Exercises

Ex1. Hold a discussion on the point:

• You have read the brief stories about the celebrities of the Ukrainian life. Think and single out at least three common features which enabled them to be consid­ered as history makers. Think what you can add about each of them.

• What other names of distinguished Ukrainians, who made their contribution to different spheres of life do you know?

• What do you know from the lessons of history about Ivan Mazepa (1644—1708); Meletiy Smotrytsky (1578-1633); Hrygory Skovoroda (1722-1794)?

Ex2. Comment on the following verse by Ivan Franko:

«In toil alone we find our strength reviving,

By toil is built the world in which we're living,

And toil alone makes life on earth worthwhile.»

Translated by W.May

Do you agree that these lines can serve as a motto for our con­temporary life? Give your reasons.

TARAS SHEVCHENKO, THE GREAT SON OF UKRAINE

Ukraine has been famous for its songs and ballads for thousands of years. Only the recorded ones run into hun­dreds of thousands. It's only natural, therefore that poetry has been our main genre ever since 'The Tale of the Host of Ihor', that masterpiece of all-Slav importance.

Taras Shevchenko has be­come to be the Ukrainian peo­ple's Homer by virtue of the epic quality of his work so intensely in harmony with his people's thoughts, hopes and aspirations for freedom.

It seems next to impossi­ble to try and portray the en­tire magnitude of this many-faceted personality. As a citi­zen, a poet, an artist, a fight­er, Taras Shevchenko has no subtitute in Ukrainian litera­ture. A son of a serf and him­self deprived of all rights, to the extent that he was almost a slave, he grew up into a summit visible to all tribes and nations the world over.

This is not a mere figure of speech. Shevchenko's po­ems have been translated into almost a hundred languages in our country and abroad and nearly four hundred monu­ments have been put up by grateful people to this coura­geous champion of truth and a happy future.

Shevchenko became world-famous in the second half of the 19th century. In Great Britain he was compared to Burns, and in Germany to Heine. In France the author of «Kobzar» (Shevchenko's first book of poems) was acclaimed as a singer of social protest.

Shevchenko was highly ap­praised as an unsurpassed po­et, but he was also a first-class prose and essay writer, playwright and critic. And, more importantly, he was the founder of the modern Ukrai­nian literary language which we use to this day. Lastly, Ta­ras Shevchenko was a brilliant painter, one of the fathers of the realistic school in Ukrai­nian art.

In his native land, he beca­me a legend and a champion of the people, whom even the tsar feared. Illiterate peasants knew almost the whole of his «Kobzar» by heart. Now the poet's birthday, March, 9, is marked by the whole of the country. It has become a holi­day for our friends in many countries throughout the world.

Several years ago, an an­nual Shevchenko Festival cal­led «ln a Free, New Family» (after a line from his poem «Testament») was instituted. It has become a nation-wide occasion, enabling Ukrainian people demonstrate their free arts and genuine talents, for which Taras Shevchenko wi­shed with all his heart.