Chapter I: Front Matter

THE KOBZAR OF THE UKRAINE

Being Select Poems of
TARAS SHEVCHENKO

Done into English Verse with Biographical Fragments by
ALEXANDER JARDINE HUNTER

Printed in Winnipeg.

Published by Dr. A. J. Hunter,
Teulon, Man.

CONTENTS

Page

Introduction 9

POEMS.

BALLADS:

The Monk 13
Hamaleia 21
The Night of Taras 30

TALE:

Naimechka; or The Servant 39

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL POETRY:

Caucasus 68
To the Dead 81
A Dream 96
The Bondwoman’s Dream 106
To the Makers of Sentimental Idyls 109

POEMS OF EXILE:

A Poem of Exile 114
Memories of Freedom 120
Memories of an Exile 123
Death of the Soul 124
Hymn of Exile 126

RELIGIOUS POEMS:

On the 11th Psalm 130
Prayers 132

EARLY POEMS:

Mighty Wind 136
The Water Fairy 138

HUMOROUS AND SATIRICAL:

Hymn of the Nuns 140
To the Goddess of Fame 141

PREDICTION AND FAREWELL:

Iconoclasm 143
My Testament 144

BIOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENTS.

Who Was Taras Shevchenko 11
The Cossacks 19
Kobzars 29
The Forming of a Life 36
A Father’s Legacy 67
The Meaning of Serfdom 79
Freedom and Friends 94
A Triumphal March 103
Autocrat Versus Poet 112
Siberian Exile 118
Returning Home 127

ILLUSTRATIONS

The decorations and illustrations in this book are meant to show something of Ukrainian art.

The artistic instincts of the peasant women find satisfaction largely in the working of embroidery, each district having its own characteristic types of design.

One of Shevchenko’s favorite fancies was to compare his versification to the work of the girls and women embroidering their designs on their garments. He frequently speaks of himself as “embroidering verses.”

It is a favorite device of Ukrainian book-makers to decorate their pages with miniature landscapes and little figures.

The frontispiece of the present work is a picture of Shevchenko in youth from an original painted by himself. On page 129 we see him as he looked after his return from exile.

LIFE

Born 1811, February 26.

24 years a serf,
9 years a freeman,
10 years a prisoner in Siberia,
3 1–2 years under police supervision.

Died 1861, February 26.