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FEBRUARY MILESTONES February is a strange month for Ukrainians. It is a month in which we commemorate tragedy and the passing o f an age. But it is in February that we celebrate, paradoxically, gentle reminders that winter can indeed produce a splendor o f its own. In this ambivalent month, we mourn the deaths o f Olha Basarab and Olena Teliha, two remarkable women who died for the country they loved and served. Basarab was a member o f the first women’s platoon o f the Sichovi Striltsi. Her work in succoring the wounded and interned in post- WWI Vienna was recognized by the International Red Cross. On February 13, 1924, she died at the hands o f Polish police who could not tolerate her activities as a member o f the underground movement seeking to liberate Ukraine. Poetess, feminist, and nationalist heroine Olena Teliha, who lived, studied, and worked in Prague and W arsaw for a decade, returned to Ukraine to take arms against a sea o f troubles that engulfed her homeland in the first turbulent years o f W orld W ar II. Re fusing to cooperate with the Nazis who hoped to harness her talents as a writer and editor to serve their propaganda agenda, she was shot by the Gestapo on February 21, 1942. On February 20, Ukrainians commemorate the death o f Kyivan-Rus’ Prince Yaroslav the Wise, who united the unruly and divisive territories o f our ancestors into a strong and powerful nation. It was Yaroslav who codified the laws o f the land, who built monasteries and libraries and schools to encourage and support religion and education, and who arranged marriages for his children with the royal offspring o f numerous European monarchs. As brides o f the kings o f Norway, France and Hungary, Yaroslav’s daughters are jewels in the amazing tapestry o f the history o f Ukrainian women. One o f the brightest jewels in this tapestry is Lesya Ukrainka, whose birthday we celebrate on February 25. An undisputed literary genius, Lesya Ukrainka was a prolific poet, playwright, prose writer, and translator. Her contributions to Ukrainian literature are an amazing feat - they are the product o f a mind and soul undaunted by the ravages of an enduring and debilitating illness that wreaked havoc on a body that was often too frail to rise from its bed. Re by Lesya Ukrainka Rage and roar, you stormy weather Stormy weather I don’t fear Though my ventures fail me ever, I shall bear them with good cheer. Hey you clouds, that blackly threaten! I shall get a magic weapon So my songs may carry arms, And use against you spells and charms. All your tiny raindrop splashes Into seed-pearls will be turned, And your silver lightning flashes Will be broken up and burned. I ’ll let loose on your fast water My brave ventures - see them scatter! I ’ll destroy my mournful shadows With gay song through gloomy meadows. Rage and roar, you stormy weather Stormy weather I don’t fear Though my ventures fail me ever, I shall bear them with good cheer. From Seven Strings Cycle translated by Gladys Evans. Two o f the heroines cited here can be revisited in previous issues o f our magazine. For wonderful insights on the life and times o f Olena Teliha, see Olena Teliha and Oksana Liaturynska by Helene Turkewicz Sanko (April 1999). For more information on the life, work and legacy o f Lesya Ukrainka, see Lesya Ukrainka and the Ukrainian Diaspora by M arta Tamawsky (September 1996), Lisova Pisnia: The Forest Song in Drama and Film by Professor Sanko (December 1998), and Lesya’s Autumn in Yalta by Svitlana Kupryashkina (De cember 2000).
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