30 Days of Ukrainian Poetry - Day 4 - "Seaside Quiet"

Hello! We have made it to Day 4 of this 30-day challenge. Today, I was able to successfully record a reading of the poem I had tried to do for Day 3 but didn't quite manage. This one, "Тиша Морська" (Tysha Morska, or "Seaside Quiet") is by another giant of Ukrainian poetry: Lesya Ukrainka (the pen-name of Larysa Petrivna Kosach-Kvitka).

Lesya's mother was a writer, and encouraged her early on not only to write, but to write in Ukrainian at a time when publishing works in the language was banned in the Russian Empire. She was able to publish her first work at the age of 13 in Lviv, which was under Austro-Hungarian rule at the time and not subject to the ban. Her works were then secretly smuggled into Kyiv (hence the need for a pen-name). Lesya quickly became an active member of the forbidden underground network of Ukrainian cultural activists. 

A couple of fun factoids:

• Lesya Ukrainka's dad went to school in the city where I did my pre-service training (PST) for Peace Corps: Chernihiv. 
• There was a Google Doodle displayed in 2016 in honor of the 145 anniversary of Lesya Ukrainka's birth. 

Anyway, without further ado, here is today's poem: 

Тиша Морська

Леся Українка

В час гарячий полудневий
Виглядаю у вiконце:
Ясне небо, ясне море,
Яснi хмарки, ясне сонце.

Певно, се країна свiтла
Та злотистої блакитi,
Певно, тут не чули зроду,
Що бува негода в свiтi!

Тиша в морi… педве-ледве
Колихає море хвилi;
Не колишуться од вiтру
На човнах вiтрила бiлi.

З тихим плескотом на берег
Рине хвилечка перлиста;
Править хтось малим човенцем,
В'ється стежечка злотиста.

Править хтось малим човенцем,
Стиха весла пiдiймає,
I здається, що з весельця
Щире золото спадає.

Як би я тепер хотiла
У мале човенце сiсти
I далеко на схiд сонця
Золотим шляхом поплисти!

Попливла б я на схiд сонця,
А вiд сходу до заходу,
Тим шляхом, що проложило
Ясне сонце через воду.

Не страшнi для мене вiтри,
Нi пiдводний камiння, —
Я про них би й не згадала
В краю вiчного промiння.

Seaside Quiet 

Lesya Ukrainka

In the hot noontime hour

I look out the window:

A clear sky, shining sea,

Bright clouds, brilliant sun.

Certainly, this is a country of light

And of golden-blue,

Certainly, here one has never heard tell,

Of bad weather in the world! 

The sea is quiet... ever so gently

It rocks its waves;

And there is no wind to flutter

The boats' white sails. 

With a quiet lapping at the banks

 Breaks a pearly wave;

Someone steers a small boat,

A trail of gold swirls. 

Someone steers a small boat,

Quietly raising the oars,

From them, it seems,

Falls genuine gold. 

How I would love 

To now board a small boat

And to the distant sunrise

Follow a path of gold. 

I would sail to the sunrise, 

And from sunrise to sunset,

Along the path that the bright sun

Leaves on the water.  

I do not fear the winds, 

Nor the rocks below the surf, - 

I wouldn't even give them a thought

At the eternal sunbeams' edge. 

My own translation - although I am sure some English ones exist that I simply haven't found. 

I rose early and walked down to the banks of the Dnipro river this morning to read this poem, and was greeted by a scene much like the one it describes: quiet waters, a bright sunrise, and the silhouettes of little boats.

Тиша Морська is the longest poem I've attempted so far, and it was tough for me to get through it in one take without too many errors. There are a few places where I had a tough time juggling proper word stress with the meter and phrasing of the poem, but I sure enjoyed the effort it took to learn and understand this piece.

The beauty of this poem really comes through in music, so I recommend that you listen to this marvelous rendition by Valeriy Kvasnevskiy and Natalia Romaniuk:

A reminder that this blog reflects only my own personal views and experiences and is not indicative of the views of Peace Corps or the governments of the US or Ukraine.