Taras Shevchenko's poem "My Testament" (English translation by various translators)

 

 

Kaniv. Tarasova gora.

 

 

 

"My Testament" - poem of Taras Shevchenko (translated by John Weir) - read more

"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..."  

(translated by John Weir)​

 

 

Taras Shevchenko's poem "Testament" (Ukrainian-to-English translation by Vera Rich) - read more

"When I die, then make my grave 
High on an ancient mound,
In my own beloved Ukraine,
In steppeland without bound :
Whence one may see wide-skirted wheatland, 
Dnipro’s steep-cliffed shore,
There whence one may hear the blustering 
River wildly roar..." 

(translated by Vera Rich)​

 

"Dig my grave and raise my barrow
By the Dnieper-side
In Ukraina, my own land,
A fair land and wide.
I will lie and watch the cornfields,
Listen through the years
To the river voices roaring,
Roaring in my ears..." 

(translated by Ethel Lilian Voynich)​

"When I die,
let me rest, let me lie
amidst Ukraine’s broad steppes.
Let me see
the endless fields and steep slopes
I hold so dear.
Let me hear
the Dnipro’s great roar..."  

(translated by Alexander J. Motyl)

"When I die, bury me
On a grave mound
Amid the wide-wide steppe
In my beloved Ukraine,
In a place from where the wide-tilled fields
And the Dnipro and its steep banks
Can be seen and
Its roaring rapids heard.
When it carries off
The enemy’s blood from Ukraine
To the deep blue sea…" 

(translated by Michael M. Naydan)​

"When J die, remember, lay me
Lowly in the silent tomb, 
Where the prairie stretches free, 
Sweet Ukraine, my cherished home.
There, ’mid meadows’ grassy sward, 
Dnieper's waters pouring 
May be seen and may be heard, 
Mighty in their roaring..."

(translated by Alexander Jardine Hunter)

Original publication: