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nymphs and forest and water spirits, all of which sym bolize the forces of Nature. It is the story of a forest nymph, Mavka, who falls in love with a young man named Lukash. It is actually Lukash’s flute music that instills in her a “psyche,” the heart and soul of a human. As a woman, Mavka experiences suffering of everyday human life which she cannot fully comprehend. When a peasant girl, Kalyna, comes between Mavka and Lukash, tragedy follows and Mavka vanishes back into Nature. The drama deals with the them of pure love which trans forms earthly desires into eternal ones. The play devel ops like the four seasons of the year and is subjected to the process of change typical of nature. The following passages embody love itself through Mavka’s “quest" and “bequest.” (Act I) Mavka’s Quest Mavka: Among humans, do couples wed and stay together for a long time? Lukash: Of course, forever! Mavka: Ah! The doves are like that. Sometimes I observed them and envied them. They love each other so tenderly and sweetly. As for me, I do not know anything Sweeter then the birch tree, That is why I call it my little sister; But she is too pale and sad in my opinion; She is too sad with her head bowed down full of sorrow. Often she makes me weep, just looking at her. I do not like the alder tree — it is too rough. The aspen or the trembling poplar somehow frigh tens me; It seems also afraid of itself — trembling so, all the time. The oak trees are to serious. Briar, the wild rose, Is too prickly and so are the hawthorns and the blackthorns. Proud are the ashtree, the maple and the pla- tane-sycamore. The gilder rose is ashamed of her beauty, And does not care anymore for anything in this world. It seems that I was like her last year. Now something has happened to me and I feel I am a stranger in my own dear woods. I feel very much alone... Lukash: What about your weeping willow Didn’t you call her your mother? Mavka: The weeping willow? W ell...it’s comfortable for hibernation But in the summer...Look! You see how withered, dry and Creaking she is. She always longs for winter... No, I am so lonesome, so desperately lonesome! Lukash: Well, there are kindred spirits in the woods, Don’t make yourself so pitiful now! For we have heard About your dances, frolics, merry-making. Mavka: It is all like a passing storm, a whirlwind, It comes, it thunders, and is gone. We do not have "forever” like among humans. Nothing! Lukash: And “forever” appeals to you? You would wish it so? (Act III) Mavka’s Bequest Kalyna comes between the two lovers. Mavka vanishes into the woods and a fire destroys the forest. Lukash looks at the forest with unmeasured sorrow. Mavka: O do not worry about the body! It blazed up with a bright flame Pure, strong, like a good wine. It became free sparks flying upward. Light floating ash, it will, in its turn Settle down, returning to the native land Together with the water’s help, a weeping willow will grow It will be my end and my beginning! People will come Poor and wealthy, happy and sad, To them my soul shall speak. I shall answer them With the soft noise of the. quivering leaves, With murmuring will branches With the delicate voice of a gentle slender flute And the sad dew of my branches Everything: all that one you sang to me, long ago... The themes of love in Ukrainian oral and written literature are many. Only a few have been developed here. They relate to nature, but most specifically to the Ukrainian landscape. The most beautiful among them are the ones that touch us because their descriptive lines speak to our imagination through our senses: we see the young Kozak digging a well; we smell the crushed mint of the lover’s beaten path; we hear the nightingale, the whispering of the forest, Lukash’s flute; we feel the soft green periwinkle which carpets the ground, and we want to taste the sour cherries of Ukraine’s orchards. A B O U T T H E A U T H O R : Dr. H elene N. Turkew icz-Sanko is Professor o f French Language, Literature and C ulture at John C arroll U niversity in Cleveland, Ohio. Born n ear Paris, she studied at the Sorbonne and the Ecole N ationale des Languages O rientates Vivantes. She holds a Ph.D. in R om ance Languages from C ase W estern Reserve U n iversity. She is a N a tio n a l E n dow m ent for the H um anities Scholar, a m em ber o f the Am erican A ssociation for the A dvancem ent o f Slavic Studies and a m e m b e r o f the A m erican Association o f Teachers of French. She has published num erous articles, essays and reviews on French language and culture and has presented papers on original research at m any seminars and conferences. "НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛЮТИЙ 1996 17
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