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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЖОВТЕНЬ 2019 WWW. UNWLA .ORG 13 Anniversary of Marusia Churai by An i a Savage This year marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of poet Lina Kostenko's novel in verse, Marusia Churai , a work set during the hetman era of Ukraine. For a time, it appeared that Marusia Churai would lie unread. Kostenko wrote the novel in 1973, at a time Soviet censors were blacklisting her work because of her support of the Ukrainian political dissidents who came to be known as the "shestydesiatnyky" (the “sixtiers”). It took six years for the censors to relent and permit the publication of the nov el, which finally went to press in 1979. Eventually, in 1987, Kostenko was awarded the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of the Ukrainian SSR for her verse/novel. Set in 17th - century Poltava, Marusia Churai evokes characters, who cannot see beyond their nar- row outlook and the superstitions that govern life in the villages in the steppes along the Dnipro River and who condemn anyone who does not abide by the social rules of the hetman era. Kostenko was inspir ed by the legendary figure of a folk minstrel named Marusia Churai who was said to have wandered from village to village while singing about a fickle kozak who was poisoned by one of his lovers. In Kostenko’s novel, it is Marusia herself who is accused by the kozak's mother of murdering her son. Marusia is arrested and put on trial in a court presided over by Poltava's hostile elders. The novel opens in a packed courtroom. Marusia is accused of using witchcraft to charm the inno- cent kozak, although no witn ess has any concrete evidence against her. As the testimony unfolds, it be- come s clear that the local people resent and blame Marusia because she is different from them. She does not conform. The crowd sides with the kozak's mother. Marusia is indifferent to the trial proceedings and sentencing; her world came to an end when Kozak Hryts died. She is found guilty and sentenced to execution by hanging. When the k ozak hetman hears of this verdict, he orders the sentence to be commuted for the sake of Marusia's famous k ozak father. In doing so, the hetman recognizes and responds to Marusia's talent. He believes that the people need song makers and creative individuals because without such individuals a nation is at risk of losing the memory of its history. Extra polating from this belief, we can easily surmise that this may be the reason Kosetenko’s novel was deemed subversive in Soviet Ukraine. After her pardon, Marusia can no longer live in Poltava. She embarks on a pilgrimage to Kyiv. Once there, she regains h er spirits while realizing that Kozak Hryts was unworthy of her love. The reader even- tually learns that Hryts was poisoned by accident. Realizing that he was going to marry another woman, Marusia prepared poison for herself. Hryts came to see her with the intent of explaining why he was aban- doning her. He drank the poison, which had been added to wine, by chance. Author's Note : Alone in a strange city and unwilling to explore Kyiv at night, I turned to reading Kostenko’s novel to pass the time. L ater, despite a full schedule and assorted invitations from newly ac- quired friends, I returned to Marusia Churai with a different purpose: to translate it. I close with an ex- cerpt from the opening lines of Kostenko’s work: In the summer of 1658 Poltava burned to the ground. Along the river, thatched roofs went up in flames as did the wooden domes of churches. The wind gusted and the fire roared. Above the administration buildings floated light ash of incinerated records - from all those city tomes of the proceedings of court trials. Was the transcript of Marusia Churai's tr i al among them? Is that why none of the testimony against her survived to our time, because Poltava's records burned while the town was ransacked as the war continued? What if the transcript were found - in a monastery or in someone's attic? What if it survived unscathed - not singed - untouched?
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