30 Days of Ukrainian Poetry - Day 15 - "To where, in the sky-blue sea"

Day 15 and whew, lordy, am I tired. Thursdays are when I run two back-to-back English clubs. Plus there's the cat.

I filmed today's (tonight's...) poem from my bed, and from my bed I shall not move. It is a love poem, a romantic and ambiguously melancholy one in which a lover promises to make his beloved into a star. Why is he making her into a star? Is it just romantic? Is she dead? I don't know.

The poet, Volodymyr Sosiura, was born just at the turn of the 20th century and, unlike a number of the poets I've featured on this blog, he actually lived a decently long life, surviving both World War I and World War II. He joined Ukraine's post-WWI fight for independence as part of the Ukrainian People's Republic, and was a staunch nationalist. One of his poems, formerly left unprinted, is now today known as "Mazepa", after a famous and still controversial Cossack hetman of late 1600s and early 1700s.

However, today's poem is not (as far as I can tell) about nationalism or Cossack hetmans. It's about turning his beloved into the brightest star in the heavens.

Туди, де в синім неба морі 

Володимир Сосюра

Туди, де в синім неба морі 
немов тремтить Чумацький Шлях, 
я понесу тебе над зорі 
в моїх закоханих піснях. 

Любові повний до нестями, 
мов непогасную свічу, 
там, за далекими світами, 
нову я зірку засвічу. 

Вона сіятиме, жадана, 
привітом дальнім крізь ефір… 
То будеш ти, моя кохана, 
найкраща із небесних зір!

To where, in the sky-blue sea

Volodymyr Sosiura

To where, in the sky-blue sea
as if trembles the Milky Way,
I will carry you above the stars
In my love songs. 

To love, filled to confusion
like an unextinguishible candle, 
there, past faraway worlds, 
I will light a new star. 

She will shine, beloved, 
a faraway greeting through the ether...
So you will be, my love, 
the best of the heavenly stars. 

I'm exhausted and need a shower, so the English translation has virtually no rhyme or meter. But it's there, and I didn't let today get the best of me! Halfway through, and I've only missed one day! Here's to the stars.

And now, a quick reading by a native speaker. This video makes me so ready for autumn. I love it.

Disclaimer you've read a dozen times about this blog representing only my personal views and not those of the Peace Corps, any national governments, any alien planets, etc. here.