This being the first time I've ever attempted classical Ukrainian poetry, I admit it was somewhat slow-going the first slog through, but nevertheless, I could feel the anger and the sadness of the work. If you'd like to read along or ahead, or even later, I found a decently poetic translation here [pdf].
In it, a village girl falls in love with a moskal', a Russian soldier and symbol of the Russian empire. The girl, Katerina, frolics in the garden with this young man, and then he leaves. Later, she finds herself pregnant. Her family disowns her and her child, and she leaves the village, vowing never to return. She sets off in the general direction of Russia, hoping to find Ivan, the moskal' she once loved, the father of her child. After travelling through the storms of early winter, she finally catches up to Ivan who does not--or refuses--to recognize her, refuses his son, and rides off. Delirious with grief, Katerina abandons her son Ivas and drowns herself in a nearby
pond.
Yeah, it's not a very uplifting one. But for good reason. First, a quick aside: when I told my friend Zabavka that I was taking a Ukrainian literature course this semester, she asked if I was doing modern stuff, or the classics. I told her that I was doing some of both. As much as text can groan, I sensed a groan in her reply. "Oh just skip the classics," she said. "Every one of them is so depressing." I laughed it off then, but after reading this poem I see her point. But the sadness isn't just for sadness' sake: at the time when it was written, Ukraine was ruled and basically enslaved by Tsarist Russia. Taras Shevchenko wrote this as a serf, living at the time in St Petersberg, and it is a reflection of and an outlet for his frustration with the state of Ukraine vis a vis its relation to Russia. The Ukrainian maid falls in love with the strong Russian soldier who uses her, knocks her up, then abandons her and her son twice over. The word that Shevchenko uses to describe how Ivan leaves in infant son in the road is bayduzhe, or indifferent. Russia tossed Ukraine out like spoiled food when it was done with her, then couldn't be bothered to care about the damage it had wrought.
This is the first thing for this class I've read. I'm excited for the rest of it!
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