MY TESTAMENT (ЯК УМРУ, ТО ПОХОВАЙТЕ)
When I am dead, then bury me
In my beloved Ukraine,
My tomb upon a grave mound high
Amid the spreading plain,
So that the fields, the boundless steppes,
The Dnieper’s plunging shore
My eyes could see, my ears could hear
The mighty river roar.
When from Ukraine the Dnieper bears
Into the deep blue sea
The blood of foes … then will I leave
These hills and fertile fields –
I’ll leave them all and fly away
To the abode of God,
And then I’ll pray… (Translated by John Weir)
О MY THOUGHTS, MY HEARTFELT THOUGHTS (ДУМИ МОЇ, ДУМИ...)
O my thoughts, my heartfelt thoughts,
I am troubled for you!
Why have you ranged yourselves on paper
In your ranks of sorrow?
Why did the wind not scatter you,
Like dust-motes, in the steppe?
Why did ill-fate not overlie
You, her babes, while she slept? (Translated by Vera Rich)
A SPRING EVENING (САДОК ВИШНЕВИЙ КОЛО ХАТИ)
Close by the house the cherries flower,
Above the orchard the beetles hum,
Still singing, the girls homeward come,
The tired plowmen’s steps grow slower,
And mothers with supper wait at home. (Translated by Honore Ewach)
