Shevchenko wrote this poem on December 25, 1845, at Pereyaslav, the
city where the Hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky had made the agreement with
Moscow. Kostomariv, in publishing the first eight lines, gave it the
title by which it is now generally known. The poem is one of the most
famous of Shevchenko’s works and has been accepted as the keynote of
the movement for Ukrainian liberation.
+The Testament+
When I die, O lay my body
In a lofty tomb
Out upon the steppes unbounded
In my own dear Ukraine;
So that I can see before me
The wide stretching meadows
And Dnipro, its banks so lofty,
And can hear it roaring,
As it carries far from Ukraine
Unto the blue sea
All our foemen’s blood--and then
I will leave the meadows
And the hills and fly away
Unto God Himself ...
For a prayer.... But till that moment
I will know no God.
Bury me and then rise boldly,
Break in twain your fetters
And with the foul blood of foemen
Sprinkle well your freedom.
And of me in your great family,
When it’s freed and new,
Do not fail to make a mention
With a soft, kind word.