Taras Shevchenko. Poem "A dream / То Marko Vovchok" (Translated by Irina Zheleznova)

A DREAM

(То Marko Vovchok) 

("Na panshchyni pshenytsiu zhala")

Translated by Irina Zheleznova.

Out in the field she laboured, reaping

The master’s wheat; then, wearied, went

To where she’d left her baby sleeping

Beside a stack. O’er him she bent

And cradled in her arms the crying

And whimpering bundle. Lovingly

She changed and fed him, pacifying

Her son with lullaby. When he

Slept, on her knee untroubled lying,

She dozed, and in her dream she saw

Ivan, her son, a babe no longer,

But fully grown. Tall, handsome, strong he

And rich appeared, a man; what’s more,

A free man, not a serf, and wedded

To one free like himself. Attended

By wife and children, in the field,

His own, he toiled. She saw him wield

A scythe and smiled.... All of a sudden

There was she wide awake and under

A haystack sitting.... Heavens!... Tightly

Her child she swaddled, and in haste

Went off to reap — the steward, might he

Not come upon her, angry-faced!...