UKRAINIAN POETRY TRANSLATION: OLEKSANDR BOHACHOUK, “NATIVE WORD”

OLEKSANDR BOHACHOUK, “NATIVE WORD”

All languages are splendid in the world.
Each one has harmony and fire,
As, in each muscular and sturdy word,
There lives a nation, its own sire.

That’s why I love every tongue’s code!
But, among all, my closest say,
Is that, in which I, first words owned,
In which I read the “Kobza-Player”.

My grandpa and my dad, from cast,
Were forging plowshares for village men,
And, I, from the word-lightening blast,
Will forge my artful poems, then.

… Forget your language in no way,
And love it, preciously, protect,
So simple, colorful and great,
Which, nightingales would not reject.

Translated from Ukrainian into English by Ivan Petryshyn

http://poetyka.uazone.net/default/pages.phtml?place=bogachuk&page=bogachuk005

Twelve on the Table

twelve are the dishes
on Ukrainian Christmas,
the Nativity,-
on my table,
as the symbols of the Twelve
who followed the Baby Jesus,
as twelve are the months,
that whirl in the orbits
of the Sun and the Moon,
many are the memories
of the departed,
with my Mother,
who taught me the Rite
and the rituals,
the stories to believe in,
for whom I am praying
at the table with the twelve dishes,
with the "kuotia", the dish of the repentance,
with the poppy's seeds, as the stars,
with the grain, as the number of the generations
before and after,
with the walnuts, as the symbol of wisdom and health,
with the honey, as soft as love, unity and friendship,
with the water, the base of life,
with the red beef-soup, as the color of our blood,
that makes all humans relatives,
with the crescent-shaped dumplings,
filled with veggies and fruits,
as the honor to the moons of our lives,
filled with the results of our toils,
with the doughnuts and round-sun dumplings
to mark the wheels of the lives and believes
with the sad thoughts and sweet dreams
to be the images of God with us,
talking about Him in the prayers
given to us from the generations
unknown, lost in the mist
of the Eternity re-Birth.

Ivan Petryshyn

HRYHORII SKOVORODA, 2 POEMS IN ENGLISH

HRYHORII SKOVORODA “ YOU ASK, WHY?”

(translation from Ukrainian)

You ask: if the happiness of life is in everybody of us,

Then, why is it reached by so few?

Oh, that is, because it’s difficult for them to rule their souls,

And, because they haven’t learnt, how to refrain their gusts.

Through anfractuous paths, hills and through the deepest moats

There races an inexperienced horseman, if he rules his horse badly.

By sea and on the land, through arrows and the fire, there races the one,

Who doesn’t direct his irrational soul with reason.

So, what is left? To read the beatific books,

It’s not enough to hide it in yourself, it’s necessary to have it reflected.

Now, you are a recruit: exercising in deeds, with time, you’ll become a warrior.

From that type of warriors, there becomes that amazing king,

Which was Christ and his disciples …

(Translation from Ukrainian by Ivan Petryshyn)

http://poetyka.uazone.net/skovor03.html

PETRO HULAK-ARTEMOVSKII  “A FOOL AND A WISE”

(Parable)

/translation from Ukrainian/

“ in the name of which scrape,  would people need that erudition?-

Once, blurted out a foolish fool, a wise guy having petitioned.

“it’s for the time, said that one, when one feels a desire to know right away,

For not to answer the fools’ questions any way.”

Kharkiv,Dec. 1^st, 1820 

Translation from Ukrainian by Ivan Petryshyn

http://poetyka.uazone.net/default/pages.phtml?place=hulaka&page=hulaka04