Taras Shevchenko

“ The Forming of a Life
The little Taras was born a serf. His first memories are of a mother's love, of the kindness of an elder sister, and like a musical undertone to all his life—the consciousness of the wonderful beauty of Nature. But soon another power of hideous aspect laid its grasp on the childish soul. ”

“ So Gregory Shevchenko distributed his pitiful treasures to the children and to his wife,—saying finally—
"To my son, Taras, I give nothing. He will be no common man. Either he will be something very good or else a great rascal. For him the patrimony will either mean nothing, or will not help any." ”

“ Our souls yield not to grievous ills,
To freedom march our stubborn wills.
Though waves of trouble o'er us roll
The waves move not the steadfast soul.
Our living spirit is not in chains,
The word of God in glory reigns. ”

“ Like blackbirds in a bush
The Cossacks fiercely rush.
No living soul escapes.
Untouched by fire,
They the walls down tear,
Silver and gold in their caps they bear,
And load their boats with riches rare.
Burns Skutari, ends the fray,
The warriors gather and come away,
Their pipes with burning cinders light,
And row their boats through waves flame bright. ”

“ To whom the people give fame unbounded?
In trousers of velvet red,
With a coat that sweeps the road
A cossack comes. Let's weep o'er his years
For what they've done is cause for tears.
But there's life in the old man yet I trust,
For with dancing kicks
he spurns the dust.
In his short time left with men to mingle
The cossack sings,
this tipsy jingle.
"On the road is a crab, crab, crab. ”

“ But a conflict of spirit now faces him. His worldly interests and his judgment advise him to go on with his painting. But strange music seems to ring in his ears. It is the music of his beautiful and suffering Ukraine. ”

“ How the Cossacks pay their fee.
"Fear not! Look ahead,
To the Cossack banquet spread.
Dark over all, like a common day,
And this no little holiday."
"No sneak thieves with Hamaleia,
To eat their bacon silently
Without a frying pan." ”

“ The Czars used the Ukrainians as tools in their ambitious projects. A hundred thousand of them perished in the marshes, digging the foundations of Petrograd. As many more died in the attempt to subdue the Circassians—tribes inhabiting the Caucasus mountains—to the imperial will of the Russian autocrat. ”

“ For he loved the brave Slavonic band;
And Bosphorus desisted,
While in slumber lay the Turkish land.
The lazy Sultan in his harem slept,
But only in Skutari the weary pris’ners wept.
For something are they waiting,
To God from dungeon praying,
While the waves go roaring by.
“Oh, loved God of Ukraine’s land,
To us in prison stretch thy hand; [25]
Slaves are we a Cossack band. ”

“ It happened sometimes, when a cossack warrior found his energies failing and his joints growing stiff from much campaigning, he would bethink him of his sins and deeds of blood.
These things weighing on his mind, he would decide to spend the remainder of his life in a monastery, but before taking this irrevocable step, he would hold a time of high revel with his old comrades. ”

“ Rolling to the sea so far
Foeman's blood, no longer there
Stay I where my ashes are.
Grass and hills I'll leave and fly,
Unto throne of God I'll go,
There in heaven to pray on high,
But, till then, no God I know. ”

“ They aroused the conscience of the Russian people, and the persecutions suffered by the poet at the hands of the autocracy awakened their sympathy.
It was two days after the death of Shevchenko that the czar’s ukase appeared granting freedom to the serfs. Possibly the dying poet knew it was coming and died the happier on that account.
But in still another way does this man’s figure stand out. In the country called the Ukraine is a nation of between thirty and forty millions of people, having a language of their own—the language in which these poems were composed. ”

“ They were too humane to put him to death, they merely sought to crush his spirit. But the Slav spirit is hard to crush. It may brood and smoulder long, but sometime or other it will burst out in flames.
In the case of Shevchenko another influence may be seen at work. In his ragged youth, when acting as assistant to a drunken church singer he gained at least one thing. That was a familiarity with the Psalter and the Hebrew prophets. The deep religious fire of the Hebrew seems fused with his own irrepressible native genius to form a spirit that could not be subdued. ”

“ Oh, Creator of heaven and earth,
Give long life on earth,
And paradise beyond.
All good things of earth
Are for these gods, the Tsars,
Ploughs and ships,
All wealth of earth
For us—good lack!
Is left to love our brothers. ”

“ Evil-doers, Oh God, are we,
An earthly heaven we had from Thee,
Turned it into hell have we,
And a second heaven is now our plea.
Gently we live with our brothers now,
With their lives our fields we plough ”

“ She plays and sings, makes waggons and things,
And on a holiday, plays with it all the day.
Wondering, the old folks gaze,
But to God they give the praise.
So the servant never rests,
But the night her spirit tests.
In her chamber then, I ween,
Many a tear she sheds unseen. ”

“ THE sun goes down beyond the hill,
The shadows darken, birds are still;
From fields no more come toiler's voices
In blissful rest the world rejoices.
With lifted heart I, gazing stand,
Seek shady grove in Ukraine's land. ”

“ At another time he was taken with a scientific expedition to the Sea of Aral, and employed in the congenial task of painting the wild scenery of that part.
At other times again the severity would be redoubled and pen, ink and paper would be forbidden. Through it all his love and sorrow for his native land increased. Only the remembrance of Ukraine kept him alive.
Ten years of Siberia changed the gay young artist of bright eyes and abundant locks to a gray-bearded, bald-headed old man on whom Death had set his seal. ”

“ None with whom to speak,
Not even desire for life.
Yet thou must live!
I must! I must!
But for what?
That I may not lose my soul?
My soul is not worth
such suffering!
Then why must I live on
in the world. ”

“ Suffer me not to perish;
Grant me strength to overcome my woe.
To live out my life on these sacred hills:
To glorify Thee and rejoice in Thy beauty,
And at last, though beaten by the people’s sins. ”

“ I shall perish, too.
Then bear my soul away
Where my loved one is,
Plant me as a red viburnum
On his tomb.
Better that an orphan lie
In a stranger's field,
Over him his sweetheart
Will bud and bloom. ”

“ Her own children
crucify her
worse than the Poles.
How like beer
they draw off
her righteous blood.
They would, you see
enlighten the maternal eyes
with everlasting fires;
Lead on the poor blind cripple
after the spirit of the age,
German fashion! ”

“ In these poems speaks the struggling soul of a downtrodden people. To our western folk, reared in happier surroundings there is a bitter tang about some of them, somewhat like the taste of olives, to which one must grow accustomed. ”

“ Shevchenko’s saddest experience in the Ukraine was when he visited his native village and found his brothers and sisters in serfdom. His dream was to earn enough money to purchase their freedom, and afterwards to devote his life to the liberation of the peasantry. The poem—“The Bondwoman’s Dream”—commemorates the poet’s meeting with his favorite sister, Katherine, working as a slave.
His friends thought he should go to Italy to perfect himself in painting. Madame Kulisch purposed to sell her family jewels to raise sufficient money to send Shevchenko to that country. ”

“ Let me curse them
and burn up the world.
Terrible it is to fall
into dungeons
Yet much worse—to sleep
And sleep and sleep
in freedom;
To slumber for an eternity
And leave not a footprint behind.
All alike—
whether one lives or dies. ”

“ Over little me:
"Swim, swim, little maid,
Adown the Dnieper water,
You'll swim out a fairy
Next midnight, my daughter.
I go to dance with him,
My faithless lover;
You'll come and lure him
Into the river. ”

“ Freedom and Friends
With his new freedom Shevchenko finds himself in a different world. Not only does he meet the most brilliant people of the Russian Capital—scientists, artists, generals, nobles are his intimates. Count Tolstoi and Prince and Princess Repnin are his patrons.
He is introduced, too, in Russian or Polish translations to the great authors of other lands and times,—Greece and Rome, Germany and Britain offer him their treasures. ”

“ These are the wandering minstrels of the Ukraine.
They play on an instrument called the Kobza which somewhat resembles a mandolin. Often in former days they were old prisoners of war—too old to work—so their Turkish captors first blinded them and then set them at liberty.
Wandering among the villages, guided by some little boy, they earned their bread by singing folk-songs and hero-tales to the accompaniment of the Kobza.
Shevchenko published his book of poems with the title “Kobzar.” ”

“ This poem was written in 1847 in Siberia. Taken away suddenly from Ukraine, Shevchenko could not forget his mother land. His beloved Ukraine was very far from him, and he longed for her even in his dreams. He describes in the poem a dream which he had about the beauties of the Ukraine, which he had just left and which he never hoped to see again. The old man of whom he speaks represents the poet himself, who knew the miseries of his native land and who desired to spend the last hours of his life there. ”

“ But the new autocrat, though somewhat benevolently inclined, was also a little bit suspicious. The banished poet was a pretty dangerous character. He had even disturbed the conscience of autocracy itself, hence he was only allowed to approach his home country by degrees. Finally he was allowed to reside in Petrograd and later even in Ukraine, welcomed everywhere by loving and pitying friends.
His wish for his old age was to inhabit a little cottage on the Dnieper’s banks. For this purpose he purchased a piece of land on one of those hills so often referred to in his poems. ”

“ Most remarkable were the relations between Shevchenko and Professor Kulisch. [104] Kulisch was to be married to a great lady, a daughter of one of the nobles of the country. The poet was invited to the wedding and the bride, in her enthusiasm, actually kissed his hand. This was an astonishing act of condescension towards one who had been a serf, but this lady, herself afterwards a famous authoress, cherished the memory to her dying day. ”

“ At Kiev people still remember that the earliest Russian civilization had its beginnings in the Ukraine. There Christianity first took root, and there were the first Russian Princes.
Before Shevchenko’s arrival there was organized at Kiev the Society of Cyril and Methodius, called after the great apostles of Russia, and the leading spirits of the Society were professors in the University of Kiev.
Into this brilliant company Shevchenko was welcomed. Its leaders became his devoted friends. A chair of painting in the University was to be established for him. ”

“ Who is that Lord
that will forbid
Our thoughts and words?"
Yea, the Lord shall say to Thee
"I shall arise, this day
On their behalf—
People of mine in chains,
The poor and humble ones
These will I glorify. ”

“ O'er hills and tombs,
The floods were sent.
The hills are wrapt
in silence grim.
On boundless sea
waves ever play;
The tombs gleam forth
with sadness dim;
O'er all the land
the foe holds sway. ”

“ Death came too soon, however, but the property served as the site of his last resting place. He died at Petrograd but in the spring his remains were carried the long distance to his old home. A mourning people lined the way.
Only a couple of days after the poet’s death, appeared the ukase of the czar proclaiming the abolition of serfdom. To the common people it seemed that their peasant poet, by his songs and his sufferings, had been the prime cause of their new freedom. ”

“ The music of the original I could not give. It begins like a Highland dirge with wailing amphibrachs, and there are other measures in it not used in our language. Perhaps some future student may be moved to put this poem in such English form as will give the true impression of the original.
The motive of the poem is, in part, to awaken the conscience of the young educated Ukrainians who, for the sake of gain were allowing themselves to be used as tools by foreign oppressors. ”

“ In 1845 Shevchenko was graduated from the Imperial Academy of Arts at Petersburg. Shortly after he travelled to the Ukraine, purposing to devote his life to the service of his own people. His progress was a triumphal march, a succession of banquets and popular welcomes and entertainments at the homes of the wealthy. ”

“ Who will guard their gathered treasure,
In loyal service find his pleasure?
Who will be their faithful son
When low their sands of life do run?
Hard it is a child to rear,
In roofless house 'mid want and fear. ”

“ Fierce banditti they were, many of them serfs who had run away from their Polish masters. But they often developed great military power. At times the Poles succeeded in securing numbers of them as fighters in their army, but when the tyranny of the Polish landlords became intolerable the so-called “Registered Cossacks” would sometimes join with the “Free Cossacks” of the “border land”—which is the meaning of the word “Ukraine,” and exact terrible vengeance on the Poles. ”

“ Who was Taras Shevchenko?
How many English-speaking people have heard of Taras Shevchenko?
What “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” did for the negroes of the United States of America the poems of Shevchenko did for the serfs of Russia. ”