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has survived to this day and it is the theme of several poems by contemporary poets. One example is "The Shirt" by Mykola Nahnibida (b. 1911) from the Zaporizhia Region. My mother once sewed me a shirt out of sails from the sea, Which my sisters embroidered with silk in a pattern of crosses. To this day it has not been worn out by me And it's splendid to feel it still there, on my bosom. Ah, how fine is that shirt which was sewn from good cloth Which was bleached by the sunshine pure-white. How it breathes on my breast with the wind, white as froth, Singing songs of Aziv full of joy and delight. There are times I feel sad - when the weather is bad - But that shirt starts to flutter, and, heartened and glad, With my soul like a sail, then I turn right about And towards the gray waves, full of courage, set out. I have never asked Fate, in no matter what state, For a minute of calm for my trouble- torn heart, For that shirt which to me more than money is worth, For that shirt made for me by my dear mother's heart, Longs for wind, open spaces and silver-capped surf.9 A poem published in the 1960's became so popular that it became the lyrics of a song known by Ukrainians everywhere, "Song About A Rushnyk". The poet Andryi Malyshko (b. 1912) glorifies the embroidered ceremonial towel given by a mother to a son on his way to war as a protective symbol. Dearest mother, who did not sleep nights enough And took me to the fields at the edge of the village At dawn, you saw me off, to a distant road And you gave me an embroidered rushnyk for luck and good fortune. "Let on this towel gleam the dew laden footpath And the green meadows, and the nightingales' groves," And your trustworthy tender motherly smile, And your sorrowful beautiful azure eyes. I'll take that rushnyk, spread it out as if fortune In quiet rustling of grasses, twittering of deep leafy forests And on that rushnyk will come alive all things familiar almost to pain: Childhood and separation and true love, your mother's love.10 More recently, Petro Host', addresses this poem to his mother: Dear Mother, please embroider my Fate on the cloth of a rushnyk... Embroider it in such a way so that on the wall it will dream like the flower of the sour cherry tree. Embroider dear mother all that was and all that still will be in my life. So that everywhere around me white flowers bloom, Almost as if they were not embroidered on the cloth. Embroider, dear mother familiar foot paths, And my far-away roads... So that stacks, and shock of sixty sheaves, and haystacks, And storks, and nightingales... So that on this cloth, like a wound - All my good fortune would come together... Dear mother, embroider my Fate And may all you wish for me, come to be!” Perhaps the most moving poems are the ones written by Hrytsko Koliada (b. 1904) and Volodymyr Katchkan (b. 1940) because in these poems, the Ukrainian woman in her embroidered shirt appears as if she was carved in a cameo: Here she is - the peasant woman from the steppes of Ukraine 20 ’’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ТРАВЕНЬ 1997 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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