Lesya Ukrainka
Larysa Petrivna Kosach-Kvitka,
better known under her literary
pseudonym Lesya Ukrainka was
one of Ukraine's best-known
poets and writers and the
foremost woman writer
in Ukranian literatur. She also
was a political, civil, and female
activist. She wrote in the most
various genres: poetry, lyric
poetry, epos, drama, prose,
publicism. She was known due
to the collections of poems «On
the wings of songs» (1893),
«Thoughts and dreams» (1899),
«Reviews» (1902), poems the
«Old fairy-tale» (1893), «One
word» (1903), dramas boyar's
«Wife» (1913), «Kassandra»
(1903-07), «In catacombs»
(1905), «Forest song» (1911)
and other.
Biography
Ukrainka was born in 1871 in the town of
Novohrad-Volynskyi of Ukraine. She was the
second child of Ukrainian writer and
publisher
Olha
Drahomanova-Kosach
(better
known
under
her
literary
pseudonym
Olena
Pchilka).
Mykhaylo
Petrovych
Drahomanov,
a
well-known
Ukrainian scientist, historian, philosopher,
folklorist and public figure, was a brother of
Drahomanova-Kosach and Lesya's uncle.
Lesya had three younger sisters, Olha,
Oksana, and Isydora, and a younger brother
Mykola.
Lesya was very similar to his father
in
appearance
and
character.
Despite
the
fact
about
many
similarities, one respect in which
Lesya and her father were different
is that her father had a gift for
mathematics,
but
no
gift
for
languages, on the contrary, Lesya
had no gift for mathematics, but she
knew English, German, French,
Italian,
Greek,
Latin,
Polish,
Russian, Bulgarian, and her native
Ukrainian.
Lesya Ukrainka learned how to
read at the age of four, and she
and her brother Mykhaylo could
read foreign languages well
enough to read literature in their
original language. Ukrainka had a
good familiarity with Russian,
Polish, Bulgarian, Greek, Latin,
French, Italian, German and
English.
By the time she
was eight, she
wrote her first
poem, "Hope,"
which was written
in reaction to the
arrest and exile of
her aunt, Olena
Kosach, who took
part in a political
movement against
the tsarist
autocracy.
At age thirteen, her first published poem,
"Lily of the Valley," appeared in the journal
Zoria in Lviv. It was here that she first used
her pseudonym, which was suggested by her
mother because in the Russian Empire,
publications in the Ukrainian language were
forbidden so Larysa Kosach's first collection of
poetry had to be published secretly in
western Ukraine and sneak into Kyiv under
the pseudonym. At this time, Ukrainka was
well on her way of becoming a pianist, but
due to tuberculosis of the bone, she did not
attend any outside educational establishment.
Writing was to be the main focus of her life.
Her first collection
of poetry, Na
krylakh pisen’ (On
the Wings of
Songs), was
published in 1893.
Since Ukrainian
publications were
banned by the
Russian Empire,
this book was
published in
Western Ukraine,
which was part of
Austria-Hungary at
the time, and
smuggled into
Kiev.
Her illness made it necessary for her
to travel to places where the climate
was dry, and as a result, spent
extended periods of time in Germany,
Austria, Italy, Bulgaria, Crimea, the
Caucasus, and Egypt. She loved
experiencing other cultures, which
was evident in many of her literary
works, such as The Ancient History of
Oriental Peoples, originally written for
her younger siblings. The book was
published in L'viv, and Ivan Franko
was involved in its publication.
In 1897, while being treated in
Yalta, Ukrainka met Serhiy
Merzhynsky, an official from
Minsk who was also receiving
treatment for tuberculosis. The
two fell in love, and her
feelings for Merzhynsky were
responsible for her showing a
different side of herself.
Examples include "Your Letters
Always Smell of Withered
Roses," "To Leave Everything
and Fly to You," and "I'd Like to
Wind around You Like Ivy,"
which were unpublished in her
lifetime. Merzhynsky died with
Ukrainka at his bedside on
March 3, 1901. She wrote the
entire dramatic poem
"Oderzhyma" ("The
Possessed") in one night at his
deathbed.
Ukrainka married
in 1907 to Klyment
Kvitka, a court
official, who was
an amateur
ethnographer and
musicologist. They
settled first in
Crimea, then
moved to Georgia.
Ukrainka died on
August 1, 1913 at
a health resort of
Surami, Georgia.
Poetic creativity
The creative work of the poetess very versatile:
from the romantic extravaganza (best known
for her work of this genre - «Forest song») to
Patriotic appeal to Ukrainians to restore the
might of its homeland.
In 1893, the first collection of poems of Lesya
Ukrainka live and develop three main ideasthemes lyrics: hope of victory, the will to fight
and belief in the power of poetic speech is only
available to her arms. Challenge was the name
of the book - «On the wings of songs».
The motif of the
national liberation
struggle develops
together with the
other Central theme
- the role of the poet
in the people's
struggle for social
and national
freedom. The theme
of the relationship
between art and life,
art and society,
developed in Lesja
Ukrainka in the
numerous works.
CONTRA SPEM SPERO!
*Без надії сподіваюсь (лат.)
Гетьте, думи, ви хмари
осінні!
Тож тепера весна золота!
Чи то так у жалю, в
голосінні,
Проминуть молодії літа?
В довгу, темную нічку
невидну,
Не стулю ні на хвильку очей,
Все шукатиму зірку провідну,
Ясну владарку темних ночей.
Ні, я хочу крізь сльози
сміятись,
Серед лиха співати пісні,
Без надії таки сподіватись,
Жити хочу! Геть думи сумні!
Я не дам свому серденьку
спати,
Хоч кругом буде тьма та
нудьга,
Хоч я буду сама почувати,
Що на груди вже смерть
наляга.
Я на вбогім сумнім перелозі
Буду сіять барвисті квітки,
Буду сіять квітки на морозі,
Буду лить на них сльози
гіркі.
І від сліз тих гарячих
розтане
Та кора льодовая, міцна,
Може, квіти зійдуть, і
настане
Ще я для мене весела весна.
Я на гору круту крем'яную
Буду камінь важкий
підіймать,
І, несучи вагу ту страшную,
Буду пісню веселу співать.
Смерть наляже на груд
важенько,
Сніг застеле сувора імла,
Але дуже заб'ється серденько,
—Може, лютую смерть подола.
Так, я буду крізь сльози
сміятись,
Серед лиха співати пісні,
Без надії таки сподіватись,
Жити буду! Геть думи сумні!
2 травня 1890 р..
The poem Lesya Ukrainka Contra spem spero one
of the best not only in the creative work of the
poetess, but also world literature. This kind of
program writer, her credo. Though linked this
poetry with the personal circumstances of Lesya
Ukrainka, her illness, she inspired millions of
readers, gives them the power of the spirit and
power. Poetess using metaphors «I wbgm sad
perelaz will sow colorful flower» speaks of his
desire to serve the people, to be useful to him. It
is ready to the steep mountain, cram anou» «the
heavy stone pdiet», «through tears to laugh» and
«without hope to hope.»
The main idea of the poem is the addition of spirit
and hope of life after the black stripe is white.
She says that if we believe in good, even when
there is no belief, the world is changing for the
better and all troubles will be easier to survive, to
find when the last drop of hope. Lyrical hero is
the author himself. Main - man, who wants to live
happily and tries to ignore all the misfortune that
had fallen on her shoulders. In the work of the
lyrical hero can attonito with Lesja Ukrainka.
Dnipropetrovsk University of
Alfred Nobel
Done
by
Xenia
Denisenko
and Yana Shahverdyan
Checked by
N.A.Chernyak