Lesya Ukrainka(Ukrainian Lesya Ukrainka, real name - Larisa Petrovna Kosach-Kvitka, Larisa Petrivna Kosach-Kvitka)
Lesya Ukrainka is the pseudonym of the poetess. Real name - Larisa Petrovna Kosach-Kvitka. Born February 13, 1871 in the family of a landowner. Her mother Olga Petrovna Kosach was a writer known under the pseudonym Elena Pchilka. The whole family was educated and talented. My father was fond of art and literature. Larisa's uncle, Mikhail Dragomanov, was a folklorist, he had a great influence on the girl's future work. The house of the Kosachs was often crowded with various cultural figures, so that the child was brought up in the spirit of art, poetry, prose and music.
Parents paid great attention to the education of their daughter. From a young age, Larisa studied a number of foreign languages. From the age of 5 she wrote her own pieces on the piano. At the age of 8, her first poem came out from under her hand. The girl was very fond of playing the piano and poetry.
But in 1881, when the child was only 10 years old, she began to suffer from terrible pain in her leg. Doctors initially misdiagnosed and the prescribed treatment did not help at all. The pain then spread to my arms. Doctors issued a final verdict - tuberculosis of the bones. This was followed by a very difficult operation, but it did not give results. But the hand was badly damaged. And so the little girl was doomed to live with it for the rest of her life.
Lesya could not continue to play the piano, because she led a practically recumbent lifestyle. Here begins her productive literary activity. The Ukrainian is engaged in translations, writes her own works. Her famous translation into Ukrainian is Gogol's "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", which she made together with her brother. Her works began to appear in print.
Lesya Ukrainka traveled a lot due to illness, but no resorts helped her. The illness only got worse. Larisa's life was cut short on August 1, 1913 in the city of Surami, in Georgia. The writer was buried in Kyiv at the Baikove cemetery.
The name of Lesya Ukrainka is revered not only on the territory of Ukraine. She is known in many countries. Why so deserved recognition in the hearts of millions? Yes, with her resilient character, the ability to stay afloat even in the most terrible storm, to meet all failures and misfortunes with a smile, and, undoubtedly, the great talent of a musician and writer. Streets in many cities are named after Ukrainka, her portrait is depicted on the 200-hryvnia banknote. Adults and children know her name, her poems, her life, her attitude to misfortunes serve as support for many in difficult times.

Burn my heart, yogo ignited
I'm sorry for the hot spark.
Why am I not crying? Clear your tears
Why can't I start a terrible fire?

My soul is crying, my soul is torn,
That tears do not rush with a violent stream,
My eyes do not reach those tears,
Bo dry them tight with fire.

I would like to visit a clear field,
Fall face down to the orphan land
And so zaridat, schob dawns sensed,
Sob people took a liking to my tears.

***
My heart is burning - a hot spark
Sorrow ignited, burned me.
So why don't I cry, so what about tears
Pour not in a hurry to her evil fire?

My soul cries in inescapable anguish,
But tears do not flow like a living stream,
Burning tears do not reach the eyes,
Sorrow dries them with its heat.

I would like to go out into the open field,
Crouching to the ground, to snuggle up to it
And sob so that the stars can hear
So that the world is horrified by my sadness.
Translation by V. Zvyagintseva


Only hope remained alone:
Hope to return once again to Ukraine,
Take another look at the native land,
Take another look at the blue Dnipro, -
There, live or die, it's all the same for me;
Take another look at the steppe, the graves,
Rise up and guess sticks of nasty things ...
I have no share, no will,
Only hope remained alone.

[Lutsk, 1880]

Hope
Life gave me no share, no will,
Only one, one hope is dear to me:

To see my Ukraine again
And everything that I love in my native land,

Look at the blue Dnieper again,
And it's all the same - let me die even now,

Take another look at the mounds in the steppes,
Breathe in the end about ardent dreams.

No share, no will is given by fate,
I am destined to live by hope alone.
Translation by V. Zvyagintseva

Nichka is quiet and dark bula.
I stood, my friend, with you;
I marveled at you with zhurba,
Nichka is quiet and dark bula ...

Wind sumno zіthav near the garden.
You sleep, I sat silently,
Song in my heart brinil;
The wind is winding down by the garden...

The distant zіrnitsa shattered.
Oh, yak took me tight!
I pierced my heart with a knife.
The distant zirnitsa fell off ...
1893-1894

The night was quiet and dark.

I stood, my friend, with you,
I looked at you with longing.
The night was quiet and dark.
The wind sighed sadly in the garden.

You sang, I sat silently
The song in my chest rang;
The wind sighed sadly in the garden….
A distant lightning flared up,

Oh, what sadness took me!
Passed through the heart with a sharp knife ...
A distant lightening flared up...
Line-by-line translation by M.Davish

I would like to hug you, mov ivy,
So mіtsno, shіlno, and close one of the world,
I'm not afraid of you living alone
You will be mov ruin, vkrita sheet, -

Ivy gives life, embraces wine,
To harrow the wall against the villain,
Ale and ruin it became so trimaє
Comrade, abi without falling to the bottom.

Їm good so doubled, - as we are with you, -
And the hour will come for the ruins to rise, -
Let the ivy go out under you.
Newly built ivy near the self-tree?

Hiba on those, abi wallow dolі
Let's hurt, shatter, without strength
Chi z rozpachu hang on poplars
І statis for her gersh graves?
1900

I would like to hug you like ivy.

I would like to hug you like ivy,
So strong, strong and close from the light,
I'm not afraid to take your life
You will be, like ruins, covered with a leaf, -

Ivy gives life to the ruins, he embraces,
Protects a bare wall from bad weather,
But she also steadfastly supports
A friend so that he does not fall.

They are so good together, - like you and me, -
But the time will come when the wall will crumble, -
Let her bury the ivy under her,
Why should he be alone?

Only to wallow in the dust
Wounded, torn, without strength,
Or in desperation to cling to a poplar,
And become a punishment worse than the grave?
Line-by-line translation by M.Davish

"Don't sing me these songs..."

Do not sing me these songs,
Do not fight my heart!
To sleep with a light sleep, it's a pity for my heart,
Why wake up yoga with sleep?

You don't know what I'm guessing
Like I'm sitting, I'm moving, blіda.
Well the same in me in the heart deeply
This song is a sumptuous rida!

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The life of the glorious daughter of the Ukrainian people, Lesya Ukrainka, can be compared to a drama extravaganza in which the tragic struggle of a person with a bodily ailment takes place against the backdrop of the flourishing of a truly fabulous poetic talent. “Daughters of Prometheus,” as the poetess proudly calls her, throughout her life her courage never changed, and she even “hoped without hope” (she has a poem “Contra spem spero”). The only thing that Lesya Ukrainka was afraid of was to be "famous, but not readable." Having lived only 42 years, the writer created a huge number of original lyrical, epic and dramatic works, translations and scientific research. She did not give herself time for rest and respite, she was always in the thick of literary and social life. Lesya's vitality amazed contemporaries, AI. Franco noted that "as a lyrical talent, she is noticeable for her courage and great depth of feelings." Probably, all the spiritual strength of the ancient Kosach and Drahomanov families, where she came from, dating back to the 15th century and leaving a noticeable mark on Ukrainian history, poured into a fragile, sickly, but unusually talented woman.

The word of art reigned in Lesya's family. Her father, Pyotr Antonovich Kosach, graduated from the Faculty of Law and was engaged in peasant affairs. In the family, he was a bulwark of kindness and tranquility. Comprehensively educated, he loved and knew literature, and treated his talented daughter with special tenderness. His wife, Olena Pchilka (Olga Petrovna Dragomanova), a well-known writer, ethnographer, was an active person both in family and in public life. The birth of six children did not turn her into a mother hen. She put all her strength into ensuring that the younger Kosachi grew up as educated people who love Ukraine and their native language, people who are "needed" by society. She said, not without pride, that she had created a "literary family."

Lesya was born on February 25, 1871 in the city of Novograd-Volynsky. At baptism, she received the name Larisa, but her family called her Elk, and the inseparable couple (Larisa and her brother Mikhail) jokingly called Mouse. By the age of five, the girl had learned to read and deliberately signed her first letter to her beloved uncle Mikhail Drahomanov with the name Lesya. Already in early childhood, she was an exceptionally gifted, observant and persistent child, she embroidered and painted with enthusiasm, easily adopted folk songs, recorded and performed them, and played the piano beautifully. Her musical abilities were noted by the composer Lysenko. In the home theater, Lesya was both a performer, a director, and a decorator. She was easily given foreign languages, especially German and French, and in total she knew ten languages. Since the mother was categorically against teaching children at school, Lesya systematically studied under her guidance with home teachers, but only for two years. “Lesya acquired all her knowledge herself,” recalled her sister Olga, “thanks to her great craving for them and her unusually strong and lively character ...”

The girl wrote her first poem when she was less than ten years old, under the impression of the bitter news of the arrest and exile of her aunt E. A. Kosach. To this day, it opens any collection of the poetess and does not at all resemble a nursery rhyme.

I have no share, no will,

Only hope remained alone:

Hope to return once again to Ukraine,

Take another look at the native land,

Take another look at the blue Dnipro, -

There live or die, it's all the same for me ...

When Lesya was 11 years old, disaster struck. The girl, carried away by folklore, stood for many hours, watching the baptismal rites on the Styr River, and severely caught a cold. Frozen feet, inflammation of the joints, high fever, as it turned out, were evil harbingers of the "thirty-year war" with tuberculosis, which, after the bones, struck the lungs and kidneys, brought to anemia. Exhausted by pains, wounded by operations, hoods, gypsum, crutches, the body - and in it an unbroken, pure soul. “I will go out alone against the storm and stand - let's measure strength!” - Lesya wrote in one of her poems. During her lifetime, her resilience became as much a legend as the power of verse, which is not characteristic of a woman.

When Lesya was 13 years old, her poem "Lily of the Valley" was published in the magazine. Since then, beautiful poetic lines, signed by the proud and beautiful name of Ukrainka, have become known to the whole world. This pseudonym was a kind of challenge to the existing order, a biased attitude towards everything Ukrainian and, first of all, towards language and literature. From youthful, almost idyllic poems, the poetess moved on to the motives of courage, strong will and struggle, to a philosophical understanding of life. But her poetry retained a unique musicality. Many composers, starting with N. V. Lysenko, wrote songs and romances based on her poems, used the texts and plots of her poems and dramatic works for operas, ballets, chamber and symphonic works.

Lesya Ukrainka quickly entered the world of poets as a brilliant lyricist, whose feelings are sharpened by constant suffering and the impossibility of ordinary human happiness.

From cycle to cycle (“Tears-Pearls”, “Melodies”, “Rhythms”), from one poetry collection to another (“On the Wings of Songs”, 1892; “Thoughts and Dreams”, 1899; “Echoes” , 1902) crystallized a style of extraordinary artistic power. The poetics of L. Ukrainka's works is as diverse as the subject matter. It “amazes with an unusual variety of strophics, metrics, rhythms ... - noted M. Rylsky. “We see in her canonical sonnets, octaves, sextines, hexameters and completely original constructions of stanzas ...” L. Ukrainka was fluent in literary and folk speech, which, combined with the original gift of artistic vision of the world, made her a master of the poetic word.

The seriously ill woman did not withdraw into her work. She constantly took a direct part in public and political life. When relatives and friends urged her to “reject all politics,” Lesya said: “I just can’t, because not only my convictions, but also my temperament does not allow me to do this ... Then I need to give up my poems, my most sincere words ... " The poetess participated in the publication of Ukrainian newspapers and magazines, was an active member of the Pleiades and Enlightenment writers' circles, taught Ukrainian language courses in Kyiv.

Lesya Ukrainka appeared in print as a publicist and critic. So, for the journal "Life" she wrote six large review articles, covering with a single glance the most important processes of modern literature, and in "Notes on the latest Polish literature" she raised questions of aesthetics, sociology, history and modern politics. Lesya's erudition was phenomenal and constantly expanded thanks to her indefatigable thirst for knowledge. Contemporaries were struck by the fundamental nature of her education. At the age of 19, Lesya wrote a Ukrainian-language textbook "The Ancient History of the Eastern Peoples" for the sisters' home education (it was published by Olga Kosach-Krivenyuk after her sister's death). A deep knowledge of history gave Ukrainka's poetic fantasy an amazing persuasiveness. But no matter what historical events Lesya touched on in her works, their main idea was easily projected onto the fate of Ukraine and its people. And the plots of the poems "Pan-politician" and "Pan-people-lover" (1905) seem to be peeped in today's day:

Now every boor shows nature,

Are we to speak? Tse buv bi lyuty shame!

I'm ready to support this program!..

I'm making my candidacy!

For her merciless and freedom-loving poems, which revolutionaries often referred to in their appeals, Lesya Ukrainka was under secret police surveillance for many years, and in 1907 she was even arrested. She lived with faith in a just social reorganization of society, in which the Ukrainian people and their language would be free, but with contempt for those politicians who did not want to see anything further than their “navel” and considered it the center of the universe.

The word that Lesya Ukrainka compared with a spark, fire, steel, she considered her only weapon in the struggle for a better future.

The word, my only good,

We are not guilty of dying both!

Maybe in the hands of unknown brothers

Become the best sword for the Kativ.

Lesya was friends with many such "unknown friends". One of them, S. K. Merzhinsky - one of the first Belarusian Marxists - deeply sunk into her heart. However, Olga Petrovna sharply opposed the feelings of young people, taking advantage of the material and physical dependence of her sick daughter. Sergei was also unwell, and when he was dying of tuberculosis in 1901, Lesya, having rejected all prohibitions and excessive maternal care, looked after him in Minsk for almost six months. The death of Merzhinsky became for her "a black day and at the same time the brightest surge in creativity." In fact, in one night, Lesya wrote the dramatic poem "Obsessed", which she dedicated to her friend who had gone forever. In a letter to I. Franko, she confessed: “... I wrote on such a night, after which I will surely live for a long time, if I remained alive then. And she wrote, not even exhausting grief, but at its very apogee. If someone asked me how I got out of all this alive, I could answer: J'en ai fait drama (I created a drama out of this), which means fate.

Among the friends who shared her grief was K. V. Kvitka. They met in the spring of 1898. Kliment studied folk music and recorded Ukrainian songs and melodies. Lesya from childhood was also interested in folklore. They looked at each other for a long time. In the soul of a woman lived the pain of a departed love, and Clement, having experienced many shocks in childhood, was distrustful and not talkative. They were brought together by the common work on folklore collections. And this time, Lesya did not allow her mother to interfere with her female happiness. She wrote to her sister Olga: “I will not change my attitude towards Klena (Clement), except in the direction of even greater benevolence. But all the same, it’s annoying, and hard, and fatal that not one of my friendships, or sympathy, or love has so far been without this poisonous jealousy on the part of my mother ... "

On June 25, 1907, Clement and Lesya got married in the Ascension Church in Kyiv. None of the relatives were present. The family did not want to believe for a long time that Lesya could find happiness in isolation from her relatives, with a man younger than her, who was not well adapted to life, and also suffering from tuberculosis. But the spouses lived in peace and harmony, supporting and helping each other in everything. Only in one thing Lesya's mother turned out to be right - Clement could not financially provide for the family. Lesya's treatment in the Crimea, Italy, Egypt, trips to doctors in Germany and Austria required a lot of money. And the poetess still so wanted to help other people. So, she subsidized and took an active part in the folklore expedition of F. Kolessa to record kobza thoughts and folk songs on a phonograph in the Poltava region. Lesya was often forced to put aside unfinished works and write critical articles, compose and rewrite various papers. But the main income was brought by transfers. A Ukrainian woman, who perfectly knew 10 languages ​​and world literature, has been working in this field since the age of 13. Thanks to her, the poems and prose of H. Heine, V. Hugo, W. Shakespeare, J. G. Byron, A. Negri, M. Maeterlinck, G. Hauptmann, N. Gogol, I. Turgenev, and also the ancient Indian "Rig Veda", the poems of Homer and Dante, the ancient Egyptian lyrics. The lion's share of translations, as well as original works, was printed in Western Ukraine, since Russian censorship prohibited the publication of books in Ukrainian. The works of Ukrainian authors - V. Stefanyk, O. Kobylyanska, I. Franko - were translated into Russian by the poetess. The poetic lines of L. Ukrainka were subsequently translated into Russian by such masters as S. Marshak, A. Prokofiev, N. Zabolotsky, M. Svetlov, P. Antokolsky, M. Aliger and others.

A significant place in the creative heritage of L. Ukrainka is occupied by poems that are amazing in style and poetic perception. The epic form of the narration of "Robert the Bruce - King of Scots", "One Word", "Posestra Villas", "The Old Tale" and "Isolde Beloruka" allowed the poetess to convey with the utmost clarity the events, moods, depth of feelings and psychology of her characters with a surprisingly elegant style .

Old story! and similar to a bike, -

Є in nіy song, do it, there are і mrії,

Ale true, why is the star good,

Siple creaking gold.

The last five years of her life Lesya Ukrainka literally wrested from death. During this period, monumental compositions of the dramatic poems "Rufin and Priscilla", "Lawyer Martian", "Forest Song", "Stone Master", "Orgy" were created, which L. Kostenko called "a phenomenal phenomenon in Ukrainian literature." She wrote: “In terms of the scale of artistic thinking, this phenomenon is rare even in the context of the highest achievements of world culture. It is not difficult to trace burning analogies, the whole Gordian knot of national history and all the acuteness of burning problems in all times in its ancient and Christian subjects. There was practically no dramatic poem in Ukrainian literature before Lesia Ukrainka. This definition of the genre - "dramatic poem" - she was the first to introduce. Only original talent could create one after another things so different in material, tonality, style and at the same time so complementary to each other. Her dramatic works combine the tragic, lyrical and sublime principles. For the first time in literature, with “Khokhlatskaya impudence”, a woman swung to comprehend the legendary image of Don Juan and gave the world one of the best readings of this plot.

The peak of the poetic genius of Lesya Ukrainka was the drama show "Forest Song". In recent years, the poetess lived far from her native places, in need of a warm climate. On the advice of doctors, she spent the winter in Italy or Egypt, and the summer in Georgia. “It seems that I was destined to be such a princesse lointaine (distant princess), I lived in Asia, I will live in Africa, and there ... This is how I will move further and further - and disappear, turn into a legend ... Isn’t it good?” Lesya yearned for her native Volyn, whose picturesque places she often remembered. In one of these sad periods, in 10-12 days, according to her, she created a marvelous poetic work, where the beauty of untouched nature, the wonderful world of naive folk mythology are opposed to human rudeness, wretchedness and winglessness. It is difficult to name another play in which such a significant role would be assigned to the ever-reviving nature. The strength of the "Forest Song" is that it merged the tender melody of the poetic word and the hope that kindness, sincerity, self-sacrifice can become a salvation for the resurgent human spirit. And the last monologue of the daughter of the forest - Mavka - sounds like a testament of the poetess herself.

Oh, do not scold for the body!

It lit up with a clear fire,

We clean, burn, like good wine,

With great sparks it flew uphill.

Light, fluffy ass

Lie down, returning, to native land,

Together with water there to grow willows, -

Become the cob of this my kіnets.

On August 1, 1913, Lesya Ukrainka died in the Georgian city of Surami. She was buried at the Baykove cemetery in Kyiv. Her bright and courageous soul left her body, tormented by diseases, but forever remained among people, disturbing hearts with immortal lines ...

Lesya Ukrainka (25.02. 1871 - 1.08. 1913)

Poetess, translator, playwright, who wrote in two languages ​​- Russian and Ukrainian. Author of the drama "Stone Master", the play "Blue Rose", numerous poems and poems. She translated into Ukrainian the works of Goethe, Schiller, Heine. Founder of the Ukrainian society of young poets "Pleiades".

... In many of her poems, two words are often repeated: “wings” and “song”. Maybe because her strongest dream has always been to take off, overcoming the shackles of a weak body, and the lines of her poems are filled with soft and sad tunes of her native land, wherever she is: under the hot sun of Egypt, the gray and rainy sky of Germany or shores of the Mediterranean in Greece...

Lesya Ukrainka was born on February 25, 1871 in the city of Novograd-Volynsky, in that part of Ukraine that was part of the Russian Empire, in a family not alien to high spiritual interests: her mother is a writer who worked under the pseudonym Olena Pchilka (her poetry and stories in her native language for children, well known in Ukraine), the father is a highly educated landowner who was very fond of literature and painting. Writers, artists and musicians often gathered in the house of the Kosachs, evenings and home concerts were held. Uncle Lesya - that was her family name and this home name became her literary pseudonym - Mikhail Dragomanov, who later took care of his niece in a friendly manner and helped her in every possible way - was a famous scientist, public figure, lived for a long time abroad in France and Bulgaria. He made acquaintances with Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Victor Hugo, was aware of all the latest literary and political events and often replenished his niece's library with parcels from abroad.

Beloved by all, Lesya at first grew up healthy and cheerful. She did not receive a formal education. Her only and rather strict home teacher was her mother, Olga Petrovna. She developed her own training program, which was distinguished by breadth and thoroughness, but there was no system in it, and the poetess herself later regretted this shortcoming very much. Father tried to insist on inviting teachers from the gymnasium to Lesya, but how could one argue with the imperious, proud Olga Petrovna, who was used to the fact that only her decisions should be the main ones in Lesya's life?!

Extraordinarily talented, receptive, vulnerable, with a deep, true, musical talent (she began to play and compose small pieces of music from the age of five!) At the age of eight she wrote her first poem, Lesya in 1881 suddenly became seriously ill. She suffered from unbearable pain in her right leg. At first they decided that she had acute rheumatism, they treated her with baths, ointments, herbs, but everything was useless. The pain passed into my hands.

Doctors finally determined - tuberculosis of the bone. Lesya's musical career was put to rest. After the first, difficult, but extremely unsuccessful, operation, the arm remained crippled! It was then that sadness first appeared in the eyes of a fragile girl. In the future, like a light veil, she will envelop all her work. From now on, for many months a year, the girl should lie in bed, not make sudden movements, all the time experience excruciating pain ...

The parents didn't give up. They took the girl to the sea, to mud baths and swimming, turned to the best doctors, traditional medicine, foreign professors in Germany, but all was in vain. The disease, if it receded, did not last long. Lesya now only had to remember her mysterious nightly walks through the manor park in Kolodyazhny (the Kosachy estate in Volhynia), when she listened, and it seemed to her that she heard the sleepy breath of foliage and grass, saw the mermaid Mavka bathing in a pond, weaving yellow hair into her hair. a white water lily, catching the moonbeams with her hands ....

Later, when her mother told Lesya that only the images of classical literature influenced the creation of her beautiful drama - the extravaganza “Forest Song” (1911), the poetess boldly denied this: “I don’t remember the Volyn forests dashingly. Remembering them, I wrote a “drama extravaganza” in their honor and it brought me a lot of joy!” (L. Ukrainka - A.E. Krymsky * October 14, 1911) (* A.E. Krymsky - scientist, philologist and historian - orientalist, great friend L. Kosach, who helped her in processing and recording folk legends and songs - author .)

She always tried to find joy in everything. She had an indomitable spirit. Selflessly, at night, she studied languages: Bulgarian, Spanish, Latin, ancient Greek, Italian, Polish, German, not to mention English and French, geography, history of the East and Eastern cultures, history of art and religions, and for her younger sisters at the age of 19 age (!) wrote a textbook: "The ancient history of the Eastern peoples." Mikhailo Pavlyk, a Ukrainian writer and public figure, recalled one of his meetings with the poetess in Lviv in 1891: “Lesya simply stunned me with her education and subtle mind. I thought that she lives only for poetry, but this is far from the case. For her age, this is a brilliant woman. We talked with her for a very long time, and in every word I saw the mind and a deep understanding of poetry, science and life!”

In 1893, in Lvov (Western Ukraine), a thin booklet of her poems “On the Wings of a Song” was published, warmly received by critics and the public. Ivan Franko wrote with admiration about the "miracle of life-affirmation" - the poems of the young poetess, which seemed to have grown out of Ukrainian songs and fairy tales.

“Reading the soft and relaxed or coldly resonant writings of Ukrainian men and comparing them with these cheerful, strong and courageous, and at the same time, such sincere words of Lesya Ukrainka, you involuntarily think that this sick, weak girl is almost the only man in all over Ukraine!” he concluded with bitter humor.

Already in the early lyrics, readers were fascinated by the excellent command of the word, the vivid imagery of the language, the richness of rhymes and comparisons, and, importantly, the hidden power and deep spirituality. Behind sadness and slight sadness, sometimes such wisdom and thirst for life were hidden that those few who knew about the personal drama of the poetess only shook their heads in admiration. I must say that many of the poems of the thin collection almost immediately became folk songs.

In the work of Lesya Ukrainka, the theme of the homeland - free Ukraine - is too noticeable to be ignored. Her uncle, a supporter of the national independence of Ukraine from the Russian Empire, was forced to emigrate abroad, her paternal aunt, Elena Antonovna Kosach, was repeatedly arrested and exiled for participating in the revolutionary movement. Even the beloved poetess, Sergei Merzhinsky (they met in the Crimea, in 1897), being mortally ill, he himself participated in the revolutionary movement, distributed leaflets and leaflets. And who knows, maybe it was precisely because of this that loving, but domineering, Olga Petrovna Kosach was so opposed to the rapprochement, and then the romance of her daughter with Sergei Merzhinsky, that this dangerous activity frightened her too much, she knew too well what the passion for thirst could lead to feat and sacrifice, how can she break and wound the heart and soul!

Added to this was the usual selfish maternal jealousy, the fear of losing control and power over the fragile, helpless creature that her daughter always seemed to her.

But when, in 1901, Sergei Konstantinovich Merzhinsky would die of pulmonary tuberculosis, Olga Petrovna would unquestioningly obey her daughter's willful decision to be near her beloved and let her go to Minsk, to him. Merzhinsky will die in the arms of Lesia - Larochka, as he called her - and she, in order to get out of the "apogee of sorrow", will write the lyrical drama "Possessed" in one night, using an ancient biblical story. Later, she will say about this work of hers: “I confess that I wrote on such a night, after which, surely, I will live a long time, if I stayed alive then.”

The cycle of her best lyric poems 1898-1900. dedicated to Sergei Merzhinsky. It was published only after the death of the poetess and still amazes with the depth and sincerity of pain and the height of a wonderful love feeling:

"Mouths say: He left without return,

No, he didn’t leave, - the heart believes sacredly.

Do you hear the string ringing and crying?

She rings, trembles with a hot tear.

Here in the depths it trembles in tune with me:

And in songs do I want to get rid of flour,

Or someone will gently squeeze my hand,

Or a heart-to-heart conversation is being conducted,

Or who touches my lips with lips -

The string rings like an echo above me:

"I'm here, I'm here always, always with you!"

(“The mouth repeats.” Translation by A. Ostrovsky.)

Lesya Ukrainka, very modest by nature, selected her lyrical poems for publication very carefully. Much of what was written during his lifetime never saw the light of day, and the academic publications of the 60s of the twentieth century have long been forgotten. Only in her magnificent dramas and poems do we see the brightest reflections - echoes of a passionate, poetic nature, capable of a deep, selfless feeling:

When I die, they will blaze in the world

Words warmed by my fire.

And the flame hidden in them will shine

Lit at night, it will burn during the day ...

(“When I Die.” Translated by N. Brown.)

The inner flame of feeling embraces one of her best creations - the extravaganza drama "Forest Song". The image of a mermaid - Mavka, in love with a simple village guy, for whose sake she left the lake, forest world and came to live with people, is inspired by fairy tales, legends and beliefs heard in childhood in the Volyn region. The poetess wrote it in ten days, almost immediately whitewashed, as if splashing out the accumulated stream of words and images. The echo with the magical world of Andersen, with his "The Little Mermaid" is also clear here. And with those memories that Lesya plunged into, writing down the next lines of the drama, which she defined with the German word marchendrama - fabulous. “Do you know that I love fairy tales and can invent millions of them, although I have not written a single one yet?” - she admitted in a letter to A.E. Krymsky on October 14, 1911.

"Forest Song" - a story about the tragic love of a little mermaid who died in the cruel and cynical world of people, was enthusiastically received by readers, but the stage production of the drama was carried out by the Lesya Ukrainka Kyiv Drama Theater only in the middle of the twentieth century, in Soviet times. Since then, it has not left the theater posters, just like another famous play by the poetess - "The Stone Master", created based on the legend of the famous Don Juan, sung by many classics of world literature long before the weak woman who wrote in Ukrainian.

Here is what Larisa Petrovna herself said about the creation and design of the drama “The Stone Master, or Don Juan” in a letter to A. E. Krymsky dated May 24, 1912: “I wrote Don Juan! Here is the same one, “worldwide and worldly”, without even giving him any pseudonym. True, the drama (drama again!) is called “The Stone Master”, since its idea is the victory of the stone, conservative principle, embodied in the Commander, over the divided soul of a proud and selfish woman (Donna Anna), and through her over Don Juan, "Knight of Liberty" I don’t know, of course, what happened to me, good or bad, but I’ll tell you that there is something diabolical, mysterious in this topic, it’s not without reason that it has been tormenting people for three hundred years already. I say “tormenting”, because a lot has been written on it, but little has been written of good, that’s why the “enemy of the human race” invented it, so that genuine inspiration and the deepest thoughts break about it. One way or another, but now in our literature there is Don Juan, its own, original in that it was written by a woman, which has not happened before, it seems ... "

The novelty of the writer was not only that she turned out to be the first (and only!) Woman who wrote one "of the masterpieces about a masterpiece", but also that for the first time Don Juan was shown as a vain and selfish person, for the sake of his momentary whims and willing to go to any crime. He is a match for the proud, sarcastically mocking Donna Anna, who recognizes power over people - a gift for the elect, which is valued above wealth and love! But, having despised love, both Don Juan and Donna Anna freeze in the stone stupor of Death. The finale of the drama was so bright and unusual that many of the audience screamed in horror when they saw in the mirror on the stage the image of the Stone Master - the Commander, into which Don Juan turned, dressed in his cloak!

The drama was first staged in 1914 by M.K. Sadovsky on the stage of the Kyiv Drama Theater and was sold out.

Meanwhile, for the poetess, life played out the last acts of her own drama.

Thirty-six years old, she fell in love again. The person who responded to her feelings with no less sincere and deep affection is Kliment Kvitka, a scientist, musicologist-folklorist, collector of folk legends and songs. Lesya's mother was again furiously against all kinds of relations between her daughter "with some kind of beggar", as she contemptuously called Clement - a soft, reserved, shy person who experienced a deep personal drama in childhood - he grew up with foster parents. But Kvitka became so passionately attached to a thin, sick woman with big sad eyes, who understood him perfectly, that he flatly refused to leave her! And, despite all the anger, Olga Petrovna was forced to agree to her daughter's marriage, however, she continued to poison her life with letters in which she denigrated Clement in every possible way, calling him "a dishonorable man who married the money of the Kosachey-Drahomanovs." Here it was already difficult to justify and understand. Maternal jealousy, like love, is a deep whirlpool!

Young people refused the help of their parents. All the money needed for the treatment of his seriously ill wife, Clement earned himself. They sold everything that could be sold: things, simple belongings, kitchen utensils. They valued only the library.

Lesya was treated in Egypt and Greece, in Germany and Austria. Everything was useless. Incurable kidney disease was added to the aggravated process of bone tuberculosis.

She died in Surami (Georgia) on August 1, 1913. She flew away "on the wings of a song." Her old dream came true: she always wanted to touch the clouds with her hands ...

When does nicotiana bloom?

Song on verses by Lesya Ukrainka (Music by P. Weissburg Performed by Ada Rogovtseva)

Poetry of Lesya Ukrainka

HOPE

Life gave me no share, no will,

Only one, one hope is dear to me:

To see my Ukraine again

And everything that I love in my native land,

Look at the blue Dnieper again,

And it's all the same - let me die even now,

Take another look at the mounds in the steppes,

Breathe in the end about ardent dreams.

Neither share nor will is given by fate,

I am destined to live by hope alone.

Translation by V. Zvyagintseva

I am sending you a green leaf now,

This reminds me from a distance

Groves of our quiet land,

A corner of our sweet Volhynia.

Respond, my friend, quickly -

I haven't heard your words since summer,

And my soul longs for greetings,

Like a rain tree, turning green ...

And do me a favor

I send this request to your muse:

Let, cuckoo forest cuckoo,

She will revive a sad friend!

Yes, I'm sad now, dear,

To a harsh net share,

That imprisoned dreams in captivity,

All my hopes are killing.

The best thoughts and dreams wither,

Like flowers, sometimes in autumn

Blossom for a moment

To look at the sun until frost.

But the winter blizzard will also subside!

I send this request to your muse:

Let the forest cuckoo cuckoo,

She will revive a sad friend!

Translation by V. Zvyagintseva

BAKHCHISARAY

How enchanted is Bakhchisarai.

The moon shines with golden light,

The walls turn white in this marvelous brilliance.

The whole city fell asleep, like a magical land.

Silver trees, minorets,

Like sentries, a sleepy paradise is entrusted;

Among the bushes with a mysterious hello

Splashing fountain in the darkness by chance.

Nature breathes sweet peace.

Above the sleepy silence with a light-winged swarm

Soaring ancient dreams and dreams.

And poplars, nodding their tops,

Slowly whisper, remembering

The gray ones were of old times...

Translation by P. Karaban

FROM THE CYCLE "MELODIES"

The night was both quiet and dark.

I stood, my friend, with you,

I looked at you with sadness.

The night was quiet and dark...

The wind died sadly in the garden.

You sang a song, I sat silently,

The song rang softly in my heart.

The wind stopped sadly in the garden ...

Lightning flashed in the distance.

Something trembled in my heart!

Like being pierced by a sharp knife.

Lightning flashed in the distance...

Translation by V. Zvyagintseva

FROM THE CYCLE "MOMENTS"

Handkerchiefs of melted snow are scattered ...

Rare rain and the sky is lead,

In the timid grass, primroses are slightly visible -

This is spring, this is the crown of happiness!

The sky is deep, the sun is radiant,

Purple and gold of withered branches.

Late roses, all in dew, fragrant -

Autumn messengers ... Maybe mine?

Well, I'm not afraid of the arrival of autumn,

Pleases the stuffy summer end -

If only they would not remind the hour of spring

Rare rain and the sky is lead.

Translation by V. Zvyagintseva

BREATH OF THE DESERT

The desert breathes. Smooth breathing.

The sand lies - calm, golden.

But every ridge and any hill -

Everything about khamsin is a memory here.

Fellah the industrious builds a building, -

Here fleeting foreigners swarm

He will find a hotel and a dense garden.

Fellah is mighty: everything is his creation.

One trouble - oases in the desert

Not for him ... Here he writes patterns

Under the very roof ... The fabric on it sways,

The hot wind glides across the canvas,

It flies... again, again... The desert breathes.

Translation by N. Ushakov

CONTRA SPEM SPERO!*

Away, gray-haired autumn thoughts!

This time of spring is golden,

Are the years young

Hopeless will pass in succession?

No, I will sing and I will not get tired in tears,

I will smile even on a rainy night.

I will hope without hope

I want to live! Away, sad ones, away!

I will sow flowers in the cold,

In a sad field, in a wretched land

Those flowers I am my fuel

And sprinkle with hot tears.

And there will be no cold snow

Ice melt armor

And the flowers will bloom, and it will come

Day of spring and for - mournful - me.

Climbing up the hill with stones

I will endure terrible pain

But even in this difficult time

I will sing a happy song.

I'll miss the whole foggy night,

I will look ahead in the dark,

Waiting for the queens of the night

The guiding star is blue.

Yes! And in grief I will not forget to sing

I will smile even on a rainy night.

I will hope without hope

I will live! Away, sad ones, away!

Translation by N. Ushakov

For all of us who do not remember history and are not familiar with cultural heritage.

Lesya Ukrainka is not Lesya at all, and not at all Ukrainian (that one is not Ukrainian at all).

Real name - Larisa Petrovna Kosach. Lesya's (Larisa's) parents, Pyotr Kosach and Olga Dragomanova, were Russians, more precisely, Rusyns. The family of Olga, the mother of Lesya-Larisa, came from Greek roots.

However, Lesya's mother also dabbled in poetry and published under the pseudonym Olena Pchіlka. In principle, the Ukrainian language was not native either for Lesya or Olena, but there was an order for Ukrainization, and customers from Austria paid well for the work. A friend of the family was Ivan Yakovlevich Franko (also a Rusyn?), in fact, he was also in this business. As they say, "nothing personal" And only Lesya's (Larisa Petrovna's) father, Pyotr Antonovich Kosach, was an ardent defender of the Russian language and the unity of all Russians (Great Russians, Little Russians, Belarusians ...). But who remembers this now? Indeed, in the Soviet period, it was considered indecent to remember this ...

Some details (you can double-check this version if you're interested): http://alternatio.org/articles/item/2073-victim-mother-little-known-Lesya-Ukrainian

And this is Lesia-Larisa's mother. "Noble Maiden" of the Russian Empire and Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, the daughter of a landowner and the niece of the Decembrist Yakov Yakimovich Dragomanov... http://podgift.ru/mans3_5r.htm

And here is the great-uncle of Lesya (Larisa). Yakov Akimovich (Yakimovich) Dragomanov. Decembrist, i.e. freemason, member of the Society of United Slavs. Although he opposed the Russian state system, he was a true internationalist. And, as follows from the name of the society, he advocated the unity of the Slavs (in any case, such a goal was declared). By the way, he was a very worthy, honest and courageous man and officer. Although on the day of the Senate uprising he was in the hospital, and he was not threatened with hard labor, he honestly confessed his revolutionary convictions and did not deny his participation in the conspiracy ... http://www.hrono.ru/biograf/bio_d/dragomanov_jakov.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%F0%E0%E3%EE%EC%E0%ED%EE%E2,_%DF%EA%EE%E2_%DF%EA%E8%EC %EE%E2%E8%F7

Continuing to dig a little deeper around the "apple tree", next to which the dragomanov's "apples" fell, we find this. The Society of United Slavs, it turns out, favored federalization. Those. for the unification of all Slavs in a single large state: “Russia, Poland, Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary with Transylvania, Serbia, Moldova, Wallachia, Dalmatia and Croatia. Members of society considered Hungarians to be Slavs. As you can see, Ukraine is not on this list (that is, it is part of Russia). At the same time, within the framework of a federal state, the “Slavs” proposed to clearly define the boundaries of each of the states included in the federation (it was not proposed to divide Russia into Great, Small, New, Red, White, etc. parts of Rus'). The Society of United Slavs was perhaps the most peaceful (although some consider it the most militant) of all the Decembrist communities. Although it joined the general plan of regicide (some members of this society took an oath), the "Slavs" categorically opposed an armed uprising, because. military revolutions (!) "are not the cradle, but the coffin of freedom, in the name of which they are committed." However, they were ready to shed their own blood for the freedom of the people...

http://www.hrono.ru/libris/lib_n/nechk15.php

This is not about the origin of poets, but about the origin of the idea of ​​the separation of Russia and Ukraine (and the ensuing bloodshed). Yes, and about the origin of the most modern Ukrainian language, tailored to order ... And what's interesting: neither the customers nor the performers were Ukrainians in the ethnic sense. However, Pushkin also had a hand in the creation of the modern Russian language. But he did not do this at the request of the interventionists, and the idea of ​​a new Russian ("Moskal", i.e. Pushkin!) language does not contain even a fraction of the idea of ​​the need to separate the large Russian Slavic community.

I recommend reading this text, written by Panteleimon Kulish, one of the inventors of modern Ukrainian (still its first version, which bears little resemblance to the chimera used by modern Ukrainian politicians).