Taras Shevchenko
THE DAYS PASS BY, NIGHTS FLIT AWAY
("Mynajutj dni, mnajutj nochi")
The days pass by, nights flit away,
The summer’s gone, pale leaves a-heap
Are rustling; dreams my eyelids sway;
My thoughts and heart are both asleep.
All things around me sleep — I know not
Whether I live or drowse the while.
By any plan, my hours flow not,
No longer do I weep or smile...
Where art thou, Destiny, ah where?
My soul is stirred by none!
If Thou begrudgest me fair fate,
Lord, send a ruthless one!
Let me not sleep when I should wake;
Do not permit my heart to lie
A rotten log that men forsake
And leave in fetid infamy;
But on me let fierce fervour fall
To love all people all my days,
Or let me cast a curse on all
And set the torpid world ablaze!
Dreadful it is to lie in chains
And die in slavery at last,
Yet worse it is when sleep retains
The free man’s spirit overcast,
For all eternity to slumber
And leave behind no sign or trace,
As if his days had borne no number
And there was nothing to efface...
Where art thou, Destiny, ah where?
My soul is stirred by none!
If Thou begrudgest me fair fate,
Lord, send a ruthless one!
Taras Shevchenko's poem
"Mynajutj dni, mnajutj nochi"
("Минають дні, мнають ночі")
1845, Viunishcha, (В’юнище)
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. 367; S. 749.
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. 268 - 269.
Here you can find Ukrainian text of the Taras Shevchenko's poem:
Original poem in Ukrainian
