UKRAINIAN THEMES IN THE EARLY WORSK OF JULIUSZ SŁOWACKI
Authors:   Shevchenko Institute of Literature, NAS of Ukraine, Yerzhykivska Nataliia 
Published: February 2024

The article pays attention to the fullest possible identification of the content background of the early work of Juliusz Słowacki “Ukrainian Duma”, dated [Vilno, August 26, 1826], which literary experts consider to be part of the Vilnius-Kremenets creative period. Emphasized attention is paid to the fact that the poet begins his work at a time when the Ukrainian trend, later defined as the “Ukrainian school” in Polish romantic writing, has already clearly manifested itself in the work of its leading representatives. It is emphasized that the poem contains elements of folk songs that were sung throughout Ukraine in the 16th – 18th centuries. Consistency with the persuasive arguments of Ukrainian folklorist R. Kyrchiv is asserted, namely: the novice author does not imitate, adapt or rephrase Ukrainian folk songs, but only interprets them as material for a poetic synthesis; he also does not use those song texts on which B. Zaleski’s poetry is based. It is emphasized that the author of “Ukrainian Duma” testified to his early interest in Polish and Ukrainian folk song primary sources. It is speculated that J. Słowacki looked closely at Polish translations of Ukrainian song texts, their reprints and various kinds of adaptations, and also showed interest in Stavropol literature and the works of contemporary poets, in particular A. Malczewski. Typological parallels with shades of poetry by A. Czahrowski and B. Zimorowicz are given. Attention is drawn to the artistic features of “Ukrainian Duma” – interestingly composed, as for a novice poet, and sufficiently original integral work written in a rhythmic language (choreated eight-syllable). In the sylabotic system, the two-syllable foot, in which the rhythmic accent falls on the first syllable, is usually odd. The poem has 195 lines and has all the appropriate plot elements. The textual canvas of the “Ukrainian Duma” by J. Słowacki was analyzed and interpreted according to its conventional division into two parts: “I. Farewell” and “II. Despair”, the unfolding of which is accompanied by a narrator who forms the structure of the story and ensures the integrity of the composition; he performs the roles of narrator, observer and witness. In order to pay more attention to the plot-compositional organization of the poem, a division into separate fragments with conventional names corresponding to each aspect is also applied. Three fragments are included in the first part: “Runko and Hanka – narrator’s presentation of the characters”, “Farewell of lovers”, “Attack of the Tatars”. The following six fragments are included in the second part: “Runka’s Path to Hanka”, “Despair”, “Reflections on the Fate of a Cossack”, “Despair”, “Sad News...” and “Afterword”. The specified type of narration, used by the writer, that is, he belongs to the omniscient objective auctorial narrator who conducts the story and intervenes in it: dialogue with the characters in the form of questions-answers, reasoning, reflections, evaluations, comments and summaries. It is about the clothes and musical instrument (bardon) of the main character Runka. The research cites reviews of Polish and Ukrainian scientists, as well as individual fragments of translations of the “Ukrainian Duma” from Polish to Ukrainian by M. Zisman and R. Lubkivskyi. The author of the article is inclined to see in the poem “Ukrainian Duma” by J. Słowacki, which has overcome a difficult path to the reader (first published in 1866), as inspired student sketches of poetry for later mature lyrical and dramatic texts, which are full of glorious and tragic pages of past events and visions of the future of Poland and Ukraine.