This week’s poem choice has been inspired by the continuing example of Ukraine’s fight against an unjust and unprovoked invasion and on an individual level by a story I’ve been told this week of a brave lady facing her own unexpected and daunting battle.
And in the great new family,
The family of the free,
With softly spoken, kindly word
Remember also me.
- Taras Shevchenko (1814—1861), translated by John Weir
Poem 328. ЗАПОВІТ (My Testament)
Ukrainian
Як умру, то поховайте
Мене на могилі,
Серед степу широкого
На Вкраїні милій:
Щоб лани широкополі
І Дніпро, і кручі
Було видно, − було чути
Як реве ревучий!
Як понесе з України
У синєє море
Кров ворожу… отойді я
І лани і гори —
Все покину, і полину
До самого Бога
Молитися… а до того
Я не знаю Бога.
Поховайте та вставайте,
Кайдани порвіте
І вражою злою кров’ю
Волю окропіте.
І мене в сім’ї великій,
В сім’ї вольній, новій,
Не забудьте пом’янути
Незлим тихим словом!
English
When I am dead, bury me
In my beloved Ukraine,
My tomb upon a grave mound high
Amid the spreading plain,
So that the fields, the boundless steppes,
The Dnieper’s plunging shore
My eyes could see, my ears could hear
The mighty river roar.
When from Ukraine the Dnieper bears
Into the deep blue sea
The blood of foes … then will I leave
These hills and fertile fields —
I’ll leave them all and fly away
To the abode of God,
And then I’ll pray … But till that day
I nothing know of God.
Oh bury me, then rise ye up
And break your heavy chains
And water with the tyrants’ blood
The freedom you have gained.
And in the great new family,
The family of the free,
With softly spoken, kindly word
Remember also me.
Taras Shevchenko is considered the founder of the modern literary Ukrainian language and this is one of the most famous poems in Ukrainian. The poem expresses his pride in his native land and his outrage at the incursions of rapacious enemies.
In the first stanza he exhorts his supporters to ensure that he is buried on the plains of his native country in a crypt on a rise in the land so that his spirit will be able to survey the fields and the steppes beyond and hear the rushing of the great river of Ukraine, the Dneiper. We get a sense of his love for, and deep connection with, the land of Ukraine but also an idea of the geography of the country: broad plains covered with fields of crops and the dry grassy steppes beyond, with the roar of the Dneiper’s torrents overriding the silence.
The second stanza links the occupation of Ukraine to the chaining of his spirit to the land—only when the Dneiper has carried the blood of his country’s last enemy into the sea will he find peace, accept the existence of God and enter heaven. Until then, his spirit will roam the land uneasily and agnostically.
The last stanza is a call to action, urging his mourners to rouse themselves against their oppressors, to break the chains forged around them, and to destroy the invaders and oppressors, using their downfall (represented by “the tyrants’ blood”) to foster their freedom and encourage it to grow so that they can join the free peoples of the world and, when that is achieved, then there will be time for remembrance and words of consolation.
I like this poem because it has an undeniable power, drawing on the natural beauty of Ukraine to emphasise the need for action against the domination and tyranny of others, words that are as true, as applicable, and as powerful today as when they were written nearly 180 years ago. We can also look on the poem in a more figurative sense: if we are fighting a disease, we are no less struggling to escape its grip than if we were engaged in a physical conflict. I hope that all those who are suffering through strife or disease can find peace in time.
Links
- Read more about Taras Shevchenko at The Shevchenko Museum website.
- Watch Ivan Doan’s performance on YouTube.
- Listen to A.Z. Foreman’s atmospheric performance of the poem in Ukrainian and English (a different translation) on YouTube.