Chapter II: In Church

Sad and quiet is the House of God,
Stillness holds all and is held there.
Only the old priest reads prayers from a book;
A lonely candle is dying fast.
From the walls the statues of gold
Look down with a wondering stare.

And on the stones, on the cold pavement,
What do I see?
A young, dead soldier resting in a coffin,
No sister lamenting, nor mother fainting with grief;
Just a candle, dropping its wax-like tears,
And the stare of the statues,
And the priest saying prayers for the dead,
A last kiss beseeching for the dead orphan;
But none goes to kiss him. And no one will.
The black cover is nailed on; the candle, melting, falls.
(No sister lamenting, nor mother fainting with grief!)
This is a soldier, an orphan—then who should mourn?

THE RECRUIT

In the great Emperor’s courtyard
He stood at his post on the pavement.
He washed his face and dried it
As the duck her wings in water.
He washed his face with his tears—
None saw or heard in the silence.

He leaned his head on the bayonet
And slept for a precious moment.
In the great Emperor’s courtyard
He slept on his sharp-tipped bayonet.

He dreamt that he walked on a mountain—
O blue was the dream-like mountain!—
Brushing his hair in ringlets.
He walked on thinking, thinking:
Why does my mother write not,
Or can she still be living?

He heard her answer softly:
“I would like, my son, to write you,
But they made me a tomb so lofty
That I may not rise from beneath it.
Oh rise I cannot, my Eagle!
For deep below, on the bottom,
They have covered my hands with earth-clods,
With earth that is lying heavy.”

· · · · ·

In the great Emperor’s courtyard
He would have dreamt still longer,
But the bell on high St. Stephen’s
Rang with a sudden clamour....
He wiped his face from the misting,
His bayonet wiped he dully—
Blood flows on the courtyard pavement
From the soldier lying dead there.

THE HANDKERCHIEF

The sun was drowning in the ocean’s brim
Red, red as blood;
And in the crimson flood
A young girl sewed a handkerchief with gold,

Embroidering in gold with stitches fine—
(Like lilies white
Her cheeks will look to-night,
Like pure-white lilies washed with tears).

And as she sewed she pressed it to her heart.
Then, weeping sore,
She opened wide the door:
“Strong wind, my Eagle, take this on your wings!

“Strong as the Dunai ever onward flows,
O wind so free,
Deliver this for me
Where now he serves, yea, where the heart well knows.

“He in the Uhlans’ ranks is fighting now—
Go, Golden One,
From sun to sun,
Float on the wind until that place you find!

“And, Golden One, when you shall hear one call
Even as a dove,
Rest, for my love,
My loved one will be waiting here below.

“He has a bay horse, and his weapons are
Shining as gold.
Wind, free and bold,
Fall to his heart, as the rose petals fall.

“If sleeping, wake him not—and, O my God!
If slain he lie,
For your good-bye,
O Golden One, cover his sweet dead face.”

BEFORE KASTENEDOLA

“Look at the soldier’s kabaty,[74]
Mother, mother mine!
Is it not red—like blood—to see,
Or is it like the cranberry?
Knowest thou me?”

“I know thee, I would always know
My only son.
Young as the cranberries that grow,
Bright as the reddest one!”

“The cranberry in that deep wood,
Mother, mother mine!
For me, for me it does not bloom.
High has my flower risen—a tomb
Built for thy son.

“O mother, there it stands—my mate!...
To-morrow, mother mine,
In silken grass and on green lawn
So very early, in the dawn,
I will bow low.

“To Hetman young myself I’ll bow:
‘Young Hetman! Sir!
Wilt bless me, me, the young Cossack?’”

“I’ll bless thee, where the cannons black
Full loudly roar!
There will I bless thee, O my son!”

“My Hetman, Hetman mine!
I follow, and I die, with thee;
I follow, dying—let me be ...
Mother, don’t cry!”

TO M. D.

You are a Hutzul,[75]
And I am a Hutzul—
The serdak[76] both of us wear;
Both born in the forest,
Both christened in the Cheremsh,[77]
Played hide-and-seek with the Bear.

We knew not where luck would lead—
If this road meant good luck,
If that road meant bad luck,
Naught did we ever heed.

To both good fortune came.
She did not forget us;
Her bounty she gave us,
To both of us just the same.

Great lords she would have us be,
To dwell in a palace,
But ah, she was drunken!
Our Luck was fuddled, you see.

You are a Hutzul,
And I am a Hutzul—
She placed her sheep ’neath the Shears!
That’s how Luck has served us,
And pray who shall tell us
Just where the blame appears?

[Music:
ЩЕ НЕ ВМЕРЛА УКРАЇНА

Ще не вмерла Україна і слава і воля,
Ще нам, братя молодії усьміхнеть ся доля!
Згинуть наші вороженьки, як роса на сонці,
Запануєм і ми, братя, у своїй сторонцї.
Душу, тїло ми положим за нашу свободу,
І покажем, що ми, братя, козацького роду!]

UKRAINIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM

(_This anthem has several variants; one of these, seemingly the most
popular, is chosen for the two stanzas here translated._)

She lives on, our Ukraina!
Her freedom and glory—
Let us hope that once more fortune
May illume Her story.
Like the dew before the sunshine
Our foes disappearing,
We shall rule, Oh, youthful brethren!
Our land, nothing fearing.

_Chorus._ Soul and body sacrificing
For our freedom cherished,
We shall show we are the sons of
Mighty Cossacks perished!

Nalivaiko and Zalizniak
And Trasílo—falling—
Urge us to our sacred duty,
From the grave-hills calling!

Let us keep in our remembrance
Deaths of Cossacks knightly,
For our youth, our splendid manhood,
We would not spend lightly.

_Chorus._ Soul and body sacrificing
For our freedom cherished,
We shall show we are descendants
Of great Cossacks perished!

-----

Footnote 1:

These Pagan songs are very hard to find uncorrupted. In an ancient
“Koladka” we find such words as these: “In the forest under the
oak-tree seeds are planted; on the seeds youths and maidens are seated
and they sing the song Ko Ladi; fire burns under the cattle and an old
man sharpens a knife to kill a goat.”

“Ko” means “to”; the young people sing a hymn to their beloved goddess
Lada. The “old man” is a priest, sacrificing the offering.—(Crath.)

Footnote 2:

Kupalo is the dragon-frost—Muroze, or Koschey; he died, and as
snow-water floated down the streams. Symbolically, the Ukrainians, on
the day of Ivan-Kupalo, throw his image into the water, and maidens
fling garlands on the river and judge of their fortunes by the
progress of the wreaths.

The priests, being unable to rid the peasants’ minds of “Kupalo’s
Day,” adopted the simple expedient of bracketing him with the
Christian St. John (Ivan). The 24th of June (July 7) is the latter’s
feast day, but the country folk call it still “The Day of the Bathing
of John.” In the Ukraine on that day maidens sing special songs, and
most engagements are or were celebrated on this feast.

Footnote 3:

_Trezilie_: poisonous herbs.

Footnote 4:

The Duke, the husband to be.

“And during the same three days he is called a Duke and she a
Dutchess, although they be very poor persons.”—(Anthony Jenkinson’s
_Letters from Russia_, 1557, as given by Hakluyt.)

Footnote 5:

_Falcon_: metaphor for a lover.

Footnote 6:

_Zuzula_: the Cuckoo.

Footnote 7:

As the rose in our love songs so in those of Ukraina does the
Cranberry or Kalina bloom—the symbol of beauty. Maidens are always
being compared to it, and one sings: “Would I were red as a cranberry,
for then never was I sad; my lips and cheeks were scarlet, but now
they are pale.” The German story of the “Juniper Tree” finds its
counterpart in the Cranberry-bush of the Ruthenians. A young girl was
murdered, so runs the tale, and her relatives placed the Kalina on her
grave. From a branch of this her brother made a flute—immediately a
voice sighed: “Brother, play not so loud—do not bring sorrow to my
heart!”

Footnote 8:

_Barwēnok_: evergreen marriage flower, periwinkle.

“Barwēnok,” so often mentioned in the folk-songs in connection with
marriage—sometimes it is placed on graves—is a creeping vine, green
among the snows of winter. It is akin in meaning to the Polish “meert”
or myrtle.

“Little Barwēnok,
You creep, creep low on the face of the earth,
So, O Barwēnok, may my lover ever stay—as close, as near to me.”

On the 24th of June when the passing of Kupalo, God of Frost, was
celebrated, the girls of Southern Russia made wreaths of Barwēnok and
mallow and threw them into the streams. If a garland were sucked down
beneath the waters death was the omen, while if it floated the maiden
to whom it belonged would be wed within the year.

Footnote 9:

_Kryschati_: crossed, in allusion to its appearance.

Footnote 10:

This rich bread, ornamented with braiding and other decorations, is
the chief feature at the wedding feast.

Footnote 11:

_Pava_: pea-hen.

Footnote 12:

_Ruta_: mint—emblem of virginity.

Footnote 13:

_Solo’wi_: nightingale.

Footnote 14:

“Unmarried Ukrainian girls wear their back hair hanging in a long
single plait, adorned with ribbons, and sometimes covered with
flowers. This plait, called kosa, is a maiden’s chief ornament, the
cherished object of her care. Its unplaiting is the sign of the change
which is coming upon her. The married women wear their hair in two
plaits wound round the head and covered by a kerchief.”

Footnote 15:

_Pan_: a noble.

“Pan Kanovsky” is a type of the insolence of power in the days of
feudalism in the Ukraine. Then great “pans” or lords had their harems
as much as any Turk. This particular landlord who owned the town of
Bohuslav is a semi-historical personage. Many incidents centre round
him. He is once said to have met an old woman picking up fallen wood
in his domain. He ordered her to climb a tree and call “Cuckoo.” When
she did so, he fired at her and brought her to the ground. Another
little habit of his was to stick a needle and thread in the lapel of
his coat and ask each peasant whom he met: “Have you needle and
thread?” (_i.e._ the means to mend your clothes). If they said “No,”
as of course they did, he proceeded to beat them soundly for being
improvident creatures.

Footnote 16:

_Pava_: pea-hen.

Footnote 17:

_Haspid_: Basilisk and Haspid were serpents.

Footnote 18:

_Chort_: a swamp-devil.

Footnote 19:

_Meassiatz_: crescent, or month.

Footnote 20:

The Hetman Mazeppa, who was himself a Kobzar, composed this song among
others. The story goes that when he was an old man he visited an
Ukrainian official, set in high places, named Kotchubei. When he
played on the kobza and sang of the ancient glories of the Ukraine,
Kotchubei’s young daughter, like Desdemona, listened entranced, and
finally asked him to marry her. He refused, saying that he was too
old, but nevertheless she fled to him, bringing tragedy on her house.
Ultimately she went insane, when Mazeppa took refuge with the Turks
after the battle of Poltava.

Footnote 21:

“Tchyka-Bird” is the poetical name for the Ukraine. The plaintive cry
of this bird—“ki-hi”—makes the hearer feel that the Tchyka, or
“Mother,” so devoted a parent, is full of woe. She is here compared to
unhappy Ukraine.

Footnote 22:

The Tartars played the same part in Ukrainian history as the Indians
in America. They established their kingdom in the Crimea and time
after time invaded Ukraine, pillaging it, and selling the inhabitants
in Turkish slave markets. Later, they intermarried largely with the
Ukrainians.

Footnote 23:

Many legends centre around the Cossack Bida (or Bighda), an Ukrainian
Prince, whose real name was Dmitro Vishnivetzki. He it was who
established “Seech”—the ancient stronghold of the Cossacks. He became
famous for his raids on the Turks. The verses above given were written
of one of his most noted exploits, if tradition is to be believed. He
was captured by the Turks. Told that he was to marry the Sultan’s
daughter he emphatically declined the honour, saying that her religion
was distasteful to him. Now on the walls of Constantinople there were
huge iron hooks and the Sultan commanded his soldiers to hang Bida
from these by the ribs. By a ruse his servant came near him and
managed to bring him a bow and arrow, as directed. When the Sultan
came to see if he had had a change of heart the Prince raised his
weapon and killed the Sultan, his wife, and his daughter.

Footnote 24:

_Tchyka-bird_: the poetical name of Ukraina.

Footnote 25:

_Litvà_: Lithuania.

Footnote 26:

_Teren-bush_: thorn.

Footnote 27:

_Deebrova_: oak forest.

Footnote 28:

_Solamàkha_: flour mixed with water. Cossacks on the march “travelled
light” and were content, nay proud, of the meagre fare mentioned.

Footnote 29:

_Yanichars_: slaves of the Turks.

Footnote 30:

_Zaporogians_: at the mouth of the Dnieper river was an island called
Hortitsa; Count Dmitro Vishnivetzki (Baida) placed there two thousand
Cossacks in a fortress to protect Ukraina from the invasion of the
Tartars. Then this fortress—called “Seech”—became the refuge of every
kind of outlaw from Poland and the Ukraine. Later a semi-monastic
order of Knights was organised to fight unbelievers. Time passed, and
“Seech” became a military high school for Eastern Europe. The Cossacks
fought to keep the Tartars in the Crimea and made raids on Turkey,
with Constantinople as special objective. When the Town Cossacks
revolted against Poland, the Zaporogian Cossacks joined them and their
stronghold became the refuge of Ukrainian democracy. In 1775 Seech was
destroyed by Catherine II.

Footnote 31:

_I.e._ his skin.

Footnote 32:

Kerchief.

Footnote 33:

In the Ukraine at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the
nineteenth century the Oprishki, or outlaws of the Carpathians, and
the robbers of the Ukraine, were so famed that in several instances
they have become legendary heroes. History gives us three great
outlaws: In the Poltava Government, Harkusha; in Kiev, Karmeluk; and
in the Carpathians, where the tongue of the Hutzuls was spoken, Alexa
Dobush. These brigands were like our English Robin Hood, robbing only
the rich and dividing the spoil among the poor.

Footnote 34:

_Topeer_: Hutzul weapon, stick with iron barb, a battle-axe.

Footnote 35:

_Legini_: young, unmarried men.

Footnote 36:

_Kooty and Kossiev_: neighbouring towns in the Carpathians.

Footnote 37:

_Postoli_: moccasins.

Footnote 38:

_Povoloki_: ribbons to wind round the legs.

Footnote 39:

_Oprishki_: outlaws in the Carpathians.

Footnote 40:

_Horeevka_: whisky.

Footnote 41:

_Sopeevka_: a fife.

Footnote 42:

_Chorts_: little devils.

Footnote 43:

_Kolomea_: the capital of the county of Pocootie, in Galicia, where
outlaws were executed.

Footnote 44:

When a girl becomes engaged she binds on the head of her lover a
handkerchief embroidered in gay colours by her own hands.

Footnote 45:

_Unplaiting the hair_: custom of a bride-to-be.

Footnote 46:

_Tchumaki_: road merchants, traders in other lands.

Footnote 47:

_Shinkarka_: wife of the landlord.

Footnote 48:

_Zhupan_: overcoat.

Footnote 49:

_Zloty_: 7½ cents.

Footnote 50:

_Mohyla_: grave-hill.

Footnote 51:

_Moldavia_: Roumania.

Footnote 52:

_Povna rozha_: the mallow. On the Day of Kupalo, the old Pagan god of
the Ukraine, maidens thread the mallow flowers together and make a
wreath which they throw on the water. If it floats the damsel will be
married; if it stops, she will not be wed that year; if swept under by
the current, she will herself die.

Footnote 53:

_Dunai_: river. The age of the song can be determined, as in many
other cases, by the use of this word.

Footnote 54:

It is the custom of Ukraina to cover its dead soldiers with a red silk
kerchief.

Footnote 55:

_Wechernyci_: evening party or assembly.

Footnote 56:

_Falcon_: beloved one.

Footnote 57:

In Bukowina it used to be too often the fate of the girl of sixteen or
thereabouts to be “thrown to a lover” of her mother’s choice
regardless of her own passion for another. “Mothers in Austria are
like step-mothers,” said a Ruthenian girl to the writer in explanation
of this poem. Many a young girl has drowned herself when she found
that her dreams of happiness might not come true.

Footnote 58:

_Hromada_: the whole parish.

Footnote 59:

_Holub_: he-pigeon.

Footnote 60:

_The rapid river_: River of Youth.

Footnote 61:

_Widra_: pails.

Footnote 62:

_Mila_: dear one.

Footnote 63:

Verbatim: “likha,” fem. of “likho.” The adjective “likho” has two
opposite meanings, sometimes signifying what is evil, hurtful,
malicious; sometimes what is bold, vigorous, and therefore to be
admired. As a substantive “likho” conveys the idea of something
malevolent or unfortunate. But the peasantry also describe by Likho an
evil spirit, a sort of devil—“When Likho sleeps, awake it not” is a
Polish and South Russian proverb.—Ralston.

The music for this song is captivating and haunts one; the first two
lines are slow, the rest of the measure being in quick, lively time.

Footnote 64:

_Dunai_: means literally any river.

Footnote 65:

Boy children bathed soon after birth in water in which “Lewbistok” has
been thrown will be lucky in love.

Footnote 66:

_Naidorozcha Devchina_: dearest girl.

Footnote 67:

_Wasylki_: hyssop. These flowers are used to wreathe the candle held
by the bride at her wedding. There is also here the idea of magic
properties in the flowers which the maid, who wishes to marry her
lover, has planted. This song has a lilting air. The first four lines
are _andantino_, the refrain _allegro_.

Footnote 68:

“The Dream Herb” (a species of anemone) is in the Ukraine considered
as something weird and uncanny. It is called Son-travà, literally
Dream-grass, and has a flower like a little bell. Maidens pluck it to
place under their pillows in early spring, that they may dream of
their lovers. But by the rest of the world it is regarded with awe and
superstitious fears.

Footnote 69:

_Tchornobriva_: black-browed girl.

Footnote 70:

_Rushniky_: long towels prepared by a mother for her daughter’s dowry:
in case of death used to lower the coffin.

Footnote 71:

_Ptashka_: little bird.

Footnote 72:

The fables and songs told him as a child by an invalid sister first
turned the thoughts of the Bukovinian poet, Fedkovich, towards poetry.
He was born in 1834, his mother being an unlearned peasant, full of
superstition. These songs, heard as a child, he wove into music when
serving in the army, and to the unknown poet, his sister, is really
due part of his fame, she having inspired him by her fancy.

After living for some time in Czernowitz and Moldavia the boy of
eighteen joined the Austrian army and seven years later was made an
officer, taking part in the Italian wars of 1859, when the Austrians
opposed the French. On his return to Bukovina Fedkovich found that his
writings had a wide popularity, and he soon made the acquaintance of
some well-known patriots who encouraged him to write in Ruthenian, for
up till then he had been composing in German. In 1861 his first
sixteen poems were printed in Ruthenian, and a year later a larger
edition of his works was published. In 1872 he moved to Lemberg, but
city life palled on him and he ended his days in the free country life
of Bukovina, dying in 1888. His work is marked by great lyrical
beauty.

Footnote 73:

_Cheremshina_: bird-cherry.

Footnote 74:

_Kabaty_: uniform.

Footnote 75:

_Hutzul_: Ruthenian Highlander.

Footnote 76:

_Serdak_: short jacket.

Footnote 77:

Or Cheremosh.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. Silently corrected palpable typographical errors; retained non-standard spellings and dialect. 2. Reindexed footnotes using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter. 3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.