Almanac of Story Tellers: Taras Shevchenko

 Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of March 9th

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    It is the 68th day of the year, leaving 297 days remaining in 2022.

    On this date in 1814, Taras Shevchenko, the father of Ukrainian literature, was born in the village of Moryntsi in central Ukraine.

    He was a writer, a poet, an artist, and a folklorist, sometimes known simply as Kobzar Taras, a bard in Ukrainian culture. His writings are considered to be the foundation of modern literature in Ukraine; indeed, he is often considered the father of the modern Ukrainian language. 

    His writings expressed the spirit of his nation, and shaped its national language and imagery. His influence on various facets of the country's intellectual, literary, and artitistic culture are felt to this day. 

    Shevchenko's grave on Chernecha Hora, near Kaniv, is consiered a holy place and visited by hundreds of throusands a year. His birthplace is a museum.

    His poem, Zapovit, expresses his desires to be buried in his homeland, which was carried out in the years after his death in 1861.

                        When I am dead, 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.

    He also urged his countrymen, after they buried him, to "rise ye up/ And break your heavy chains/ And water with the tyrants' blood/ The freedom you have gained."

    Shevchenko was born a serf and was an orphan before his 12th birthday, but through his intellect and his artistic skills, gained his freedom as a young man. He and his writings championed independence for Ukraine, and he often was arrested, and spent a large portion of his life in prisons. 

    In the poem Son, he used bitter sarcasm to show the lawlessness of tsarist rule. Velykyi l'okh is an allegory that summarizes his country's passage from freedom to captivity under its Russian rulers. He expressed sarcasm in several other poems, and used the ancient Greek myth of Prometheus to show the punishments and rebirth the Ukrainians have experienced for their free spirit.