HOSEA, CHAPTER XIV
Clarence Augustus Manning translation
After his return from the army, Shevchenko’s poetry took a more austere note. A large part of his latest works were adaptations of the Old Testament and the warnings of the Prophets were transfigured into lessons for the Ukrainians and on the fate of Ukraine. They deal with the same themes that he had treated earlier—the uselessness of depending upon the Russian autocracy, the weaknesses of the people of the day, especially the intellectuals, and the need for all the people to apply the lessons of brotherhood to all their fellows. Shevchenko’s contact with some of the Russian radicals may have influenced him to some degree but these poems can be read as general denunciations of the vices of men and countries. Never more than in the works of his last period did Shevchenko become a stern, commanding teacher holding up to all men everywhere the proper course of actions for human things to pursue. Now more than ever he became a great ethical teacher not only for his generation and people but for all the nations of the world.
Hosea, Chapter XIV
(Imitation)
Yes, you will perish, Ukraina, And leave no trace upon the earth! And yet you once were richly famous For good and wealth! O Ukraina, My dear, my innocent poor land, Why does the Lord send you this fate? Why punish you? ’Tis for Bohdan, And for the mad, insensate Peter, And for the pagan lords around them, He ruins you and drives you down, Destroys you so. And it is just! He long with patience looked upon you And watched your silence and neglect, Your sinful womb that bore such monsters, And spake in wrath: “I will destroy Your beauty and your charm superb. You will be broken. In their wrath Your sons will slay you, when full grown, And others, ill-conceived, shall die Within your womb, and fade away As unhatched chickens that are not. With tears, the tears of a sad mother I will fill full your towns and fields That all the earth may see and know That I am ruler—and see all.” Arise, O mother, and return Unto your spacious home and rest. You have been burdened long enough With sins your sons have wrought at times. A sad and mournful mother, rest And say to your unfaithful sons, That they will perish in their sins, That their dishonor and their treason, Their crookedness are cut within The souls of men by fire fierce And by a bloody flaming sword, Their destined punishment cries out And their good tsar will never save them, Their mild and drunken sovereign lord! He will not give them food or drink Or yet a horse to mount unsaddled And gallop off. You cannot flee, You cannot hide! For everywhere Avenging truth will seek you out. Men will watch for you, catch you then, And they will not waste time in trials. In fetters they will firmly bind you And take you home for men to see, And on a cross without a hangman Or yet a tsar they will spread you, And nail you fast, tear you apart, And, dogs, they will give your fresh blood Unto the dogs to drink. Add this And say this word again to them. Speak plainly, Say, “You have done this. With foul and filthy hands you made Your hope and then you say, ‘The tsar’s our God, the tsar’s our hope And he will feed and will protect The widow and the orphans.’” ... No! Say this to them: “The gods are mad, The idols in the palace rich.” Tell them that truth will rise again, Not the departed, ancient word That now is rotten; a new word Will come with might unto the people And save the plundered and the lost From the false favor of the tsar.