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also part of the gift. In case of death in a foreign land, the earth was to go into the coffin so that the earth of the foreign land would be "lighter" on the deceased's resting place. Ukrainian people live in close harmony with nature. Planting a tree, in particular, is very symbolic of the spirituality incorporated into their faith. We remember how a woman's despair changed her into a tree in Shevchenko's "Topolia" (The Poplar). We remember the words of the poet Mykola Korsiuk who asks his beloved wife and children to "plant a birch tree by the road" so that his soul has a "place to grow" when he dies. In Shevchenko's poem, each woman plants trees. The mother plants three ash trees to symbolize her three sons; the daughter-in-law plants a very tall poplar for her husband; the sister plants three maples for her three brothers; the betrothed plants a guelder rose for her beloved. Sadly, the ash trees do not take; the poplar, the maples and the guelder rose dry out and die. The three brothers do not return. The mother cries. The wife and her children shiver in their cold home. The despondent fiancee embraces death. The sister at first despairs, then sets out to find her brothers far beyond the borders of Ukraine. The three beaten roads can no longer be seen: thorns cover their traces. Shevchenko's poem illustrates the fate of many Ukrainian men who went to war or prison or emigrated. It also focuses on the women who were left alone to fend for themselves. We are yet to hear the voices of these women. How the mother died in solitude, how the wife survived with her children and how the fiancee became melancholic and starved herself to death. As to the sister who reached foreign lands, we wonder what became of her. Did she ever find her brothers? What was her fate? With her, another theme of Ukrainian literature is yet to be explored -- the theme of the "uprooted". Will they ever come back or is it their fate to die in foreign lands? All of these themes, so reflective of Shev chenko's art and of Ukraine, are now available in French schools. It is regrettable that in the teachers' notes of the French reader in question, nothing is said of Shevchenko's most famous collection of poems, the Kobzar, (1840). Nevertheless, it is gratifying to know that French children study and perhaps even recite from memory a poem by the Ukrainian bard. John Carroll University Copyright Helene Turkewicz-Sanko, Ph.D., 1997. Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Culture applicable values by which the moral fibers of humanity thrive and strengthen. The revolutionary ardor and passion of his poems, their all embracing humanism and genuine popular character appeal to people of all nations. It is but natural that hundreds of attempts at translating Taras Shevchenko's poetry into a great number of languages have been made. Shevchenko's "Zapovit", for example, has been published in 150 languages. The first attempt to introduce the ideas of the Ukrainian poet to Anglophone countries was undertaken 130 years ago by Ahapius Honcharenko. Honcharenko, whose real name was Andriy Humnytskyi, was bom into an Orthodox priest's family on August 19, 1832 in the village of Kryvyn (now Zhytomyr region). From early childhood, the boy had observed the oppression of the serfs in the Russian Empire and their liberation became the dominating impulse in his life. Humnytskyi was educated at the Kyiv Theological School and entered the Kyivan 14 ’’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, БЕРЕЗЕНЬ 1998 THE FIRST TRANSLATOR OF SHEVCHENKO INTO ENGLISH by ROKSOLIANA ZORIVCHAK Taras Shevchenko's impact on his countrymen was greater than that of any other Ukrainian in modem history. That a poet should have attained such preeminence in a developing nation of 19th-century Eastern Europe is not unusual. Cultural activity was the one area in which stateless Slavs could express their individuality, so poets, writers and scholars often played leading roles as national awakeners. Nevertheless, it is difficult to find another example of an individual whose poetry and personality so completely embodied a national ethos as did Shevchenko for Ukrainians. He had a volcanic spirit, towering titan-like above his own people, and high enough to be seen and heard by other nations of the world as he proclaimed to all mankind the universally 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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