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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛИПЕНЬ - СЕРПЕНЬ 201 3 WWW. UNWLA.ORG 21 deeply respected. Like their parents, and especia l- ly their mother, the children were highly educa t- ed, well - read, and politically as well as nationally conscious. The children were cheerful and playful, which manifested itself in singing, dancing, and games, yet never turned into a kind of fussiness or hysterics that can be often observed in wealthy families. The Kosach c hildren had their respons i- bilities: the most important of them was learning, including the reading of the world classics selec t- ed by their mother. Because she could not stand the Russified schools, Olena Pchilka had her chi l- dren home - schooled up to the mid dle grades — with the help of hired tutors. She was able to o r- ganize her children's learning, entertainment, music and art lessons in such a way that as a r e- sult, they had a wonderfully balanced childhood and adolescence. Proximity to the Volyn' peasants pl ayed an important role in the life of Lesya Ukrainka and her siblings: their mother was happy to let her offspring play with children from the su r- rounding villages, listen to the stories told by the elderly peasants, and enjoy the exquisite, pristine natur e of the Volyn' region. These childhood e x- periences were a source of Lesya Ukrainka's love for folk songs, ancient beliefs, as well as the fo r- ests, lakes, and swamps of Polissia. Such was the harmonious upbringing which Lesya received from her family, her people, and her native env i- ronment. Nothing could shatter these foundations acquired in her youth, though during her life Lesya Ukrainka saw the beauty of many countries and got acquainted with many cultures. Her le t- ters to her mother testify to this fact: in one of them, written only a year before her death, she writes that she was forever captivated by the Mavka (the forest nymph) from the Ukrainian forests and thus felt compelled to write her dr a- ma, The Forest Song . At the age of twelve, Lesya Ukrainka was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the bone, which she battled her entire life and which eventually cut her life short. Her fight against this internal enemy included a variety of treatments, surgeries, and trips to various places for more treatment. She j ourneyed to the Crimea, the Caucasus, and the Carpathians; to Berlin for an operation on her leg and to San Remo, Italy. In the last years of her life, she traveled three times to a sanatorium near Cairo in Egypt. There were no antibiotics back then; every thing depended on climate and diet. Lesya Ukrainka spent 30 years of her life battling tuberculosis. It is astonishing that in her letters Lesya Ukrainka almost never complains about pain; she only mentions being tired and thus unable to work as fast as s he would like, which worries her. But most frequently, she wrote to her family and friends about something else altogether — things that captured her interest. First and foremost, it was literature. Lesya read voraciously; she read the best works of world li terature in the original la n- guages and often translated them, most frequently from French and German (Victor Hugo, Gerhart Hauptmann, Heinrich Heine, Maurice Maeterlinck and others). At the same time, she never stopped writing her own works — poetry, drama, and prose. She would write captivated by some personality or topic. She would develop it in her creative imagin a- tion, studying the relevant historical materials, and then “chisel” it out with her word, portraying the event or showing the crux of an ideolog ical pro b- lem. Her protagonists, often women, articulate deep feelings and big ideas. They are often depic t- ed embroiled in a verbal battle with their antag o- nists — such are the conflicts between Cassandra and Helena, Dolores and Donna Anna, Mavka and Kylyna, as well as Joanna and Chuza or the early Christian Priscilla and Rufin. Since early childhood, Lesya Ukrainka deeply felt the injustice and lack of freedom in her native land. Ukraine was the subject of many of her writings — her passionate poetry and the dr a- matic poem Boyar's Wife , banned by Moscow, with its captivating image of Oksana, who peris h- es in the spiritually suffocating capital of the Ru s- sian Empire — out of her longing for Ukraine. From her letters we see how much she loved everything native an d close to her heart. She adored her siblings and addressed her youn g- er sister Olha (Lilya) tenderly as “My dearest Lile - yech ko.” She taught her the history of civilization and chose appropriate reading materials not only for Lilya but also for Oksana, Do ra and Mykos'. She had a deep, abiding friendship with her brother Mykhailo (whose pen name was Obach - nyi), and how she grieved his untimely death! Serious, often sad or pensive, determined, yet also gentle and kindly — this is how my mother remembered Lesy a Ukrainka. She never deman d- ed any special treatment for herself; she was humble and overly hard - working, especially in light of her illness — she took on many tasks, i n- cluding teaching, writing articles and making a living, so as to be self - sufficient. Suc h is the image of Lesya Ukrainka co n- veyed by her letters and the accounts about her by those closest to the poet. 1973 Translation from Ukrainian by Olesia Wallo
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