New-York tribune., 1918-09-01
Ukraine
A Little Discussion of
Its Literary Resources
From "The Atheneum"
ME Ukraine is in reality some
thing more than a region from
= which Germany hopes to draw

1t is actually a national entity, with a
life and culture peculiarly it's own, hav-
ing deep roots in unique soil, and suf-
ficiently we'll developed to impart color
and taste to the adjoining life of Russia.
Gogol was Ukrainian in his interests, and
"Taras Bulba" is representative bit of
the literature of the Ukrainian people
Chekhov was Of Ukrainian blood, and so
were Korolenko and Dostoievski Con-
rad, in his ga Personal Record" speaks
of the guardian uncle who came down
all the way from Ukraine" to see him.
George Frederick Lees further illu-
mines this somewhat unknown corner
of the world in an article in a recent
number of "The Athenaum,' published
in London. After commenting upon the
richness of the Ukrainian language, and
noting that ''the use of the spoken
tongue as the literary language of
Ukraine is gaining fresh ground every
day." the writer goes on to say:
'Just before the outbreak Of the world
war there were no fewer than several
hundred daily, monthly and weekly Pc
riodicals published in it. Thousands of
books in Ukrainian were published year.
~ly. In the Austrian part of Ukraine it
became the language of the state. In
the local parliament, or Diet, of Galicia
the debates were carried on in Ukrainian
and Polish. Ukrainian became the Ian
guage of the state railways, the post
office, the courts and the administrative
offices Of the province. Public instruc-
ton in the elementary, secondary and
high schools was, and is still, carried on
in Ukrainian. But before the revolution
the Ukralnlan language was in Slavonic
Russia banned from every official or pub
lie use and was barely suffered to ap-
pear in the press and literature of the
day. Even such employment of it is of
recent date, since Ukrainian was strictly
prohibited until 1905, the year that saw
the decreeing Of the Russian constitu-
tion. Up to that time it's use was con-
hned by ukase to poetry and tales, and
even then it had to be spelt in accord
ance with the Russian mode of spelling.
1t IS curious fact that the Bible in
vernacular Ukrainian, published after
its prohibition by the British and Foreign
Bible Society, was regarded as revolu-
tlonary publication, and any one found
In possession of copy was punished
accordingly.
1T was the appearance of great DO ct
In the middle of the last century-a man
who dared to write in the spoken lam
guage of his country-that solved at a
stroke the problem of the future literary
language of Ukraine. This writer was
Iaras Shevchenko, the centenary of
whose birth was celebrated in 1914 in all
the towns and cities of Ukraine, and es-
pecially at Kiev and Lemberg.
Dig my grace and raise my barron
By the Dnieper-side
II" Ohruanao, my oaCn land,
A fair land and aide.
aoaU lie and match the coymfelds.
Lasten through the gears
10 the 'iuer voices roaring,
Rodrang n, aty ears.
so sang the exquisite poet. who az
mas been we'll said by Mrs. E. L. Voynich.
whose admirable translation I quote. has
done for the Dnieper country what
Burns did for Scotland His wish, writ
ten IN the disciplinary brigade, in the
nrst or second year of his martyrdom at
the hands of those who accused him of
composing in the Little Russian tongue
verses of most abominable character
was carried out. There, on the banks of
the mighty and beautiful river, in view
OF Klev and the Steppes, he lies.
Inere is no need 20 relate once more
all the incidents in Taras Shevchenko's
dolorous life. They have been given in
sufficient detail in Mrs Voynich's little
volume. Suffice it to say that these six
masterpieces sum up whole life of mis-
cry and shattered hopes, while at the
same time they express the writer's I'M
dying love for his dear lost Ukraine
"Rudansky, Vorobkievich and Fed
.lovlch are also singers of Ukrainia
Though of lesser Importance than the
great poet of the Ukrainian movement
Tor autonomy, they have written many
poems which are treasured throughout
their country. Fedkovich, whose work is
marked by great lyrical beauty, first
wrote IN German, but on returning to his
native Bukovina, to find that he had be-
come famous, he followed the advice Of
some we'll known patriots to write in
Ruthenian. His first sixteen poems in
that language were published in 1861"