"A bark" - poem of T. Shevchenko (Translated from Ukrainian by С.H. Andrusyshen and Watson Kirkconnell)

A bark

("Viter z haiem rozmovliaie")

The wind holds converse with the grove,
It whispers to the sedge, -
A lone bark down the Danube floats
Far from the rivers edge.
The bark is floating water-logged -
Nobody stays its course;
No fisherman is nigh at hand
Its stoppage to enforce;
To this way and to that it rocks,
One faints to mark its woe!
Without an oar it floats along
Where wind and current go...
Into the sea at last it drifts,
And loud the sea complained...
The dark waves sported with the craft
Till not a shred remained!
Like the barks journey to the sea,
A waifs unwitting way
To foreign countries is not long
Till sorrows with him play.
For of him, like the billows cold,
The people will make sport
Till of the jest they’ve had their fill
And he’s past every port;
Then they will glance to see the waif
Where dark despairs careen him;
And, if you ask his wherebouts,
Say: “No, we have not seen him!”

Taras Shevchenko
"Viter z haiem rozmovliaie"
("Вітер з гаєм розмовляє")
1841, S.- Petersburg, (C. - Петербург)

Translated by С.H. Andrusyshen and Watson Kirkconnell

Original publication: Taras Shevchenko. Zibrannia tvoriv: U 6 t. — K., 2003. — T. 1: Poeziia 1837-1847. — S. 191; S. 675-676

Source: The Poetical Works of Taras Shevchenko. The Kobzar. Translated from the Ukrainian by С.H. Andrusyshen and Watson Kirkconnell. Published for the Ukrainian Canadian Committee by University of Toronto Press, 1964. Toronto and Buffalo. Printed in Canada, Reprinted 1977, p. 142 - 143

Here you can find Ukrainian text of the Taras Shevchenko's poem:
Original poem in Ukrainian