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From the Smoky Lake Signal , Wednesday, January 20, 1993. Ukrainian poet still inspires countrymen This centenary year where we honour all our Ukrainian pioneers, we must not forget the one famous poet and artist Taras Hrehorovich Shevchenko. His poems, paintings, ideas and hopes have left a deep imprint on the lives of not only our predecessors but on us all, whether we understand his original words or read them in translation. The story of his life is also our history:
Taras Shevchenko was born March 9, 1814, in the village of Morintsy, Ukraine, to Hrehory and Katerina Shevchenko. They were sefs in bondage to landowner Baron Engelhardt. He had an older brother, Mikita, and sister Katerina. Taras also had two younger sisters, Yarina and little blind Mariyka, as well as youngest brother Yosef. From earliest childhood he felt the sad plight of poor serfs. He loved the beauty of the Ukrainian countryside, and would later go on to vividly describe it in his poems and paintings. Taras was an orphan at a young age, his mother died when he was nine; his father two years later. Taras had received some schooling with the church deacon, showing much artistic talent. He dreamed of studying art with a good teacher but instead was forced to do the heavy work beffiting a serf. When he was 14, the Pan made him his personal servant, a Kozachok , which left him little time for schooling or art. In St. Petersburng, Engelhardt finally conceded to apprentice him to a painter, Shirayev. Shevchenko met other artists who were free and later bought his release from bondage. He was 24 years of age. At this time he started to seriously write poetry and in 1840, his first book of verses, the Kozbar, was published. His poetry was imbued with humanism, an appeal for justice, the hope for a unity and friendship among people. In 1843, when Shevchenko returned to Ukraine, he was greatly disturbed that his people were still under the heavy yoke of serfdom. In 1847 he was arrested in the Ukraine for joining a society advocating social change. He was banished for 10 years to distant and barren Orenberg, forbiddden by the Czar to write or paint. Despite this decree, he went on to write some of his most powerful verse while in exile. In 1859, he was permitted for the second time to visit Ukraine but was soon arrested on false charges and again he was forced to leave his beloved homeland. At 47 years of age, he died in St. Petersburg on March 10, 1861. His request for a final resting place as described in his testament, was to bury him on a hill overlooking the beloved Dniper. Two months later in May, caravans of people honored him by carrying his body back to Ukraine to a resting place such as he wished in Kanev, thus fulfilling that part of his testament.
Submitted to the Signal by
Anna Magas of St. Paul.
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