The Testament

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.