Kobzar | 
pick#StandWithUkraine #tarasshevchenko #poetry
“When I am dead, bury me In my beloved Ukraine…
…Oh bury me, then rise ye up
And break your heavy chains
And water with the tyrants' blood The freedom you have gained.
And in the great new family,
The family of the free,
With softly spoken, kindly word Remember also me.“
— Taras Shevchenko
from Testament
If only I could see
my fields and steppes again.
Won‘t the good Lord let me,
in my old age,
be free?
I‘d go to Ukraine,
I‘d go back home.
There they‘d greet me—
glad to see the old man.
There I‘d rest,
I‘d pray to God,
There I‘d—but why go on?
There will be nothing.
How am I to live in slavery
with no hope?
Do tell me,
please,
lest I go crazy
1848
Let them write as they like, and let us write as we like. They are people with a language, and so are we. Let the people judge which is better.
(As quoted in The Gates of Europe by Serhii Plokhy.)
