Vocabulary Notes

to be orphaned – стати сиротою, осиротіти

to grow up – зростати, виховуватися

poverty and miserу – бідність і злидні

village precentor – сільський дяк

innate talent – вроджений талант

to apprentice – віддавати на навчання

to be disposed of in бути виставленим на

to enroll in – вступити до

collection of poems – збірка віршів

to contribute to – зробити внесок у

TESTAMENT

Dig my grave and raise my barrow By the Dnieper-side In Ukraine, my own land, fair land and wide. I will lie and watch the cornfields, Listen through the years To the river voices roaring, Roaring in my ears.

Bury me, be done with me, Rise and break your chain, Water your new liberty With blood for rain. Then, in the mighty family Of all men that are free, May be sometimes, very softly You will speak of me?

KOBZAR

The mighty Dnieper roars and bellows,

The wind in anger howls and raves,

Down to the ground it bends the willows

And mountain-high lifts up the waves.

The pale-faced moon picked pit this moment

To peek out from behind a cloud,

Like a canoe upon the ocean

It first tips up and then dips down.

The cocks have not proclaimed the morning,

There’s not a sound as yet of man,

The owls in glades call out their warnings,

And ash-trees creak and creak again.

E x e r c i s e s

I. Answer the questions:

1. When was Taras Shevchenko born?

2. In what family was the bard born?

3. By whom he was taught to read?

4. What happened with the boy at 14years?

5. Where did Taras Shevchenko study?

6. When did T. Shevchenko publish the first collection of poems?

7. When was T. Shevchenko arrested and released?

8. When did Shevchenko die?

ІI. Say what statements are false and what are true; correct the false ones:

1. Shevchenko was orphaned in his early teens and grew up in poverty and misery.

2. He was taught to read by the village priest.

3. Born as a serf, Taras Shevchenko had to serve as a houseboy.

4. He wrote his poem “Dream” after graduating from the Academy.

5. In 1860 T. Shevchenko married.

6. Taras Shevchenko was buried in Moscow but two month afterwards his remains were transferred to the Chernecha Hill near Kaniv, Ukraine.

7. In 1847 T. Shevchenko was arrested and sent as a private to the Orenburg special corps in a remote area of the Caspian Sea.

8. His poetry contributed greatly to the evolution of national Ukrainian consciousness.

Lesya ukrainka

Lesya Ukrainka (Larysa Kosach) was born on February 25, 1871 in Novgorod-Volynskyi. Her father knew literature very well. He often read to his children the works by O. Pushkin, T. Shevchenko, M. Gogol, Marko Vovchok and especially satirical stories by Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Lesya’s mother was a writer known by the literary name Olena Pchilka. Her mother was sister of M. Dragomanov. Many writers, painters, musicians gathered very often in their house. Among them were the poet M. Starytskyi, the composer M. Lysenko, and the famous Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko. From her childhood Lesya heard different discussions about Ukrainian history and literature. At the age of 4 Lesya learned to read and at 9 she wrote her first poem “Hope”. When she was 10 the family moved to Kyiv. She made great success but at the age of 13 she fell ill.

She had to stop her studies and was undergone the operation. At that time the book became her friend and her teacher. She read a lot, studying literature, art, history, geography and foreign languages: French, German, Latin, English, Italian, Polish and Spanish.

The first poem of the 13-yearold girl “Lily of the Valley” was published in Lviv magazine “Zorya”. She took her literary name Lesya Ukrainka because of her love to Ukraine. In 1888 she lived in Yalta where she created a series of poems “Travelling to the Sea” and “Crimean Memories”. In spite of operation her illness progressed, tuberculosis affected her arm. She spent much time in hospitals in Kyiv and abroad. Lesya Ukrainka wrote a lot at that time. Her poems begin to appear in magazines and newspapers.

In 1893-1907 her book of poems “On the Wings of Songs”, the poem “Old Tale” and drama “Iphigenia in Tauris” were published. In 1903-1907 she wrote her drams “Cassandra”, “Autumn Tale” and “Stone Host” in 1912. The peak of her poetic mastery was the “Sylvan Song” published in 1911 about the struggle between beauty and the evil.

At the beginning of 1913 she returned to her Motherland, Ukraine. It was her last stay in Kyiv. The Ukrainian community organized a ceremonial meeting for the great poetess.

Lesya Ukrainka died on August 1, 1913 in Surani (Georgia), where she stayed for treatment and buried in Kyiv.

***

As a child I sometimes fell,

Hard enough for it to hurt

Though my heart with pain would swell,

They asked me: “Did you hurt yourself?”

I’m all right”, I would reply –

My pride would then assert itself:

I laughed in order not to cry.

But now the drama soon will end;

For me, a bitter cup to sip,

And a clever epigram

Is on the brink of tongue and lip

But laugher may be merciless:

I fear the blade of open chaff.

And so, surrendering my pride

I cry in order not to laugh.

February 2, 1897.

E x e r c i s e s