The Approaching End

The end of Shevchenko’s life was approaching. In the autumn of 1860 he became conscious of the fact that his health would not allow him to carry out his dreams of marrying, having a family, and living in a little home on the bank of the Dniper in Ukraine. He expressed this feeling in his poem The years of youth are passed away, written on October 19, and soon after he consulted a physician because of his difficulty in breathing. His friends could not realize his condition but he failed rapidly and during January, 1861, he was able to do little work. He finished his last poem, Is it not time for us to stop? on February 25. It was the end for early the next morning, the day after his birthday, his eyes closed forever.

+The years of youth are passed away+

The years of youth are passed away ... A chilling blast has swept upon me From hope. The winter’s on its way. So sit alone in your cold home With no one there to hear your word, With no one to receive your thought, No one at all, no one at all! Sit there alone, until hope fools The fool himself and mocks him well And seals with frost his lonely eyes And scatters all his haughty thoughts, Just as the snowflakes on the steppe. Sit there alone in your poor home, Wait not for spring, a holy fate! It never will appear again To deck your garden with its green Or to renew your faded hope. It will not come to set free thoughts Again at freedom. No, sit there And wait for not a thing at all.

+Is it not time for us to stop?+

Is it not time for us to stop, My neighbor poor, but yet so dear, The writing of these worthless verses And to commence our preparations To go upon a distant journey? Unto that world, my friend, to God, We’ll hurry on to take our rest.... We’re wearied now, we’ve grown so old And somehow we have gained some sense. That is enough! We’ll go to sleep, We’ll go to rest in a small cabin ... The cabin’s cheerful, as you know!

We’ll not go, we are not going,-- Friend, it is too early! Let us go, and let us sit And enjoy this world. Let us look, my humble fortune, Think how broad it is, How it is both broad and cheerful, Clear and yet so deep! Let us go, my friendly star, And ascend the mount, There we’ll rest ... At that same moment All the stars, thy sisters, The eternal, heavenly stars, Will swim up a-shining. There we’ll wait, my sister dear, Ever holy comrade, And with chaste and pious lips Let us pray to God. We will start in utter quiet On our distant journey, O’er the bottomless and raging Lethe we must pass. Bless me for this, O my comrade, With a holy glory!

But while we wait to meet the future, We will go simply--and direct To pay to Aesculapius To see if he can trick old Charon And the wise Fates who spin. There after While the wise grandsir is a dreaming, We’ll stop and write a mighty epic-- And steam it well above the earth And weave hexameters for it, And take it to the attic A breakfast for the mice ... And then We’ll sing in prose--and not by notes And not as chance may say ... My friend, O sacred guide of my whole life, Before the fire has gone out, We’d better go to Charon now!

O’er the Lethe bottomless With its raging waters We will sail and carry with us All our sacred glory, Ever youthful and eternal ... For--I dread it, friend! If I have to go without it, I’ll be very mournful, So whether it’s on Phlegethon, Or on the Styx in heaven, Or on Dnipro, that mighty river, I shall construct a little cabin In the eternal forest there And plant a garden round the cabin And thou wilt come to its cool shade And there I’ll seat thee like a queen; We will recall Dnipro, Ukraina, The cheerful forest villages, The mountain tombs upon the steppes, And we will sing a cheerful song.

Surrounding characters have been used to indicate italics or +small caps+ Set poem titles in small caps as needed Retained inconsistent hyphenation of “black-haired” Retained inconsistent use of space in “folk song” (and plural) In the Table of Contents, changed “Haydamakí” to “Haydamaki” p. 6 changed “Mickiewiez” to “Mickiewicz” p. 7 changed “was” to “were” in “exploits of the Kozaks were” p. 7 changed “conqueroring” to “conquering” p. 12 changed “be” to “he” in “in St. Petersburg he” p. 12 removed period between “relaxation” and “--to” p. 21 changed “superviser” to “supervisor” p. 25 changed “made” to “make” in “and make trouble” p. 25 changed “set” to “sent” in “and sent back” p. 25 changed “peninsular” to “peninsula” p. 29 changed “ecstacies” to “ecstasies” p. 30 changed “acqaintance” to “acquaintance” in “renewed his acquaintance” p. 31 added period after “unjustly accused” p. 43 changed “Koliischchina” to “Koliishchina” p. 46 changed “unforgiveable” to “unforgivable” p. 55 set chapter heading and title in all caps p. 58 changed “Christianty” to “Christianity” p. 67 changed “has” to “have” in “others have” p. 70 italicized “The Poplar” before “is a good example” p. 81 italicized “Ivan Pidkova” in “In Ivan Pidkova” p. 85 changed double-quote to single-quote before “Oh my wretched Ukraina,” p. 85 added closing single-quote after “trampled.” p. 86 changed period to comma following “heavens” p. 104 added close quote after “snow-covered!” p. 108 italicized “Haydamaki” p. 113 changed “self-same” to “selfsame” p. 113 removed close quote after “O tapster!” p. 129 moved “St. John” attribution to separate line and removed italics p. 148 unitalicized “the” in “the Dream” and “the Heretic” p. 148 changed “Khmllnitsky” to “Khmelnitsky” p. 150 set “+Three Souls+” in small caps rather than italics p. 157 added quote before “You have drunk” p. 158 added quote after “sobbing.” p. 158 added quotes before “I have” and after “Germans.” p. 158 added quote before “You have done” p. 163 moved period inside parenthesis in “(They sat down.)” p. 171 removed hyphen in “fellow countrymen” p. 179 changed comma to period between “Moscow” and “Kostomariv” p. 189 added close parenthesis to “(Folk Sketches)” p. 194 changed period to comma following “And says,” p. 196 removed quote after “once,”