In the preceding poems Shevchenko laid stress upon the political
corruption and cruelty of Russia in the _Dream_ and on the general
ethical conception of Slavonic brotherhood in the _Heretic_. In the
_Great Grave_ he summarizes the leading faults in Ukrainian history and
character. He called the poem a mystery and so it is in the traditional
sense of the word, for it is a careful and complete exposition by means
of symbols of all that had led Ukraine to its deplorable situation. It
also incorporates a definite criticism of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, whom the
poet was regarding by now as the source of Ukraine’s troubles.
The poem opens with the appearance of three souls who are debarred from
heaven and hell. At first sight their crimes seem negligible but they
represent three stages in the downfall of the country. The first had
crossed the path of Bohdan with a pail full of water (a good omen!),
without knowing that he was going to Pereyaslav to submit to Moscow.
That act marked the end of the hopes of a strong, united and free
Ukraine. The great Hetman had almost won his country’s independence and
his reliance on the word of the Tsar caused the division of the country
and the loss of everything. This act of the first caused the death of
“father, mother, self and brother and the dogs”--in a word, the death
of all Ukraine.
The second soul had watered the horse of Peter after the overthrow
of Mazepa, who had united Ukraine with Charles XII of Sweden in an
effort to recover the liberty of at least part of the land. The soul
represents that part of the country that had been loyal to Peter; the
slaughtered sister, that part which had fought for liberty. Again the
mother represents the entire Hetmanate, and the grandmother who buried
the young girl is almost certainly the whole conception of a great and
independent country.
The third soul, a mere child at death, smiled at Catherine, when she
was on her way to liquidate the Hetmanate. It represents that Ukraine
which was willing to accept ignorantly and gladly even the few shreds
of liberty left by Catherine and the mother again symbolizes all that
was left of Ukraine that was forced to yield.
Thus each soul speaks for a smaller and smaller Ukraine, a lesser and
lesser demand upon Russia, but even by yielding there was no salvation.
They only succeeded in debarring themselves from the heaven of a free
country or at least an honorable death.
Then come three crows. The second crow, representing Poland, has seen
the end of the country, has driven the nobles to Siberia, and has
feasted in Paris with the emigrés after 1831. The third crow represents
Russia. It has fostered tyranny but despite that has been sold out to
the Germans.
The first crow represents Ukraine. This crow confesses its evils, its
treachery, its bloodshed. It acknowledges that during the centuries it
has destroyed Ukraine by its civil wars, its treachery, and its evil.
Yet it must weep even now for all that it has done and it predicts the
coming of twins, one like Gonta, the leader of the Haydamaki, who will
fight for freedom and the other like the modern people who care nothing
for virtue. It hopes with the aid of its friends to ruin the first and
help the second.
Then come the three bards, one blind, one crippled, and one
hunchbacked. They are all that is left of Ukraine, for they know the
songs, they can glorify the past, but they are perfectly ready to sing
of their nation’s glory to please the conquerors, if they can only
secure a living and some financial return. The tomb of Bohdan is to
be excavated by the enemy. They see nothing of the disgrace of this,
nothing of the misery around them. All they ask is a good profit.
They arrive at Subotiv. The people are taking orders from the conqueror
who expects by this symbolic act of opening the tomb of the Ukrainian
leader to secure a rich profit. There is nothing there--nothing but
a few old bones and the disappointed and humiliated Russian official
flogs the bards for daring to put in an appearance. Even their
servility has brought them no more than servility brought the souls.
The mystery ends with the question as to when the Great Grave that
contains the liberty of Ukraine will be opened.
The poem is obscure, for no open defiance would have stood any chance
of spreading among the people and would have subjected the poet himself
to certain punishment. Yet its impression is very powerful. It is a
formal declaration of war by Shevchenko on the masters of Ukraine and
it is also an expression of his abiding confidence that somehow there
will be a better future. It is not based on a political program; there
is less of the ethical aspects than we find elsewhere but it is a
definite history of the Ukrainian spirit which can never die.
+The Great Grave+
_A Mystery_
_Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision
to them that are round about us._
_Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head
among the people._
--Psalms 44, 13-14 (Psalm 43, 14-15)
+Three Souls+
Three snow-white little birds came flying
Up through Subotiv and they lighted
Upon a torn and twisted cross
On an old church.--“The Lord forgive us:
We are now souls, no longer people!
And from this height we’ll see more clearly
How men will excavate the grave.
The sooner that grave will be opened,
The sooner may we enter heaven.
For so the Lord has promised Peter:
‘You may admit them into heaven
When the Moskal has all well plundered
And has dug open the Great Grave.’”
_First Soul_
“When I was a mortal being,
I was named Prisea.
I was born in this same village
And was reared right here.
In this churchyard with my comrades
I was wont to play.
With Yuras, the hetman’s son,
We played blindman’s buff.
And his mother would come out
And invite us in
To the nearby house and then
Raisins, figs, and fruit,
She would often give to me.
She was fond of me.
And when guests came from Chihrin,
Oft the hetman sent
Unto me to come and join them,
Clothes and shoes they gave me.
And the hetman was my escort,
And he used to kiss me.
So here in Subotiv village,
I was reared and blossomed
Like a flower. All the people
Loved and welcomed me,
And to no one ever, ever
Did I speak unkindly.
And I was a black haired maiden
Beautiful, I tell you.
All the boys were wont to court me,
Many sought my hand.
For the moment I was ready
With my towels woven
And I soon would have consented,
When misfortune came.
“Very early, ’twas near Christmas,
Yes, it was a Sunday,
I ran out to fetch some water ...
But I found the spring
Was all muddy, ceased its flowing,
And I kept on flying ...
Then I saw the hetman’s party.
And I got the water.
With full pails I passed before them,
For I had no knowledge
That he went to Pereyaslav
For an oath to Moscow!...
It was very hard to carry
To the house that water.
Why had I not sense to shatter
All the pails that held it?
Father, mother, self and brother
And the dogs I poisoned
With that thrice accursed water!
That is why I’m punished;
That is why they keep me, sisters,
From the gates of heaven.”
_Second Soul_
“This, my sisters, is the reason
Why they barred me also,
For I watered well the horse
Of the Moscow ruler
There in Baturin, when he
Went back from Poltava.
I was but a little maiden,
When at night the Moskals
Set in flames great Baturin
And they murdered Chechel
And they drowned the young and adults
In the river Seyma.
I fell down among the corpses
In the very chambers
Of Mazepa. And around me
Mother and my sister,
Murdered in each other’s arms,
Lay there dead beside me.
Then by force and violence
From my stricken mother
They removed me once for all.
And I kept on begging
From a Moscow captain that he
Would kill me at once.
But they did not. No, they sent me
As a toy for Moskals.
But I fled and found a refuge
’Mid the raging fire.
There was but one house left standing
In all Baturin.
In that house they had determined
That the tsar would stay
On his way back from Poltava.
And I went with water
To the house.... And then he beckoned
With his hand to me.
And he bade me tend his horse.
So I gave it water.
I had no idea I’d wrought
Such a grievous sin.
I had scarcely reached the building
When I fell down dead.
The next day, when he departed,
I was safely buried
By grandmother, who was staying
’Mid the growing fire.
For she laid me out with kindness
In a roofless building.
On the next day she died too
And decayed right there,
For in Baturin was no one
Who could bury victims.
But they well the house demolished
And they burned the beams,
Turned them into coals with curses.
I must keep on flying
Over the ravines and meadows
And the Kozak steppes.
But the reason why I’m punished,
That I do not know.
May be, ’twas because I aided
Every one in need,
And to please the tsar of Moscow
Watered well his horse.”
_Third Soul_
“See, my birthplace was in Kaniv.
I was but a baby,
When one day my mother took me
In her arms to see
How the Empress Katerina
Came there on the Dniper.
Mother sat with me in silence
On an oak-grown hill.
I was weeping, but I know not
Whether I was hungry
Or if something hurt me badly
On that very day.
Then my mother tried to cheer me,
Pointed to the Dniper,
And she showed to me the gorgeous
Golden galley towering
Like a building.... And upon it
Sat the princes, nobles,
Leaders, and amid the throng
The renowned tsaritsa.
Then I looked, and then I smiled,
And I lost my soul!
Mother died. And on one morning
Both of us they buried.
That is why it is, my sisters,
That I now am punished,
That they still do not admit me
For that grievous sin!
Did I know, a little baby,
That the empress was
Ukraine’s bitter enemy
And a hungry wolf?
Tell me this, my sisters!”
It grows dark. So let us hasten
For the night to Chuta,--
What is now the next to happen.
There we can find out!
So the spirits spread their wings
To the forest flying,
And together in an oak tree
Rested for the night.
+Three Crows+
_First_
“Caw! Caw! Caw!
Goods Bohdan stole,
Took them all to Kiev,
And he sold to knaves
All the goods he stole.”
_Second_
“I have drunk in Paris.
With Potocki and Radziwill
Three gold coins I squandered.”
_Third_
“O’er the bridge Satan comes.
The goat is on the water.
Woe is coming! Woe is coming!”
So called the crows and they flew up
From different sides and lighted
On a dead tree upon a hill
Amid the forest, three of them.
With feathers upright as ’gainst cold,
Each grimly eyed the other crows,
Just as three stern and aged sisters,
Who lived alone and lived alone,
Until they were with moss o’ergrown.
_First_
“That’s for you, and that’s for you!
I have just been flying
To Siberia and stealing
From a poor Decembrist
Bits of gall. And so you see
I have something still to eat.
But in all your land of Moscow
Is there food for you?
E’en the devil knows there’s nothing.”
_Third_
“Sisters, no, there is abundance.
I cawed out three royal orders
On one road alone....”
_First_
“On which road? The road of fetters?
No, you have done very well.”
_Third_
“And six thousand souls I strangled
In one verst alone....”
_First_
“Do not lie, there were but five.
It was with von Korff.
Go on boasting for it shows you
Taking praise for others.
You are only pickled cabbage,
And you, gracious lady,
Take your banquets there in Paris!
O you cursed pagans!
You have shed a bloody river
And have chased your nobles
To Siberia--it’s proper
And you talk about it.
What a noble peahen you are!”
_Second and Third_
“What have you done better?”
_First_
“It is not for you to ask me!
You were not yet born,
When I poured the wine in plenty
And shed lots of blood.
Marvel how! You both have read
Karamzin’s creations,
And you think that you are like me!
Get away, you blockheads,
You have never been in fetters,
Beggars featherless!”
_Second_
“No one dares to touch you.
She did not rise early,
Who was drunk till daylight
But who drank and slept.”
_First_
“You have drunk enough without me
With those priests of yours!
Devil take you! I burned Poland,
With its kings and all.
Without you, you tongue unruly,
I would still stand firmly.
With the free Kozaks, my victims,
What have I accomplished?
Unto whom have I not sold them,
Unto whom betrayed them?
But they live forever, curses!
I believed that with Bohdan
I had buried them forever--
But the rascals rallied
With the foul upstart Mazepa.
What was there accomplished!
When I think of it, I shudder.
Baturin I burned,
And the Sula there at Romna
I dammed with the leaders
Of the Kozaks--With the others,
With the simple Kozaks
Finland’s fields I made to sparkle
And I piled them high
And I sent my children
To Orel ... and in Ladoga
Band on band I killed
As they filled the awful swamps
At the tsar’s command,
And the famous Polubotok
In the prison smothered.
Oh, that was a holy feast!
And when hell was sated,
Blessed Mary there in Rzhavets
Once again was sobbing.”
_Third_
“I have had a splendid living.
I intrigued with the foul Tatars,
With the Torturer I revelled,
I have drank with dear Petrukha,
And I sold them to the Germans.”
_First_
“You have done your work superbly;
You have chained up all the Kozaks
In the German fetters.
Now lie down to sleep!
Devil knows, what sort of person
They will see in me.
For I handed all to slavery
And the power of the nobles
I increased with uniforms,
When I introduced these lice;
All of them are nobles’ bastards!
And the cursed Sich is loaded
With the German spawn
And the Moskal’s just as bad.
He knows how to warm his hands!
I am cruel and just the same
I cannot see calmly
What the Moskals do in Ukraine,
Do unto the Kozaks.
Such an order do they publish:
‘By the mercy of the Lord,
You are Ours, all is Ours,
Whether good or bad!’
Now they’ve come to excavate
The ‘antiquities’
From the tombs ... for there is nothing
In the house to take,--
You have plundered all so nicely!
But the devil knows full well
What they’re seeking now again
From the worthless grave!
They should wait a little longer
And the church would fall.
Then they could describe two ruins
In the journal _Bee_!”
_Second and Third_
“Why did you call us to come here?
Just to see a grave?”
_First_
“Yes, a grave! Yet now two marvels
Are about to happen;
On this night in Ukraina
Twins are to be born.
One will scourge, as once did Gonta,
All the hangmen evil!
And the other--will be ours,
Help the hangmen work.
Ours pinches in the belly ...
And I have read often
When this Gonta is a man,
All of ours perish.
He will plunder all their goods,
Not forsake a brother,
And will scatter truth and freedom
Through all Ukraina.
So take care, my dearest sisters,
What they are preparing.
They are making fetters ready
For our knaves and friends.”
_Third_
“I will close his eyes forever
With a golden shower.”
_First_
“He, the cursed charlatan,
Will not heed the gold.”
_Third_
“I will tie his hands with tokens
Of the royal honors.”
_Second_
“I will bring from everywhere
All the ills and torments.”
_First_
“No, my sisters, ’tis not needed.
While mankind is blind,
There is need to bury him
Or there will be trouble.
See there; high above our Kiev
Is his broom uplifted.
O’er the Dniper and Tyasmino
Is the earth hard shaken.
Do you hear? A groan is rising
Over old Chihrin.
And the whole of Ukraina
Laughs and sobs again.
Both the twins have now been born,
And the crazy mother
Laughing says that she will call both
By the name of Ivan!
Let us fly.” And so they flew off,
And they sang, a-flying.
_First_
“Then will come our Ivan
O’er the Dniper to Lyman
With his Kuma.”
_Second_
“The dear lamb will run off
So as to eat serpents
By my side.”
_Third_
“When I seize him, when I catch him,
Unto very hell I’ll fly
Like an arrow.”
+Three Bards+
One was blind and one was crippled
And the third was hunchbacked,
Going to Subotiv singing
Of Bohdan to people.
_First_
“What is this the crows have uttered?
They have paved the way!
Just as if the Moskals kindly
Made a seat for them.”
_Second_
“And for whom? They will not seat
Any man, I’m sure,
Counting stars.”
_First_
“You tell the truth.
Maybe they will place
There a Moskal or a German.
Either of them there
Can find good support.”
_Third_
“Why do you talk utter nonsense?
What are all the crows?
And the Moskals and the seats?
May the Lord protect us!
Mayhap they will bid us lay eggs
And hatch out some Moskals.
For there’s rumors that the tsar is
Seizing all the world.”
_Second_
“Maybe so! Upon the devil
They will be on high
For they are so lofty minded
That they’ll reach the clouds
To crawl out ...”
_Third_
“That’s really true.
Or there’ll be a flood
And the lords will crawl out there
And will look and marvel
How the peasants have to drown.”
_First_
“You are men with sense.
But you have no whit of knowledge;
For they have created
All these phantoms just for this;
That men may not steal
River water and that never
They will plough the sand
That is there near Tyasma.”
_Second_
“Devil knows their purpose!
You can’t guess. So don’t talk nonsense!
Just suppose we sit
Down beneath this tree before us.
And we’ll pause a while.
In my pack I have two pieces
Of dry bread for us.
Let us stop and take our rest
Till the sun arise.
(_They sat down_.) And who, my brothers,
Will sing of Bohdan?”
_Third_
“I will sing to men of Yassy,
And the Yellow Waters,
And the town of Berestechko.”
_Second_
“They to-day won’t fail
To bring to us splendid profit,
For around the grave
Is a crowd of people gathered,
And a few of nobles.
That will mean a lot to us.
Let us try our songs
As a sample.”
_First_
“Not at all!
Let us rather rest!
Take our sleep. ’Twill be a good day.
And we’ll sing enough.”
_Third_
“So I say. Come, let us pray
And we’ll go to sleep.”
* * * * *
The bards beneath the tree soon slept.
The sun still slept. The birds are still,
But near the grave men have awaked
And they have started out to dig.
They dig one day, they dig a second,
And up on the third with toil
They dug until they reached a wall.
Then they rested briefly
But first they set a guard around,
For the captain ordered
Not to let a soul come near.
To Chihrin he sent
“For his chief.” That chief disgusting
Came without delay,
And he marvelled,--“Yes, we must
Break the vault at once.”
“’Tis the proper course.”--They broke it
And they were all frightened.
In the grave some bones were lying
As if they were laughing
That they saw the sun again.
That’s the wealth of Bohdan.
It’s a skull and rotted feedtrough,
Bones encased in fetters.
Had a uniform appeared,
They could profit by it.
All were laughing and the captain
Was the jest of all.
There was nothing fit to take
And he had worked hard.
Day and night he had been striving
And it proved no good.
If Bohdan had chanced to happen
Into his stern hands,
He would put him in the army,
Till he knew he must not
Fool officials! And he runs,
Like a fool he cries,
Hits the face of Yaremenko,
Cursing in his Russian
All the crowd; he turns in anger
To my aged bards:
“What are you here for, you rascals?”
“Sir, we came just now
So that we Bohdan can sing.”
“I’ll give you Bohdan!
Rascals, knaves, and parasites!
You have made a song
For that foul accursed knave!...”
“We have learned them, sir!”
“I will teach you! Thrash them well!”
So they took and thrashed them
And they steamed their insides out
In a Moscow bath.
Thus the singing of Bohdan
Brought to them a profit.
So the small grave in Subotiv
Was cleaned up by Moscow.
But the great grave that is there
She has not located.