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• Taras Shevchenko, poem “By a spring a sycamore” (translation: Irina Zheleznova)

Taras Shevchenko, poem “By a spring a sycamore” (translation: Irina Zheleznova)

Taras Shevchenko. Selected poetry, 1977. Title page of the book.

"Taras Shevchenko. Selected poetry, 1977". Title page of the book.

Taras Shevchenko. Poem By a spring a sycamore (translation of Irina Zheleznova)

Taras Shevchenko

By a spring a sycamore

("Teche voda z-pid yavora")

Translated by Irina Zheleznova

By a spring a sycamore
On the hilltop grows.
Down the hill into the vale
Swift the water flows.
Soft of hue, a guelder rose
Blossoms on the green,
And a leafy willow tree
Weeps beside the stream.
Round a wood the stream it runs,
And its voice is gay.
Near the bank, amid the sedge,
Ducklings splash and play.
Mother Duck and Father Duck
Swim beside their brood.
Mother Duck the ducklings shows
How to look for food.

То the stream a maiden comes,
Two bright pails she brings.
To the stream a maiden comes
And a song she sings.
To her side her parents haste;
There she sits, the lass.
‘Tell us who our child will wed!”
Of the stream they ask.

Taras Shevchenko
"Teche voda z-pid yavora"
("Тече вода з-під явора")
1860, S.- Petersburg (С.- Петербург)

Translated by Irina Zheleznova

Original publication:
Taras Shevchenko. Zibrannia tvoriv: U 6 t. — K., 2003. — T. 2: Poeziia 1847-1861. —
S. 366; 755.

Тарас Шевченко. Тече вода з-під явора

Source: Taras Shevchenko. Selected poetry. Kiev, Dnipro, 1977, p.315 - 317.

More poems of Taras Shevchenko translated into English by Irina Zheleznova:

Poetical works of Taras Shevchenko (translation of Irina Zheleznova)

Irina Zheleznova - writer and translator, who seems to have worked for most of the major publishing houses of the former Soviet Union. She translated some of Taras Shevchenko's poetical works into English language in 1964, having original melodic and rhythmic patterns been preserved.