O boisterous wind most turbulent
("Dumka" / "Vitre buinyi, vitre buinyi!" )
Stupnikov O. "Reve ta stohne Dnipr shyrokyi..."O boisterous wind most turbulent,
You parley with the sea.
Awaken it, roar out with it,
And question it for me.
The sea knows where my sweetheart is,
For it has borne him far;
The broad blue sea will tell you where
My fond affections are.
If it has drowned my lover lad,
Break up the dark blue sea!
And I shall seek my dearest out
And drown my grief and me.
And when I find him, embrace
And faint upon his breast;
Then bear us both, O wave, away
Wind-tossed upon your crest!
If he is on the other shore,—
O wind of boisterous whim,
You know his path and what he does
For there you talk with him.
And if he weeps, then so do I;
If not, I sing with joy;
And if my dark-browed lad is dead,
perish like my boy.
Wherever then my sweetheart lies,
Bear me upon the wave;
A cranberry bush then make of me
And plant me on his grave!
’Twere easier in a foreign field
For him, in earthy doom,
If I, his love, should stand above
And as a flower bloom.
For like a cranberry blossom
His comfort entreat
To keep the alien sun away,
The tramp of foreign feet.
And in the evening I shall grieve,
At dawning I shall weep;
The sun will rise — dry my tears—
None at my grief may peep.
O boisterous wind, most turbulent,
You parley with the sea.
Awaken it, roar out with it,
And question it for me.
Taras Shevchenko
"Dumka" / "Vitre buinyi, vitre buinyi!"
("Думка" / "Вітре буйний, вітре буйний!" )
1838, 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. 80-81; S. 599-601
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. 9 - 10