30 Days of Ukrainian Poetry - Day 19 - "Forgotten Shadows"

Greetings on this fine Day 19! (or night... it's past my bedtime here). Anyway, given that yesterday's featured poet wrote his dissertation about Mykhaylo Semenko, it seems only fair that we ourselves give the rebellious Semenko another look.

No energy for long commentaries here - let's get straight to the poem! You can read more about Semenko in Day 3's post if you want some more context.

Тіні забуті

Михайло Семенко

Хмари над лісом пливуть в далину,

Вітер свистить свою пісню сумну.

Чую в тій бучі забуті слова,

Часу далекого мла вікова.

В річці над лісом тим плесо чорніє.

Млин розвалився, в воді сутеніє.

Чую я пісню — тужне голосіння,

Скрізь розлилося таємне зомління.

Що то за тіні? В час опівночі

В небі я бачу заплакані очі.

Хмарами котяться хвилі бліді,

Морщаться кола у темній воді.

Forgotten Shadows

Mykhaylo Semenko

Above the forest, clouds float in the distance,

The wind its sad song whistles.

I hear in that sound forgotten words,

of a distant time, ageless murk.

In the river above that forest the slow сurrent blackens.

The mill has fallen apart, the water with dusk darkens.

I hear a song - a mourning wail, wistful,

A dark syncope has everywhere spilled.

What's that behind the shadows? At midnight 

In the sky I see tear-stained eyes.

Pale waves roll through the clouds, 

Circles wrinkle the dark water. 

I would love to film my reading of this poem outside on this cool summer evening, but as I've already gotten into my pajamas and my camera doesn't work well in the dark, the balcony will have to do. I feel like this poem describes something I've felt many times, listening to the wind through the eucalyptus trees back home when moonlit nights left me feeling wistful for something unknown and ancient-feeling. I don't love my reading of this, but it took a good twenty takes to get it because of the noisy motorcycles roaring up the boulevard, and the cat jumping on my laptop and phone several times. This will have to do.

It seems suiting that something by Mykhaylo Semenko would be performed by a rock band named after Ukraine's first utopic science-fiction novel. Here's Соняшна Машина - "Sunflower Car" performing today's poem.

Insert here the same blurb about this blog representing my views and my views only that I put in every blog in order to abide by Peace Corps rules.