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That’s the wealth of Bohdan.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It’s a skull and rotted feedtrough,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Bones encased in fetters.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Had a uniform appeared,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They could profit by it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All were laughing and the captain</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Was the jest of all.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There was nothing fit to take</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And he had worked hard.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Day and night he had been striving</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And it proved no good.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">If Bohdan had chanced to happen</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Into his stern hands,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He would put him in the army,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Till he knew he must not</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Fool officials! And he runs,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Like a fool he cries,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Hits the face of Yaremenko,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Cursing in his Russian</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All the crowd; he turns in anger</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To my aged bards:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“What are you here for, you rascals?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Sir, we came just now</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So that we Bohdan can sing.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“I’ll give you Bohdan!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Rascals, knaves, and parasites!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You have made a song</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For that foul accursed knave!...”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“We have learned them, sir!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“I will teach you! Thrash them well!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So they took and thrashed them</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And they steamed their insides out</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In a Moscow bath.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thus the singing of Bohdan</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Brought to them a profit.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So the small grave in Subotiv</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Was cleaned up by Moscow.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But the great grave that is there</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She has not located.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_CAUCASUS">
+    THE CAUCASUS
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>During the early part of the nineteenth century, Russia was occupied
+with the conquest of the Mohammedan mountaineers of the
+Caucasus who defended themselves long and ably especially during
+the time when Shamyl was in charge of their resistance. Pushkin
+glorified the Russian victories. Lermontov and Count Leo Tolstoy
+took a personal part in the conquest in behalf of the civilizing mission
+of Russia among the wild and untutored mountaineers.</p>
+
+<p>Count Yakov de Balmen, a friend of Shevchenko at this time, had
+entered the Russian army and had been killed in the fighting in the
+Caucasus. His death deeply affected Shevchenko and the latter wrote
+this poem in which he expresses his sympathy with the mountaineers
+who were struggling for their liberty and caustically comments on
+the blessings of civilization which they could receive from Russia.
+The hitherto free peoples would become as Ukraine, they would become
+ruined serfs, and they would see only a travesty of the Christian
+religion and not its essence.</p>
+
+<p>The poem expresses again Shevchenko’s friendship with the foes
+of Russian tyranny and his sincere admiration for all peoples who
+are struggling for a real liberty. The loss of this, the loss of human
+dignity, cannot be counterbalanced by the extension of the vices of
+civilization and the creation of a sterile advanced culture.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">The Caucasus</span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Dedicated to my Yakov de Balmen</i></p>
+
+<blockquote class="center">
+<p><i>Oh that my head were tears, and mine eyes a fountain of waters,
+that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my
+People!</i></p>
+
+<p class="right">—Jeremiah, 9, 1</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">High mountains on mountains with clouds e’er surrounded,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Illumined by sorrow, with blood ever watered.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">On Prometheus an eagle</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Feasts throughout the ages.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Every day it’s tearing, rending</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Both his heart and body,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Rending but it ne’er drains fully</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">All his living blood,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">For again he is revived</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And again he’s smiling.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And our human spirit dies not</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And our freedom dies not;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And the greedy man ploughs never</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Fields beneath the ocean,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Does not bind the human spirit</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And the living word,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Does not carry off the glory</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Of Almighty God.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">’Tis not for us to quarrel with Thee,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">’Tis not for us to judge Thy deeds.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">It is for us to keep on weeping</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And mix each day our daily bread</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">With bloody sweat and bitter tears.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The hangmen jest and mock about us</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And truth sleeps on in drunken sleep!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">When will it awake to action?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">When will God be weary</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And lie down to slumber peaceful,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Give us leave to live?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">We believe Thy strength and power</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And Thy living spirit,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Truth will rise! And so will freedom!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span>      <div class="verse indent4">And to Thee, Almighty,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Every tongue will pray unceasing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Ever and for ever!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And meanwhile the streams are flowing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Streams of blood are flowing.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">High mountains on mountains, with clouds e’er surrounded</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Illumined by sorrow, with blood ever watered.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">From there we in our Mercy boundless</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Have drawn our heartfelt liberty,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Unfed and naked as it was,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And tracked it down. It lies ’mid bones</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Of men once mustered in the army.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And tears? And blood? Enough is shed</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To give their fill to all the rulers,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And drown them with their sons and scions</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">In widow’s tears.... And those of maidens</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Shed secretly the whole night long!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The hot and blazing tears of mothers.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The aged bloody tears of fathers!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Not rivers—seas have poured apace!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">A sea of fire! Glory! Glory!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">To dogs and hunters and to trainers</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And to the tsars, our dearest fathers!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Glory!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent4">Glory be to you, blue mountains,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Girded with your ice,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And to you, ye aged heroes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">By God not forgotten!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Struggle on—and you will conquer!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">God is helping you!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">On your side is truth and glory</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And the sacred freedom!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">“The bread and hut—they are your own.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">They were not begged, they were not given;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">No one has seized them as their own,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">No one has led you off in chains!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span>      <div class="verse indent2">And we! But we are trained to write</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And we can read the word of God,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">But from the prison’s lowest cell</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Unto the highest throne above</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">We’re all in gold—but naked too.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And knowledge! We all learn too well</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The cost of bread, the price of salt.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And we are Christians,—churches, schools,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">All good there is and God are ours!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">But yet your hut allures our eyes!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Why does it stand in your domain</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Without our sanction? Why do we</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Not throw to you, if we so please,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Your bread as to a dog? You owe</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">To us the price for your clear sun!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And only that! We are not pagans,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But we are really Christians true—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We’re satisfied with little.... So,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">If you would really be our friends,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You could learn much of many things!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We have a world and what is more—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Siberia that none can leave.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And prisons? People? Without end!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From the Moldavian to Finn</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On every tongue there is a seal.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For—there is happiness!... With us</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The holy monk the Bible reads</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And teaches us to realize,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A tsar who once did pasture swine</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And took another’s wife to him</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And killed a friend—is now in heaven!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And so you see, what people we</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Regard in heaven! You are dull</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And not enlightened with the cross!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So learn from us!... Come join us now,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Pay us and so</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">To heaven go,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">E’en though your family is destroyed!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Join us! What is there we don’t know!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We count the stars, we sow buckwheat,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We curse the French, and we can sell</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or lose at will, when we play cards,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Real people—they’re not negroes—no,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They’re Christians too—but ‘simple men.’</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We are not Spaniards—Keep us, God,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From buying any stolen goods,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As do the Jews! We live ‘by law!’”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent10">By the law of the apostle</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Do you love your brothers?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Hypocrites and idle talkers,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Cursed by the Lord!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">For you love your brother’s carcase,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Care not for his spirit!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And you rob him “by the law,”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">For a coat for daughter,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">For a dowry for a bastard,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">For a wife’s new footwear,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">For yourselves for many reasons</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Wife and children know not.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent10">For whom wast Thou crucified,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Christ, the Son of God?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">For us good folk or the word</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Of the truth? Perhaps ’tis so,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">That we mock at Thee, forever?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">Is that why it happened?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The churches, chapels, and the ikons,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The candles and the incense smoke,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The endless, ever endless bowings</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Before Thy image in the church</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For stealing, for a war, for blood—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They pray to shed a brother’s blood.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And then they bring Thee as a gift</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A shirt they’ve stolen in the fire!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">We’re enlightened. So we’re seeking</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Others to enlighten.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span>      <div class="verse indent4">To reveal the sun of justice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">To the blinded children!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">We will show all! Only let us</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Take you in our power!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">How to build and fill the prisons,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">How to forge the fetters.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">How to wear them, how to fashion</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Narrow, useful lashes,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">We’ll teach all! But give us only</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Your own high blue mountains.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">That is all—the rest we’ve taken,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">All the land and ocean!</div>
+    </div>
+<hr class="tb">
+
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">They banished you cruelly, friend so beloved,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My Yakov so dear! But not for Ukraina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But for its harsh hangmen you had to pour out</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Good blood, not the bad, and they forced you to drink</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The poison of Moscow from Muscovite cup.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O friend, my good friend, whom I’ll never forget,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Come with your live soul to my dear Ukraina;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Fly with the brave Kozaks above its broad banks</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And see on the steppe the old ruins of tombs,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And weep with the Kozaks their salt, bitter tears,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And look with me out on the steppes from a prison.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Meanwhile I will sow to aid you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">All my verse and sorrow.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Let them grow until that moment</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And speak with the breezes;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And the quiet wind from Ukraine</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Will bear with the dewdrops</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">All my verses, bring them to you!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">With a brother’s sorrow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">You, my friend, will meet and greet them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">You will read them softly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And the tombs and steppes and blue sea,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Yes, and me remember.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_EPISTLE">
+    THE EPISTLE
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The Epistle is really Shevchenko’s political and social testament.
+It summarizes all that he had seen and read and thought as to the fate
+of his country and it emphasizes the great gap which he saw between
+Russia in all its forms and Ukraine.</p>
+
+<p>From the days of Peter the Great, there had come a steady flow
+of Western European (especially German) influence into Russia. Old
+Moscow had given way to the modern St. Petersburg and the scholars,
+including the historian Karamzin, had developed the theory of Russian
+history that the Ukrainians and especially the Kozaks were a mixture
+of Tatar tribes who had been more or less Russianized. The ambitious
+youths, the socially aspiring nobles, all were eager to go to
+the capital and to acquire there that advanced civilization which
+they could not find at home.</p>
+
+<p>Shevchenko, bewailing in St. Petersburg the fate of his people and
+then returning to Ukraine to live, wrote this poem as an appeal to
+his fellow countrymen to avoid this cheap adulteration of their ancient
+culture. He urged them to be themselves, to strive for a new
+and human and Christian order at home. Nobles and peasants alike
+have to repent of their evils, the old order of serfdom needs to be
+abolished, and men need to realize that they must live as brothers.
+The poem aims to unite all classes in the country for the good of
+mother Ukraine who has lost so many of her children and for the
+mutual good. Those who refuse to obey will be overwhelmed in the
+judgement of the coming revolution which will be directed against
+traitors as well as against the foreign foe.</p>
+
+<p>Shevchenko attacks all of those who seek a closer union between
+Ukraine and Russia than between Ukraine and the other Slavs. As
+he expressed later in the preface to the edition of the <i>Kobzar</i> prepared
+in 1847, the Ukrainians have the same rights as the Russians,
+Czechs, Poles, etc. They equally deserve consideration as a part of the
+Slavonic world.</p>
+
+<p>In the past they fought for every one but themselves. They ruined
+Poland but her fall destroyed the Kozaks and Ukraine. They aided
+Russia and were enslaved. To Shevchenko it is sacrilege to boast of
+such a history, when there is so much good available for the future,
+if they will only awake and see it and use it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span></p>
+
+<p>The poem is a statesmanlike and wise summary of Ukrainian history
+and the Ukrainian character. There is little of the extreme in it
+and it can well serve as a masterpiece of advice to a people. As such
+it ranks with the great specimens of its kind in world literature.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p><i>To my Dead and Living and Unborn Countrymen in Ukraine and
+not in Ukraine</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">My Friendly Epistle.</span></p>
+
+<blockquote class="center">
+<p class="center"><i>If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar.</i></p>
+
+<p class="right">—<i>I John 4, 20</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent4">Dusk descends, the light returneth,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And God’s day is passing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Once again the wearied people</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And all things are resting.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Only I, as one accursed,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Day and night am weeping</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">At the always crowded crossways</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">But no one e’er sees it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">No one sees it, no one knows it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">They are deaf and hear not,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">They exchange their heavy fetters,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">O’er the truth they haggle</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And the Lord neglect they always,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">While they harness people</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Into heavy yokes. For evil</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">They are ploughing, sowing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The results? Just watch and notice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">What the harvest will be!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Pay attention, O hyenas,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Crazy little children!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Look upon the quiet heavens,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">At your own dear country;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Love with a sincere, true heart</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Such a mighty ruin!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Break your chains and live as brothers!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">In a foreign country</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Do not seek and do not search for</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">What is non-existent</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span>      <div class="verse indent4">E’en in heaven and not only</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">In a foreign country ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">In your home, you’ll find your justice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And your strength and freedom!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">The world has only one Ukraina,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Dnipro cannot be found elsewhere.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But you dash to a foreign country</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To find another and a better,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">More sacred good! And freedom too!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A closer brotherhood! You sought,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You found and brought from countries foreign</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And carried into our Ukraine</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The mighty power of great slogans,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And nothing more.... So now you shout</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That God has made us not for that,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That you should bow unto injustice!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You bow your heads, as formerly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And once again you strip the hides</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From brothers, blind unseeing peasants</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And to discern the sun of truth,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To German lands you call not foreign,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You rush again.... If you should take</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With you the misery around you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And all the goods the masters stole,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Dnipro would stay a lonely orphan</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With all of its most holy mounts!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Oh, if it should happen you never returned,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That you should rest there, where you truly were reared,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No children would weep, no mother would sorrow,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No one of God’s friends would e’er notice your murmurs;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The sun would not warm, would not rot the manure</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Upon the pure, broad, and the truly free land;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No person would know what brave eagles you are</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And they would not nod with their heads a poor greeting.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Mark my words! Come! Act like humans,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">For you will meet evil;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Swiftly will release be given</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">To the fettered people;</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span>      <div class="verse indent8">Judgment nears. Dnipro, the mountains</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Will appear against you.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And the blood of your poor children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Will flow down in torrents</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">To the blue sea.... There’ll be no one</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Who will ever help you;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Brother will deny his brother,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Mother will her children.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Smoke like clouds will cover over</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">The bright sun before you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And you will be met with curses</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">By your children ever.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Change your minds! And do not sully</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">God’s bright face with foulness!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Do not try to fool your children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">That they are sent hither</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Only that they may rule others ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">For an eye unlearned</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Looks into their very spirits</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Deeply, Oh so deeply!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">For the children will soon notice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">What a hide you’re wearing;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">They will judge you and the stupid</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Will deceive the wiser.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent8">If you had studied what is needful,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">This wisdom would be yours by now;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">But you thus climb the road to heaven:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">“We are not we, and I’m not I.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">I have seen all and well I know it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">There is no heaven, there’s no hell,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">There is no God, there’s only I.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The little German self-possessed,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And nothing more!”—“It’s fine, my brother,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">What are you then?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent14">“The German’s willing</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">To tell you, for we do not know!”</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span>      <div class="verse indent8">So you’re set to go and study</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">In a foreign country.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">There they’ll tell you: “You are Mongols,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Mongols, Mongols, Mongols!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Tamurlane’s the golden leader,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">You’re his naked children!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">They will tell you, “Slavs we count you.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Slavs, yes, Slavs, we count you!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Of your great and famous sires,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">You are worthless children!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">You continue to read Kollár</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">With unceasing ardor,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Šafařík and Hanka also</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And you strive to follow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">All the Slavophiles. The language</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Of the Slavic peoples—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">You know everything, neglecting</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">What you’re heir to!—“When we</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Talk as we are duly practiced,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">If the German shows us,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And will tell to us, moreover,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Our own past in lessons,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Then we can begin our answer!”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent8">You have started nobly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">When the German gave the order.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">You besides are speaking</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">So he cannot understand you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">He’s a splendid teacher,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And not like the common people,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Then the shouting! Shrieking!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">There is harmony and power,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Music, all is splendid!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">History? It is the poem</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Of a freeborn people!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Oh, you poor and wretched Romans!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Damn it—you’re no Brutus!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">But our Brutus and our Cocles</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Are well-known forever!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span>      <div class="verse indent8">Freedom grew and flourished with us,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">In Dnipro was washed,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Sent her rays upon our mountains,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">In our steppes was hidden!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">In our blood she oft was bathed,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Slept together with us</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">On piled corpses of free Kozaks,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Corpses which they’ve plundered....</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent8">To admire their old virtues,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Read again the story</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Of that glory, read it over,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Word by word reread it;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Do not miss a single chapter,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Or a little comma—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Learn it well and you will answer</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">For yourselves. Who are we?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Whose sons are we? Of what fathers?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">What is there that charmed you?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Read it and you soon will notice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Who’s your famous Brutus?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Yes, slaves, the “footstools,” filth of Moscow,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The noble lords of Warsaw’s garbage,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Hetmans so noble and revered,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Do you pride now yourselves on that?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Content as sons of free Ukraina</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">To walk contented ’neath the yoke,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And do it better than your fathers?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Boast not; from you they’ll strip the belts.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">From them they tried out all the fat.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">You are boasting that the brothers</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Well the faith defended?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">That they baked bread in Sinop,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Or in Trapezont?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">True, ’tis true, they ate their fill</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And you fade away,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">On the Sich the clever German</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Plants potatoes now;</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span>      <div class="verse indent4">You are glad to buy their crop</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Eat it for your health,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And the Zaporozhia praise.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Whose blood in past ages</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Made that land so very fertile</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">That potatoes grow?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">You care not, so long as you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Raise a goodly crop.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">You can boast that once we could</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Beat the Poles in fight!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">You are right, for Poland fell</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">But that ruined us.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And so your fathers poured their blood</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For Moscow and for Warsaw too,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And handed over to their sons</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Their fetters and their fame!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Ukraina struggled bravely</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">To her utmost limit.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Now her children crucify her</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Worse than Poles e’er dreamed of;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">For instead of beer—they draw out</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Blood from every body;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">But they claim they wish to give light</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">To a mother’s vision</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">With the fires of the present,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Guide the poor blind singer</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">In his ignorance and darkness</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">For the age and Germans.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Fine it is! Go on and lead him!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Let the aged mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Learn the method of beholding</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">These her modern children!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Show your nature! ’Tis for knowledge—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Worry not; for Mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Will pay well for all these lessons.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Eyesores vanish quickly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">On the eyes of your base grabbers!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">You will see the glory,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Living glory of your sires</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span>      <div class="verse indent8">And your evil fathers ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Do not fool yourselves, however!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Go to learn and study</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And the foreign knowledge master,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">But don’t spurn your own.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">God will punish every mortal</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Who forgets his mother.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And his children will avoid him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Keep him from their cabin;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Strangers too will drive him onward,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And the evil have not</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">In the whole wide world a refuge</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Cheerful welcome giving.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">I am sobbing, when I’m thinking</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Of the heroic exploits</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Of our sires; they were mighty!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Yes, but to forget them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">I would give up half the pleasure</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">I shall ever have here ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Of such nature is our glory</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And of Ukraina!...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">So go on and read the story</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Till awake you’re dreaming</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Of the ills, and the mounds open</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">And reveal their secrets</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Right before your eyes, and then</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Ask the martyrs frankly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">How and why and for what purpose</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">They have been so punished?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Oh, embrace, my dearest brothers,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">E’en your poorest brother—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Let your mother smile with pleasure,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">She has long been weeping ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Let her bless her faithful children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">With a fervent blessing!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Let her kiss her little children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">With lips now unfettered.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Then the shame will be forgotten,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">All the recent epochs,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span>      <div class="verse indent8">And new glory will be rising,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Ukraina’s glory!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Then the sun will shine eternal,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Quietly and sweetly ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">O, embrace, my darling brothers,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">That is what I beg you!</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_TESTAMENT">
+    THE TESTAMENT
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Shevchenko wrote this poem on December 25, 1845, at Pereyaslav,
+the city where the Hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky had made the agreement
+with Moscow. Kostomariv, in publishing the first eight lines,
+gave it the title by which it is now generally known. The poem is one
+of the most famous of Shevchenko’s works and has been accepted as
+the keynote of the movement for Ukrainian liberation.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">The Testament</span></p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent4">When I die, O lay my body</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">In a lofty tomb</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Out upon the steppes unbounded</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">In my own dear Ukraine;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">So that I can see before me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The wide stretching meadows</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And Dnipro, its banks so lofty,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And can hear it roaring,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">As it carries far from Ukraine</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Unto the blue sea</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">All our foemen’s blood—and then</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">I will leave the meadows</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And the hills and fly away</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Unto God Himself ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">For a prayer.... But till that moment</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">I will know no God.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Bury me and then rise boldly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Break in twain your fetters</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And with the foul blood of foemen</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sprinkle well your freedom.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And of me in your great family,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When it’s freed and new,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Do not fail to make a mention</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With a soft, kind word.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="IN_THE_FORTRESS">
+    IN THE FORTRESS
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Shevchenko arrived in St. Petersburg under arrest on April 17,
+1847 and was sentenced on May 30. During this period of his confinement
+and trial, the poet composed some of his most exquisite lyrics.
+They are short and concise but there is a personal touch about them
+that was often lacking in his longer works. Thrown back on himself,
+unable to associate with his friends, and in danger of death, he
+achieved a concentrated form of verse that has put these poems in a
+class by themselves.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">In the Fortress</span></p>
+
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center">1</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">I’m alone, all alone,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As a leaf in the meadow,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For the Lord gave me not</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Either joy or good fortune.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">God gave to me naught</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But black eyes and my beauty</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I wept them away</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As a lonesome young maiden.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Not a brother I knew</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Nor yet ever a sister,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Amid strangers I grew</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I grew—without loving.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where’s the husband I sought?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where are all you good people?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There are none. I’m alone.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And no husband will cheer me.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="center">2</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">There is grove after grove,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There’s the steppe and the tomb—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From the tomb a Kozak</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Rises gray and bent double,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Rises there in the night,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And he turns to the steppe,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And he sings, sadly singing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“They have piled up the earth,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And gone back to their homes,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">But no one remembers!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For three hundred of us</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Have been shattered as glass,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But the earth will not take us.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Since the hetman has sold</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Into serfdom the Christians</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And has ordered to drive us</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Upon our own lands,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We have poured out our blood</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And have murdered our brothers.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Their blood we have drunken</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And we henceforth are lying</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the curse of the tomb.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So he spoke in his sorrow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And he leaned on his spear</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">At the edge of the tomb</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And he looked at Dnipro</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And he sobbed and he wept.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The blue waves have made answer</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From across the Dnipro,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From the village it echoes.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then the third cockcrow sounded.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The Kozak quickly vanished,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then the grove waved in terror</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the tomb groaned aloud.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse center">3</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">It makes no difference to me,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">If I shall live or not in Ukraine</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or whether any one shall think</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of me ’mid foreign snow and rain.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It makes no difference to me,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In slavery I grew ’mid strangers,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unwept by any kin of mine;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In slavery I now will die</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And vanish without any sign.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I shall not leave the slightest trace</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Upon our glorious Ukraine,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Our land, but not as ours known.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">No father will remind his son</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or say to him, “Repeat one prayer,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">One prayer for him; for our Ukraine</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They tortured him in their foul lair.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It makes no difference to me,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">If that son says a prayer or not.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It makes great difference to me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That evil folk lull now to sleep</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Our mother Ukraine, and will rouse</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Her, when she’s plundered, in the flames.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That makes great difference to me.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse center">4</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Leave not your dear mother,” they told you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But you paid no heed and went off.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She sought for you but could not find you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">At last she abandoned her effort.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She died ’mid her tears. Long ago</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No playmate was left of your comrades.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Your dog has strayed off and is vanished.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A window is broke in your house.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the garden the lambs go to pasture</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">By day, and when darkness is come,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The owls wake the night with their cries</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And give to the neighbors no quiet.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Your bridal wreath grew and it flourished</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But now it is faded to dust,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For you did not pick it. Your pond</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Dried up in the neighboring forest</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where you once delighted to bathe.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That forest is sad and lies low.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No bird is still singing within it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You carried them off when you went.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the meadow the spring is not flowing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The willow is leafless and fallen.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The path where you formerly wandered</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Is covered with many a thorn.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where did you direct your sad footsteps?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To whom have you flitted away?</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">In an alien land, amid strangers</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Whom do you rejoice? Unto whom,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To whom have your arms been outstretched?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My heart whispers that you are happy</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In palaces, where you ne’er think</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of the home that you once have abandoned.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">God grant that no drop of remorse</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">May ever disturb your sweet slumber,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That it may not enter your palace,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That you never turn on your God</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And never your own mother curse.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse center">10</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">’Tis hard to bear the yoke—though freedom,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To tell the truth, was never there.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But yet somehow I could live on,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Though in another’s home and field.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But now I have been brought to wait</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">An evil fate as I do God.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I wait for it, and as I look,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I curse my poor and untrained mind</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That I allowed poor fools to fool me,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To drown pure freedom in the mud.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My heart grows cold, when I remember</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That in Ukraine I shall not die,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That in Ukraine I shall ne’er live,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To love both people and the Lord.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse center">12</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Shall we again e’er meet together</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or are we parted once for all?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The word of truth and of pure love</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Has been cast out to steppe and jungle.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let it be so! ’Tis not our mother!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To her we still must pay respect;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It is God’s will! Respect it fully!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Be humble now and pray to God</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And think yourselves of one another,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And love our dear Ukraina.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">So love it ... in this time of woe,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And in that last and awful minute.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let each pray to the Lord for her!</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="POEMS_OF_EXILE">
+    POEMS OF EXILE
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>During the first years of Shevchenko’s service in the Russian army,
+when he was in the fortress of Orsk and at Kos-Aral, he was able with
+difficulty to write. His mind was filled with longings for Ukraine, with
+dreams of his own past life, and some of the poems of this period are
+among his finest personal lyrics.</p>
+
+
+<h3 id="1847">1847</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Songs of mine, O songs of mine,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You are all I have.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Do not leave me now, I pray,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In this dreadful time.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Fly to me, my little dovelets,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With your wings of gray.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From the spreading Dnipro fly here</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To the steppes and stay</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With the poor and needy Kirghiz.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They are really poor,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Yes, and naked, but in freedom</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They can pray to God.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Fly to me, my darling thoughts,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With calm words and true,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I shall greet you as my children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And shall weep with you.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h3 id="Sunset">N. N.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sunset is coming, mountains are shadowed,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Birds sink to quiet, fields cease their murmur,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Peoples are gladly stopping their labors,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But I am looking, while my heart’s flying</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To a dark garden in Ukraina;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Flying, I’m flying, my thoughts ever roaming,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thus my poor heart is receiving some quiet.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Fields are in shadow, mountains and forest,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the blue heaven, stars are appearing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Stars, O bright stars, for I am weeping,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Have you come out yet there in Ukraina?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Are the black eyes there awaiting your coming</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the blue heaven? Have they forgotten?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">If they’ve forgotten, do not disturb them.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let them not notice what I am suffering!</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h3 id="Thirteenth">N. N.</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">My thirteenth birthday was now over.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Near where I dwelt, I pastured lambs.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Perhaps it was the bright sun shining,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Perhaps it was something in me,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I felt so happy, yes, so happy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I loved the Lord....</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They called me to share in their fortune,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But I sat on the little hill</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And prayed to God. I have no memory</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of what as little boy I sought</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When I was praying so contented,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or what a cheerful thought I had.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The Lord’s own heaven and the village,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The lambs appeared to be so merry.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The sun just warmed,—it did not bake.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent4">It was not long the sun was warm,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Not long endured the prayer.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">It ’gan to bake, it turned bloodred,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And heaven it burned up.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">I wondered, as if waked from sleep,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">The village turned to black,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">God’s heaven turned unto dark blue</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And lost its golden sheen.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">I looked again upon the lambs,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">They were no lambs of mine.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">I turned again unto the homes,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span>      <div class="verse indent4">There was no home of mine.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">For God had nothing given me,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And then my tears welled forth,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Such bitter tears. A little girl</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Upon the selfsame road,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Not far away from where I stood,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Was plucking at the hemp.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">She noticed I was weeping loud;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">She came and spoke to me,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">She wiped away my bitter tears</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">And gave to me a kiss.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Again the sun was shining brightly,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Again all things in the wide world</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Were mine, the lambs, the fields and forests,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And we were smiling as we drove</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Another’s lambs to water.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">How foolish! Now, when I remember,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My heart weeps sadly and still aches;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Why did the Lord not let me linger</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Some time in that dear paradise?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I would have died a simple ploughman,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I would have known naught of the world,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I would ne’er been a fool to others,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Would not have cursed both men and (God).</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p>This poem from the Fortress of Orsk shows again the great impression
+that his first love Oksana Kovalenkivna made upon him. It is
+one of the few poems that are definitely autobiographical in character.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="RETURN">
+    RETURN
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>After Shevchenko returned from his service in the army, he was a
+broken man. His health was shattered, and while his spirit was not
+quenched, there is a note of finality in much that he undertook. He
+had been forced to realize the limitations on his sphere of activity.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span>There is a deeper note of austerity in his writings and a different spirit
+animates most of his verses, a spirit which becomes more strong and
+poignant as the end neared. The two following poems were written
+at Nizhni Novgorod on his way back to St. Petersburg.</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="smcap" id="Fortune">Fortune</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">You never played me false, I swear it:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You grudged to me a brother, sister,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And e’en a friend; you took me early</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And led me as a little boy</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And put me in a school for peasants,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where I might learn from drunken clerk.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Work hard, my darling! You will later</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Become a man!”—These were your words,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I obeyed, I studied hard,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And learned my lesson.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And you lied!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What sort of man! ’Twas all in vain.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We never played you false, I swear it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We lived our life! And never, never</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Left any seed of lie behind us ...</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">So let us go, my humble fortune,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My friend so poor, so free from guile,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let us go on; ahead is glory</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And glory is my only guide.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h3 class="smcap" id="Muse">The Muse</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">O thou most chaste and holy maiden,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of Phoebus the beloved young sister,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You took me when I was a child</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And carried me into the meadow;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There on a tomb upon the meadow,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You wrapped me in a cloud of gray</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Just as that freedom in the valley</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And fondled me and sang your measures</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And worked your charms ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And I, meanwhile ...</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">O my enchantress ever fair,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You helped me wheresoe’er I was,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You watched o’er me wheree’er I was,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And everywhere, my star of brilliance,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You glowed, by evil never spotted,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And on the steppe, the barren steppe,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">In my deepest prison</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">You shone there in gleaming raiment</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Like flower in the field.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">From the filthy hole of prison</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">You flew out to meet me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">As a bird both pure and holy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And above my person</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">You flew down with pennons golden</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And you sang so sweetly.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">You refreshed my thirsty spirit</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">With the living water.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And so I live, above my head</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With all your Godlike charm and beauty,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You blaze forever, star of heaven.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You will receive me, cherubim,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Revered six-winged seraphim,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My holy counselor adored,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My fate which leads me since my youth,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Do not forsake me!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And at night</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In daytime, evening, and the morning</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Be with me ever, teach to me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With my sincere and truthful lips</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To tell the truth!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Then help me too</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To send a prayer unto my end;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And when I die, my sacred friend,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My loving mother, place your son</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Within his small and narrow casket,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And show at least one little tear</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In your immortal, holy eyes!</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="TO_MARKO_VOVCHOK">
+    TO MARKO VOVCHOK
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The appearance of the Narodni Opovidaniya (Folk Sketches) of
+Marko Vovchok in 1858 was an event in Ukrainian literature. It was
+the penname of Maria Markovich (1834-1907) but she wrote in
+Ukrainian for only a few years. Her stories of the hardships of serfdom,
+especially on the women, were very powerful and were translated
+into Russian by Turgenev and others of the leading authors.
+Shevchenko welcomed her literary advent most warmly, for he saw
+in her his most talented prose successor.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">To Marko Vovchok</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">(<i>In memory of January 24, 1859</i>)</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Some time ago beyond the Urals</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I wandered and I prayed to God</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That our dear truth would never perish,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That our dear word would never vanish.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My prayer was heard.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent24">God sent to us</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In you a mild and tender prophet,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A bitter scourge of all the greedy</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And ruthless men.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent20">My beacon star,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You are the holy star I wished for,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The youthful strength that I desired!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Shine on me, shed your warmth afar,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And now refresh my broken spirit,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My poor and shattered heart and power,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My hungry heart!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent20">I live anew</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And call to life from out the grave</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Free thought that bides forever true,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Free thought forever.—My good fortune!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Our prophet! Yes! my darling daughter,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I dare to call my poems yours.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="MARY">
+    MARY
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>After his return from imprisonment, Shevchenko planned to write
+a poem on the Blessed Virgin and equate her lot with the fate of
+Ukraine and the average Ukrainian peasant woman. To do this, he
+made certain studies in the apocryphal legends and read some of the
+more liberal books of the day.</p>
+
+<p>As a result he produced this poem on unorthodox lines. He was
+bitterly attacked for it but his dominant mood is throughout reverence
+for his subject, and the preface is thoroughly in line with the
+traditional faith.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">Mary</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">
+  “<i>Rejoice, for thou hast renewed all creatures.</i>”<br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 6.0em;">(<i>Akafist of the Blessed Virgin, l. 10</i>)</span>
+</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">I place my hope and consolation</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On Thee, my Heaven fair and bright,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Upon Thy mercy without limit,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I place my hope and consolation</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On Thee, O Mother ever holy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The holy Power of all saints,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All-sinless and forever blest!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I pray to Thee, I weep and sob;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Look, holy Mother, down on them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Those prisoners who have been seized</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And who are blind; give them the strength</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of Thine own martyred Son, that they</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">May bear their cross and heavy fetters</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto the end, the bitter end.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O worthy of all praise!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent18">I bless Thee,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The holy Queen of earth and heaven;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Hark to their groans, and send to them</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A worthy end, O ever worshipped;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Without ill feeling, I will sing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When the poor villages are happy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thy sacred fortune everywhere</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With quiet and with cheerful psalms.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But now there’s tears and woe and weeping</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For each poor soul and, poor myself,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I add to them the final mite.</div>
+    </div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span></p>
+
+
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse center">I</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Once Mary dwelt, a hired servant,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With Joseph, the old carpenter,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Perhaps he was a pious cooper.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She grew and turned to maidenhood</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And blossomed as a lovely flower</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Within a stranger’s poor abode,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A quiet, holy paradise.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The carpenter looked on his servant</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As on his own beloved child.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He used to leave his plane and saw</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To look at her.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">The years passed by</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But he did not once even notice</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And think: “She has no living kin,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No cabin of her very own—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She’s all alone. And yet perchance</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Death stands not far behind my back.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">She stays there underneath the hedge</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And spins white wool which she will fashion</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Into a festal suit for him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or to the shore she’s wont to drive</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The goat with its warm-hearted kid</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To feed them and to give them drink;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Although ’twas far, she loved to look</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">At that serene and holy lake,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">By name Tiberias. And then</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She was so radiant with joy</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That Joseph sitting there was still</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And did not bar in any way</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Her trips to the dear lake.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent24">She went</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All smiling and he sat as ever</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And did not reach for plane or saw.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The goat would drink and eat its fill.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The maiden stood there by herself,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As if entranced, amid the woods</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And looked with sad and troubled gaze</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Upon that broad and holy lake</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And prayed, “O beautiful, broad sea,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Wide tsar of all the lakes that be,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Tell me, O my wise counselor,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What fate will open unto me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With aged Joseph? O, my lot!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then she bent over as a poplar</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Bends in the wind towards the ravine.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“He looks upon me as his child.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With my young shoulder I’ll support</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">His weakened and infirm old age.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She cast her eyes around the scene,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Until the sparks shown in her eyes,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And from her good and youthful shoulders</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The ragged tunic softly slipped</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Away; such holy charm divine</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No eye had ever dared to see</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or to imagine. Evil fate</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Brought to her such a crown of thorns</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And mocked about her beauty fair.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O such a fate!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Above the water</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She walked with the same quiet step.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She found some flowers on the bank,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She broke them off and made them then</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A flower cover for her head,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Upon her holy, troubled brow,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And entered in the forest dark.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent4">O our unsetting Sun of light,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Most holy of all women ever!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The fragrant gem of all the herbs!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Within what woods and what ravines,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And what unknown and secret caves</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thou hidest now from that fierce heat</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of those consuming rays of passion</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That burn the heart without a fire</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And drown it without water, drown</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The holy thoughts Thou always hast?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where art Thou hiding?</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span>      <div class="verse indent20">No, nowhere,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The fire blazed, as well it might.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It burst to flame and then alas,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For nothing is its power lost.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It goes into the blood, the bone,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That cursed fire naught can quench.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And still unbroken, Thou must pass</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Through all the hottest flames of hell</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For Thy dear Son.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">Thy future fate</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Like prophecy appears to Thee</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Before Thine eyes. Do not look at it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Wipe off the tears that herald this,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Adorn Thy head, a maiden’s head,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With lilies and the wildly spread</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Red poppies too and fall asleep</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Beneath the vines where it is cool</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And see what comes!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse center">II</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Towards evening, like a shining star,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sweet Mary wandered from the grove,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All wreathed in flowers, There Mount Thabor</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Just as if wrapped in gold and silver</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Shone far away so dazzling bright.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It blinded all.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent18">Then to that Thabor</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sweet Mary lifted up her eyes,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So mild and holy as they were,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And smiled. And then she caught the goat</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With its gay kid within the grove</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And ’gan to sing:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">“Heaven, heaven,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">O dense forest!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">I am young and,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">Gracious God,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">In Thy heaven</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">Can I rest me,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">Play with pleasure?”</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span>      <div class="verse indent18">Thus she spoke;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Around her once she glanced so sadly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And then into her arms she took</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The kid. She held him firmly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And felt so happy as she went</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto the carpenter’s poor hut.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She walked along and cuddled kindly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And sang and played with the young kid</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And pressed it to her bosom softly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And kissed it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent15">For its part, the kid,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As if it were a little kitten,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Did not object and did not struggle;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It nestled in her bosom, played.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For two long miles she danced along</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With that sweet kid still in her arms</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And was not wearied.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent15">The old man</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sat sadly ’neath the hedge and sought</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Her as if she were his own child;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He came to meet her, welcomed her,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And softly said: “Where have you been?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My poor, dear child, please let me know!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let us go in the house and rest</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And have our supper there together</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With a delightful visitor.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let us go, daughter.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent15">“Who is he,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">This new-come guest?”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent13">“From Nazareth</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He has come down to spend the night,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And says, ‘The grace of God is come</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Upon the old Elizabeth.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">’Twas yester morn it has occurred</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For yesterday,’ he says, ‘she bore</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A son and aged Zachariah</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Has called him by the name of John.’</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That’s what he says....”</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</span>      <div class="verse indent14">The guest, relaxing,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Well washed, now came out of the house,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Dressed only in a tunic white.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He shone like any flaming star.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He paused majestic on the threshold,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Made a low bow, and then he greeted</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sweet Mary calmly.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">It seemed strange</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And wondrous too. The guest stood there</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And gleamed with more than human gleam.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On him one glance did Mary cast</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And trembled and she turned away.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She seemed just like a frightened child</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And to her aged Joseph turned.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Her eyes then asked the youthful guest</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To enter in (or yet, ’tis better,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They led him in.)</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">At once she brought</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Cool water from the nearby spring</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And milk and goat’s cheese which she gave</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To them to have their evening meal.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Herself she did not eat or drink,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But silently knelt in the hut</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And looked and looked upon the guest</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And listened till the stranger spoke</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And turned his words to her directly.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">His holy words fell bright and clear</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Upon the heart of Mary dear,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Until they chilled and burned it too.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">“In all Judea there never was—”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So spoke the guest—“in ancient times</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What now is seen, for a new rabbi,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A rabbi with a flaming word,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Is coming now upon the meadow.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">His words grow swiftly and will bear</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A rich and overflowing crop,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A holy seed. I go to preach</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A new Messiah to the people!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then Mary prayed a silent prayer</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To the apostle.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span>      <div class="verse indent14">On the hearth</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The fire blazes soft and low</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And righteous Joseph sits alone</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And thinks ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">By now the evening star</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Has risen brightly in the heavens.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then Mary rose and took the pitcher</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To fetch fresh water from the spring.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The stranger followed and caught up</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With Mary in the deep ravine.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">At dawn, while it was cool, they led</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Th’ evangelist to that same sea</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And joyful were they in their hearts</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And joyously they made their way</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto their home.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse center">III</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent12">For him waits Mary</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And waiting, weeps; her youthful eyes,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Her eyelids and her wondrous lips</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Grow thin and pale.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent18">“You are not now</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As you were once, O Mary dear,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A flower fair, our source of beauty.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thus Joseph spoke—“Some thing most strange</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Has come o’er you, my dearest daughter.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O Mary, let us go and wed</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or else without a word they’ll kill you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Upon the street but we will hide</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In our oasis.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent14">For the trip</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sweet Mary quickly made her ready</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And wept and sobbed to break her heart,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And so they go upon their way.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The old man took his newest yoke</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Within a basket on his shoulders;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He wants to sell it and to buy</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A kerchief new for his sweet bride</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And give it to her as a present.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span>      <div class="verse indent6">O righteous, rich, revered old man,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A blessing comes not from Mount Zion</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But from your quiet little home</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It is proclaimed to us.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent20">If he,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The righteous, had not lent his hand,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We would be worse than slaves of slaves</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And we would die.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">O suffering great!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O heavy sadness of the soul,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It is not you, ye poor, I pity,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Ye blind and humble, poor in spirit,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But those who wield above their heads</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The axe and hammer and who forge</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">New fetters. For they’ll kill and slay you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They slay your soul and from a spring</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of blood that comes from human hearts,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They give the dogs to drink.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent20">But where</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Went that strange guest who was so evil?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He might have come and glanced e’en once</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">At this thrice glorious pure wedding,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A stolen wedding!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent14">Not a sound</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of him or of his great Messiah</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But men wait something and they wait</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What they don’t know.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">O Mary dear,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What art Thou waiting in Thy sorrow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And what wilt Thou await from God</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And from His people?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent14">Wait for naught</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And likewise do not think of waiting</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For that apostle. Thou art taken</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As bride by that poor carpenter</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Into his poor and humble home.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Pray and give thanks, he did not spurn Thee</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And did not cast Thee on the street</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or Thou mightst have been stoned to death,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Hadst Thou not hid or fled away.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But men said in Jerusalem</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Beneath their breath, who had come down</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From out Tiberias’ city</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That there the men had crucified</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">One who proclaimed a new Messiah.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Can it be he?,” exclaimed sweet Mary,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And joyfully she made her way</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To Nazareth.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent14">He too was glad</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That his dear servant bore in her</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The righteous seed of a good man</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Who lost his life for liberty.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">They go from there upon their way,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They come back home and there they live</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As married but unhappy too.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The carpenter now sets himself</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To make a cradle while she sits,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sweet Mary the immaculate,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Beside the window and she looks</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Into the fields and sews apace</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Upon a little infant shirt.—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For whom is it?</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse center">IV</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent16">“I want the master,”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A voice cried in the court. “An order</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From Caesar, from the lord himself,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Commands you go at once this hour</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For a great census in the city</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of Bethlehem. Set forth at once.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That stern commanding voice is gone;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The echo rings above the wood.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So Mary went at once to bake</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Some cakes; and then without a word</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She put them in a little basket;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Without a word she followed Joseph</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To Bethlehem.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">“O holy power,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Protect me now, my God most dear,”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That’s all she said. And so they go.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Both of them are depressed and sad.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Poor as they are—they drive before them</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The goat and with it its young kid,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For there’s no one to care for them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And God might send to her the baby</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Upon the journey and the milk</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Would be a godsend to the mother.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The animals stray onward feeding</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Along the way and side by side</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The man and woman walk behind them.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And they begin to speak just as</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They will but softly.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">Joseph said:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“The high priest Simeon said once</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To me a word prophetic, true.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The holy law of Abraham</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And Moses now the pious Essenes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Renew again in all its power;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I shall never die—he told me,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Until I see myself Messiah.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O Mary, do you hear my words,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Messiah comes.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">“Nay, he has come,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Ourselves we have Messiah seen.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sweet Mary said.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent14">Then Joseph looked</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Within the basket, found a cake.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He gave it to her. “Take this, child!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Be strong for what is coming now!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We are not near to Bethlehem,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And I will rest for I am weary.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So they sat down beside the road</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To rest.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">Then while they’re sitting there,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The righteous sun sank quickly down</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And hid itself behind the hill.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">It sank to rest and darkness came</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">At once—and then a miracle.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No one had ever heard or seen</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of such a marvel.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Joseph trembled</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For from the east a blazing comet</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Rose over Bethlehem far off.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The comet seemed to be of fire</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And lighted all the steppe and mountains.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But Mary did not rise from off</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The road. ’Twas then she bore her son,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That child who by his wondrous power</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Saved all of us from prison cruel</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And as a saint was crucified</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For us, the evil and the sinful!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Not far away along the road</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The shepherds saw the miracle</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And they gave heed.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">The wretched mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Together with the child they took</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And carried them into their cave</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And there the wretched shepherds gave</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To him the name Emmanuel.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">By sunrise in the market place</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of Bethlehem the people gathered</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And whispered the exciting news</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That something strange would happen now</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In all Judea. They passed along</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The news in quiet tones. “O people,”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A shepherd came and shouted out,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“The words of Jeremiah and</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Isaiah now are true, are true!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Among us shepherds has been born</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Messiah yesterday.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">It spread</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Throughout the whole of Bethlehem.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Messiah!... Jesus!... Hail!... Hosanna!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The people scattered.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse center">V</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent10">In an hour</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or maybe two an order came</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From out Jerusalem from Herod.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A legion came and brought an order</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Which men had never heard before.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The swaddling children slept in peace,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The mothers warmed their food—’twas needless.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They needed not to bathe their children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And to prepare them for the night.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The soldiers bared and dipped their knives</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the just blood of little children,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Such was the order Herod gave!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Look on in horror now, O mother!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And see what tsars like him can do!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">But Mary did not need to hide</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Herself and child. Praise to your names,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The poor, untutored shepherds there</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Who greeted him, had hidden safely</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Our Savior and they saved him thus</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From Herod!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">So they fed him kindly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And gave him drink, a little shirt</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And jacket for the toilsome journey,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And poor as they were, yet they gave</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">An ass’s foal and set the mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Upon it with her child and led it</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">By secret paths amid the darkness</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto the road to Memphis.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent18">Then</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The comet, that great ball of fire,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">More brilliant than the sun, shone on</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That ass which carried into Egypt</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sweet Mary and the young Messiah.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Had ever queen sat so upon</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">An ass, the fame of it would quickly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Be spread abroad and all would talk</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Of her and of that ass forever</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Throughout the world.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent14">But Thee it bore.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The true and living God upon it!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A wretched Copt in after days</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Had tried to buy the ass of Joseph</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But it had died. Perhaps the road</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With its great load had worn it out.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">The child, bathed in the Nile, doth sleep</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In swaddling clothes beneath a willow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">More safely, and among the willows</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The righteous mother weaves a cradle</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And weeps the while she spends her time</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In weaving of the little cradle,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">While Joseph sets himself to build</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A little hut out of the reeds,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That he may have a humble shelter.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Across the Nile just like an owl</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The Sphinx with dread and fearsome eyes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Looks on the scene; and there behind it</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The pyramids on the bare sands</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Stand like a chain in order due,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Just as the guards set out by Pharaoh,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As grim as if they had reported</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of what they know, that God’s own truth</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Has risen and is come to earth,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A menace to the Pharaoh’s power.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then Mary found a job to weave</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Soft garments for a Copt, while he,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Saint Joseph, went to feed a flock</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That he might keep that single goat</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To furnish milk for his dear child.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A year doth pass.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Around the hut</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Within his own obscure domain</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The righteous holy carpenter</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Left no time to be spent in thinking.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">He fashions barrels and small kegs</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And murmurs oft.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent14">But why is this?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thou dost not weep and dost not sing;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thou thinkest ever without pause</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">How best to teach him and to place</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thy holy son on righteous paths</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And how to save him from all ills</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And shield him from the storms of life.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Another year. Around the hut</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The goat still feeds, but the young child</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the small kid together play</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Within the courtyard, while the mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sits at the threshold of the hut</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And spins the wool of fibres soft.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Meanwhile the old man walks on tiptoe</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And carries to the city barrels</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To sell. He buys the child a cookie,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A kerchief for his darling wife,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And for himself a good stout thong</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To make some sandals.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent14">There he sat.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And then he said: “Don’t grieve, my daughter!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For Herod, the cruel tsar, is dead!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">One evening he enjoyed a feast</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And ate so much it caused his death.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Those are the tidings that I heard.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let us go now unto our grove,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto our quiet, little heaven.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Let us go homeward, daughter mine!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Let’s go!”, she said and quickly went</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto the Nile to wash the shirts</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For her son’s journey. While the goat</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Played with the kid around the house,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Saint Joseph played with his dear son</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Upon the threshold and the mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Washed in the river the small shirts.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And after that within the house,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">He packed and tried out his new sandals</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For the long journey. All was ready</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Before the sunrise; then he took</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The basket on his shoulders and they</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Within the cradle bore the child.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse center">VI</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">So on they went and reached their home.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">God grant no one may ever chance</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">On such a sight.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent14">Their little love,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Their quiet refuge in the field,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Their one and only home and fortune,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That place—they could not recognize it—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All he had loved, the little house—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All, all was plundered.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent18">’Mid the ruins</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They had to spend a wretched night.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And Mary quickly hurried down</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto the spring in the ravine,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where once the bright-faced holy guest</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Had met with her.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent14">The heavy grass,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The spiny bushes, and the nettles</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Had thickly grown around the spring.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Poor Mary, I am sorry for Thee!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Pray, darling, pray at this sad time!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Forge well Thy true and holy strength,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Forge it with patience and endurance,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Grow strong amid Thy bloody tears!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She almost slipped within the spring</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And drowned herself.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent14">Then woe to us,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Who would have been enshackled slaves!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The child would then have grown alone</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Without his mother; we would know</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No truth and justice on this earth,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No sacred freedom.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</span>      <div class="verse indent10">She remembered</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And then she smiled despite her woe</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And sobbed a bit. The holy tears</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Poured down upon the wellhead there</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And dried away; and then she felt</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Much better.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">But Elizabeth,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A widow old in Nazareth,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Lived there with her one little son,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With John, and she was distant kin</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto them.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">So in early morning</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The unhappy woman took her child</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And fed him and she dressed him up</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And with her saint she made the trip</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To Nazareth unto the widow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To ask her for some hired work.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The little child grew as it should</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And played together with young John,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And he was soon a little boy.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The two went out upon the street</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And played together. There they found</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Two sticks and took them to their homes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And gave the wood unto their mothers</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Like other children!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">So they live,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Both cheerful and both healthy too—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The people watch them on their way.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The little boy one day a stick</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Picked up from John for his own game,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">(For John was playing horse alone)</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And made a cross and bore it home</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To prove that way unto his mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That he knew how to work in wood.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then Mary met her little son</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Outside the gate, and lost her courage.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She fainted too when she beheld</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That scaffold cross.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</span>      <div class="verse indent12">“An evil man</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With foul intent and unkind plan</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Has taught thee to produce this thing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My dearest child, please drop it, drop it!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The little boy, all innocent,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Threw down the sacred mark of death</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And sobbed aloud and shed boy’s tears</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For the first time upon the bosom</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of his dear mother.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">This kind act</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Refreshed her soul. She rose again</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And took him to a nice cool spot</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Within the garden on the grass.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She kissed him and she gave him cakes,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Fresh cakes.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">And then he fondled her</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And played and sang a little while</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And fell asleep to lullabies.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Upon her knees he lay and slept.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The child slept on in peaceful slumber</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Just like an angel there in heaven.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The mother looked on her one child</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And shed such quiet, blissful tears,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The angel slept so still and lovely,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It would be wrong to try to wake him.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She could not look at him enough.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A single tear just as a flame</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Fell on him and without delay</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The child awoke.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">Sweet Mary quickly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Wiped off her tears and tried to smile,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Lest he behold them, but she could not</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Deceive her little son at all.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He caught her action, guessed it well</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And ’gan to sob.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">She earned a little</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">(Or else the widow lent it to her)</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That she might buy a book for him.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She would have taught him, but she knew</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Not how to read. She took the boy</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And sent him to a little school</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Among the Essenes. And meanwhile</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She gave him lessons in the good</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And in the right.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent14">Meanwhile young John,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The widow’s son, had done the same.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The boys went to the school together</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And studied too, He never played</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With other children on the street</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or ran around. All by himself,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He used to sit in the long grass</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And fashion there with childish hand</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A little staff; and try to help</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">His holy father in his work.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse center">VII</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then in the young boy’s seventh year,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">(For he already showed great skill)</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">While resting in a corner dark</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The old man thought about his son,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What trade he would adopt in life,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">What kind of man he would become.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He took his pails and other wares</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And father, mother, and the son</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Went to the greatest market there,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Jerusalem, the capital.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The trip was long but there they could</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Get better prices.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent14">So they went.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They strayed apart. The parents then</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sat down to try and sell their goods.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They paid no heed to the young boy.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He ran around.... The mother wept</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And sought her son. There was no hint</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of where he was. She went at last</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto a synagogue to pray</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For his return and there, behold,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The child, her child, was sitting there</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Among the rabbis in the midst</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And teaching in his innocence</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">How men should live and love their fellows,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Should stand for truth and die for truth—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Without truth woe comes! “Woe to you.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Ye teachers and ye high priests too!”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The Pharisees looked on amazed,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The scribes all wondered at his words</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And great was then the holy joy</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That Mary felt!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For she had seen</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Messiah, had seen God on earth</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With her own eyes.... They sold their wares,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then in the temple prayed to God</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And cheerfully they started home.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They made their journey in the night</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Amid the cool.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">The Holy Children</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Grew up together and they learned</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Some more each day; and both their mothers</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Were proud and happy when they saw</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Their children.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">But they finished school.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then on the thorny path of life</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They parted; both preached God’s true word,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The sacred truth for men on earth.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They preached and both were crucified</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For freedom, sacred freedom true.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">John made his way into the desert.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thy son—among men; and with him,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With thine upright and truthful son,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thou wentst along.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">In the old hut</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She left Saint Joseph there alone</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To live alone among the strangers.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She wandered here and wandered there</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Until at last she reached her goal</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">At Golgotha.</div>
+    </div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</span></p>
+
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse center">VIII</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent10">The holy mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Went everywhere with her dear son;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She listened to his every word;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She watched his acts and was enthralled</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And joyed in still anxiety</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When she looked at him.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent14">For he would</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sit on the Mount of Olives often</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And rest a while. Jerusalem</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Was proudly spread before his eyes—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The priest of Israel flashed proudly</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In all his golden robes and rich,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A humble slave of Roman gold!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">An hour, two, would pass away.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He would not stir or look at her</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But weep and wonder at the wealth</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of the Judean capital.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then she would weep and make her way</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Down to the spring in a ravine</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And quickly would bring back with her</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Fresh water, and would humbly wash</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">His sacred feet which were so weary.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She’d give him drink and brush him off</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And shake the dust from his white tunic,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She’d mend a hole, and then again</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Go to the fig tree and sit down</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And look, an ever holy mother,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">At her sad son, while he was resting.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Perhaps the children then would run</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From out the city; they would follow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Him always through the busy streets</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And sometimes to the Mount of Olives</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The little ones would come to him.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They would run up,—“O holy ones,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And sinless too”—he used to say.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Then when he saw the children, he</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Would rise and kiss them, give his blessing.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He’d play with them just like a child,</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">Put on a wreath, and gay and happy,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He’d go with all his children dear</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto Jerusalem to preach,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Tell to the wicked words of truth.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They would not hear and crucified him.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When they led him to Golgotha,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thou stoodst at a crossroad nearby</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With the same children (for the men,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">His brothers and disciples too)</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Had lost their courage and had fled.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">“O let him go, O let him go!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He’ll lead you to the self same fate.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She said this to the children, then</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She fell upon the earth and fainted.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thine only child was crucified</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And Thou, beneath the hedge abiding,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Went back again to Nazareth.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The widow long before was buried</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">By strangers in a hired casket.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She’d been alone for her dear John</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In prison had been murdered too.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thy Joseph was no longer there</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And Thou wast left alone to live</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Just as a broken stick.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent20">Yes, that</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Was Thy sad fate, O mother dear!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">His brothers and disciples too,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unsteady men of little soul,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Concealed themselves from hangmen cruel.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They hid and then they separated,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And Thou wast forced to seek them out....</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">By night they gathered round about Thee</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And came to grieve with thee and mourn,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But Thou, the greatest among women,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Didst scatter all their fear and terror,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Just as the chaff that blows away,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With Thy most holy word of fire;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thou sentst at last Thy holy spirit</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Into their petty souls!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</span>      <div class="verse indent16">All praise,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">All praise to Thee, O holy Mary!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The holy men regained their poise,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They travelled through the whole wide world</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And in the name of Thy great Son,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thy suffering and martyred Child,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They spread the news of love and truth</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Throughout the world; Thou weptst and grievedst</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And ’neath a hedge among tall grass,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Thou starvedst to death.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent32">Amen! Amen!</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="HOSEA_CHAPTER_XIV">
+    HOSEA, CHAPTER XIV
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>After his return from the army, Shevchenko’s poetry took a more
+austere note. A large part of his latest works were adaptations of the
+Old Testament and the warnings of the Prophets were transfigured
+into lessons for the Ukrainians and on the fate of Ukraine. They deal
+with the same themes that he had treated earlier—the uselessness of
+depending upon the Russian autocracy, the weaknesses of the people
+of the day, especially the intellectuals, and the need for all the people
+to apply the lessons of brotherhood to all their fellows. Shevchenko’s
+contact with some of the Russian radicals may have influenced him
+to some degree but these poems can be read as general denunciations
+of the vices of men and countries. Never more than in the works of his
+last period did Shevchenko become a stern, commanding teacher
+holding up to all men everywhere the proper course of actions for
+human things to pursue. Now more than ever he became a great
+ethical teacher not only for his generation and people but for all
+the nations of the world.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap fh3">Hosea, Chapter XIV</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">(<i>Imitation</i>)</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Yes, you will perish, Ukraina,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And leave no trace upon the earth!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And yet you once were richly famous</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For good and wealth!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</span>      <div class="verse indent14">O Ukraina,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My dear, my innocent poor land,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Why does the Lord send you this fate?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Why punish you?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">’Tis for Bohdan,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And for the mad, insensate Peter,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And for the pagan lords around them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He ruins you and drives you down,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Destroys you so.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">And it is just!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">He long with patience looked upon you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And watched your silence and neglect,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Your sinful womb that bore such monsters,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And spake in wrath: “I will destroy</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Your beauty and your charm superb.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You will be broken. In their wrath</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Your sons will slay you, when full grown,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And others, ill-conceived, shall die</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Within your womb, and fade away</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">As unhatched chickens that are not.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With tears, the tears of a sad mother</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I will fill full your towns and fields</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That all the earth may see and know</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That I am ruler—and see all.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Arise, O mother, and return</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto your spacious home and rest.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You have been burdened long enough</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With sins your sons have wrought at times.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent6">A sad and mournful mother, rest</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And say to your unfaithful sons,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That they will perish in their sins,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That their dishonor and their treason,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Their crookedness are cut within</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The souls of men by fire fierce</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And by a bloody flaming sword,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Their destined punishment cries out</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And their good tsar will never save them,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Their mild and drunken sovereign lord!</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">He will not give them food or drink</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or yet a horse to mount unsaddled</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And gallop off. You cannot flee,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">You cannot hide!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">For everywhere</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Avenging truth will seek you out.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Men will watch for you, catch you then,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And they will not waste time in trials.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In fetters they will firmly bind you</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And take you home for men to see,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And on a cross without a hangman</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or yet a tsar they will spread you,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And nail you fast, tear you apart,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And, dogs, they will give your fresh blood</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto the dogs to drink.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">Add this</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And say this word again to them.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Speak plainly, Say, “You have done this.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With foul and filthy hands you made</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Your hope and then you say,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">‘The tsar’s our God, the tsar’s our hope</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And he will feed and will protect</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The widow and the orphans.’” ... No!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Say this to them: “The gods are mad,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The idols in the palace rich.”</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Tell them that truth will rise again,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Not the departed, ancient word</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That now is rotten; a new word</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Will come with might unto the people</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And save the plundered and the lost</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From the false favor of the tsar.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="Do_Not_Murmur">
+    <span class="smcap">I do not murmur at the Lord</span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">I do not murmur at the Lord,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I do not murmur at a soul,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I fool myself in my despair</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And sing as well.</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</span>      <div class="verse indent16">For I will plough</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My meadow, my poor, humble field,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">This word of mine; a harvest rich</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Will come some day from it.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent20">I fool</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Myself, my own poor, humble person</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And no one else, as I can see.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent4">Be thou ploughed, my humble meadow,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">From the top to bottom.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Be thou planted, this black meadow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">With the shining freedom.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Be thou ploughed, and well turned over,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Let the soil be levelled.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Be thou sown with seed most fertile,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Watered by good fortune.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Be thou turned in all directions,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Ever fertile meadow.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Be not sown with words unmeaning</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">But with reason, meadow.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Men will come to reap the harvest</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">In a happy moment—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent4">Be well worked and be well levelled,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent8">Poor and barren meadow.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Do I not fool myself again</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With this fantastic word of hope?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I do! But it is better far</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To fool myself, my very self,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Than live at peace with my cruel foe</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And vainly murmur at the Lord.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_APPROACHING_END">
+    THE APPROACHING END
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The end of Shevchenko’s life was approaching. In the autumn of
+1860 he became conscious of the fact that his health would not allow
+him to carry out his dreams of marrying, having a family, and living
+in a little home on the bank of the Dniper in Ukraine. He expressed
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</span>this feeling in his poem <i>The years of youth are passed away</i>, written
+on October 19, and soon after he consulted a physician because of
+his difficulty in breathing. His friends could not realize his condition
+but he failed rapidly and during January, 1861, he was able to do
+little work. He finished his last poem, <i>Is it not time for us to stop?</i> on
+February 25. It was the end for early the next morning, the day after
+his birthday, his eyes closed forever.</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="smcap" id="Years_of_Youth">The years of youth are passed away</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">The years of youth are passed away ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A chilling blast has swept upon me</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From hope.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent10">The winter’s on its way.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So sit alone in your cold home</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With no one there to hear your word,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With no one to receive your thought,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No one at all, no one at all!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sit there alone, until hope fools</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The fool himself and mocks him well</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And seals with frost his lonely eyes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And scatters all his haughty thoughts,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Just as the snowflakes on the steppe.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Sit there alone in your poor home,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Wait not for spring, a holy fate!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It never will appear again</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To deck your garden with its green</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or to renew your faded hope.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">It will not come to set free thoughts</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Again at freedom. No, sit there</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And wait for not a thing at all.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h3 class="smcap" id="Stop">Is it not time for us to stop?</h3>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Is it not time for us to stop,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">My neighbor poor, but yet so dear,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The writing of these worthless verses</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And to commence our preparations</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">To go upon a distant journey?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Unto that world, my friend, to God,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We’ll hurry on to take our rest....</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We’re wearied now, we’ve grown so old</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And somehow we have gained some sense.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">That is enough!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent12">We’ll go to sleep,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We’ll go to rest in a small cabin ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The cabin’s cheerful, as you know!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">We’ll not go, we are not going,—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Friend, it is too early!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Let us go, and let us sit</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And enjoy this world.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Let us look, my humble fortune,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Think how broad it is,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">How it is both broad and cheerful,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Clear and yet so deep!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Let us go, my friendly star,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And ascend the mount,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">There we’ll rest ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent16">At that same moment</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">All the stars, thy sisters,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">The eternal, heavenly stars,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Will swim up a-shining.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">There we’ll wait, my sister dear,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Ever holy comrade,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And with chaste and pious lips</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Let us pray to God.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">We will start in utter quiet</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">On our distant journey,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">O’er the bottomless and raging</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Lethe we must pass.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Bless me for this, O my comrade,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">With a holy glory!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">But while we wait to meet the future,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We will go simply—and direct</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To pay to Aesculapius</div>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</span>      <div class="verse indent0">To see if he can trick old Charon</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the wise Fates who spin.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent22">There after</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">While the wise grandsir is a dreaming,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We’ll stop and write a mighty epic—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And steam it well above the earth</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And weave hexameters for it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And take it to the attic</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A breakfast for the mice ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent24">And then</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We’ll sing in prose—and not by notes</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And not as chance may say ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent24">My friend,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O sacred guide of my whole life,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Before the fire has gone out,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We’d better go to Charon now!</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent2">O’er the Lethe bottomless</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">With its raging waters</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">We will sail and carry with us</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">All our sacred glory,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">Ever youthful and eternal ...</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">For—I dread it, friend!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">If I have to go without it,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I’ll be very mournful,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">So whether it’s on Phlegethon,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or on the Styx in heaven,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Or on Dnipro, that mighty river,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I shall construct a little cabin</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">In the eternal forest there</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And plant a garden round the cabin</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And thou wilt come to its cool shade</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And there I’ll seat thee like a queen;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">We will recall Dnipro, Ukraina,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The cheerful forest villages,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The mountain tombs upon the steppes,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And we will sing a cheerful song.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="transnote">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Notes">
+    Transcriber’s Notes
+  </h2>
+<ul>
+<li>Set poem titles in small caps as needed</li>
+<li>Retained inconsistent hyphenation of “black-haired”</li>
+<li>Retained inconsistent use of space in “folk song” (and plural)</li>
+<li>In the Table of Contents, changed “Haydamakí” to “Haydamaki”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_6">p. 6</a> changed “Mickiewiez” to “Mickiewicz”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_7">p. 7</a> changed “was” to “were” in “exploits of the Kozaks were”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_7">p. 7</a> changed “conqueroring” to “conquering”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_12">p. 12</a> changed “be” to “he” in “in St. Petersburg he”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_12">p. 12</a> removed period between “relaxation” and “—to”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_21">p. 21</a> changed “superviser” to “supervisor”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_25">p. 25</a> changed “made” to “make” in “and make trouble”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_25">p. 25</a> changed “set” to “sent” in “and sent back”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_25">p. 25</a> changed “peninsular” to “peninsula”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_29">p. 29</a> changed “ecstacies” to “ecstasies”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_30">p. 30</a> changed “acqaintance” to “acquaintance” in “renewed his acquaintance”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_31">p. 31</a> added period after “unjustly accused”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_43">p. 43</a> changed “Koliischchina” to “Koliishchina”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_46">p. 46</a> changed “unforgiveable” to “unforgivable”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_55">p. 55</a> set chapter heading and title in all caps</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_58">p. 58</a> changed “Christianty” to “Christianity”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_67">p. 67</a> changed “has” to “have” in “others have”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_70">p. 70</a> italicized “<i>The Poplar</i>” before “is a good example”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_81">p. 81</a> italicized “<i>Ivan Pidkova</i>” in “In <i>Ivan Pidkova</i>”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_85">p. 85</a> changed double-quote to single-quote before “Oh my wretched Ukraina,”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_85">p. 85</a> added closing single-quote after “trampled.”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_86">p. 86</a> changed period to comma following “heavens”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_104">p. 104</a> added close quote after “snow-covered!”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_108">p. 108</a> italicized “<i>Haydamaki</i>”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_113">p. 113</a> changed “self-same” to “selfsame”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_113">p. 113</a> removed close quote after “O tapster!”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_129">p. 129</a> moved “St. John” attribution to separate line and removed italics</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_148">p. 148</a> unitalicized “the” in “the <i>Dream</i>” and “the <i>Heretic</i>”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_148">p. 148</a> changed “Khmllnitsky” to “Khmelnitsky”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_150">p. 150</a> set “<span class="smcap">Three Souls</span>” in small caps rather than italics</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_157">p. 157</a> added quote before “You have drunk”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_158">p. 158</a> added quote after “sobbing.”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_158">p. 158</a> added quotes before “I have” and after “Germans.”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_158">p. 158</a> added quote before “You have done”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_163">p. 163</a> moved period inside parenthesis in “(<i>They sat down</i>.)”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_171">p. 171</a> removed hyphen in “fellow countrymen”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_179">p. 179</a> changed comma to period between “Moscow” and “Kostomariv”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_189">p. 189</a> added close parenthesis to “(Folk Sketches)”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_194">p. 194</a> changed period to comma following “And says,”</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_196">p. 196</a> removed quote after “once,”</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78316 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/78316-h/images/cover.jpg b/78316-h/images/cover.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bea73b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/78316-h/images/cover.jpg
diff --git a/78316-h/images/doodad.jpg b/78316-h/images/doodad.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9664271
--- /dev/null
+++ b/78316-h/images/doodad.jpg
diff --git a/78316-h/images/frontispiece.jpg b/78316-h/images/frontispiece.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..839ec4e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/78316-h/images/frontispiece.jpg
author	www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org>	2026-03-28 16:54:54 -0700
committer	www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org>	2026-03-28 16:54:54 -0700
commit	f2a400527411d2ed321f63f1063d9f0db7917ba7 (patch)
tree	dcfa7fd828ef4719d5bc648e1dec91162e52d071 /78316-h