Our traditions in literature: Shevchenko and pysanky (04/04/04)

Our traditions in literature: Shevchenko and pysanky

by Orysia Paszczak Tracz

If you need to think of a Ukrainian poem describing the beauty of the Ukrainian village and countryside, a poem by Taras Shevchenko (of course!) usually comes to mind: "Selo, i sertse odpochyne, selo na nashii Ukraini, nenache pysanka, selo..." [A village, and the heart is at peace, a village in our Ukraine, a village like a pysanka...]

In another poem, "Na Velykden, na solomi..." [on Easter, on the straw...] Shevchenko describes how children brag about what gifts they received for Easter. The essence of the poem comes through in the English translation. But what will not and cannot come across in English is the beauty of Shevchenko's work. The phrase "lost in translation" is certainly true here. The melody and beauty of the Ukrainian language - and how Shevchenko incomparably used it - defies translation. Ukrainian and Italian are regarded as the two most musical languages in the world, for singing, for opera and, I think, for poetry. This poem is in the C.H. Andrusyshen/Watson Kirkconnell translation, which retains the rhythm of the original:

On Easter Sunday among the straw
Out in the sun the children played
With Easter eggs in colors braw
And each of them loud boasting made
Of gifts received. One, for the feast,
Was given a shirt with sleeves of white;
One with a ribbon had been pleased,
One with a garment, laced and tight;
This boy was given a lambskin cap,
That one a pair of horsehide boots,
And one a jacket to unwrap.
Only one child among their bruits,
An orphan, had no gift of bliss;
Her hands are hidden in her sleeves.
She hears: "My mother bought me this,
My father got me that." (She grieves.)
"My good godmother made a blouse
Embroidered gay with dainty thread."
"The priest has fed me at his house,"
At last the little orphan said.
[Kos Aral, 1849, in exile]

It was traditional to dress in your finest clothing on a Sunday, especially in a white "sorochka," a linen shirt - meaning not one for everyday, which may have been of hemp and slightly grayish. Those who could afford it wore the finer, white linen, instead of the cheaper, grayer hempen cloth.

For Easter, you wore everything new. The children bragging about their "obnova" [something renewed] are talking about the new clothing and accessories they received as gifts. Being an orphan himself, Shevchenko often wrote about "syroty," "syritky" (orphans) and their sad life. The poor orphan has nothing to show off, nothing to brag about, other than the remarkable thing that she was invited for Easter breakfast at the priest's home.

At the beginning of the poem, the children are playing with krashanky, the solid-colored eggs that are cooked and meant to be eaten. Shevchenko describes the custom correctly, because later, through the years, some people thought that it was the pysanky that you played with at Easter. This is incorrect. Pysanky are the symbolically decorated raw eggs, usually done by the batik process, which are reverent, ritual objects, symbols of the rebirth of nature, the power of the sun and the Resurrection. Traditionally these are not to be played with.

Because of their symbolism pysanky were so revered that they were to remain raw, unemptied, so as not to destroy the embryo inside the shell. In our time, to prevent old pysanky from exploding or oozing, we do empty them. Some pysanka writers wait to empty their pysanky until after Easter, after the blessing of the Easter basket and its contents, and the breakfast - thereby respecting the symbolism at least during the holy days.

Vadym Shcherbakivsky emphasized this in his 1926 work "Osnovni Elementy Ornamentatsiyi Ukrainskykh Pysanok i Yikhnie Pokhodzhennia" [The Basic Elements of the Ornamentation of Ukrainian Pysanky and Their Origin], Pratsi Ukrainskoho Istorychno-Filolohychnoho tovarystva v Prazi. Volume 1, Prague 1926. "The pysanka was never baked or cooked, and when this did occur, obviously it was from the degeneration of the custom. Pysanky were never played with, not in the games 'bytky' nor 'kotky.' The reason for this was not only that the pysanka is raw, but also, to my mind, that it was not proper [ne hodytsia] to break the portrayal, the symbols of the sun on the pysanka, it would just not be proper for a Christian to break a cross or an icon, or the impropriety of breaking any kind of talisman."

In his book "Ornamentyka Ukrainskoyi Khaty" [Ornamentation of the Ukrainian House] (Rome, Bohoslovia Publishers, 1980), he wrote: "In recent times, i.e., in the 20th century, the people already lost the understanding of the difference between a krashanka and a pysanka, not understanding them, as did the recorders of folklore - including Sumtsov - because they did not understand the meaning of the images on the pysanky."

A few of our artists also were not aware of this, because in some Ukrainian Easter cards, children are depicted as playing with pysanky, instead of krashanky. Even some curators and museum directors forget the difference, or perhaps just describe what the more recent custom was. The late Oleksii Solomchenko, long-term director of the Kosiv College of Folk and Decorative Arts, worked on his book about pysanky for many years, even after retirement.

"Pysanky Ukrainskykh Karpat" [Pysanky of the Ukrainian Carpathians] (Uzhhorod: Karpaty, 2002. ISBN 966-671-031-5) is well-illustrated, sometimes with not-so-authentic pysanky. In the text, Solomchenko writes that "pysanky were not just for exchange. They were played with in 'chokalky' and 'navbytky' " [tapping two together to see whose egg breaks first].

The pysanky that Shevchenko saw in his youth were not the intricate, ornate ones from the Hutsul region. His pysanky were simpler, in fewer colors and lines, but no less beautiful and interesting. They were from the Cherkasy region. This writer's review of "Pysanka," a book on these pysanky by Vadym Mytsyk and Oles Fysun (Kyiv: Rodovid, 1992) appeared in The Ukrainian Weekly (April 22, 2001). The book is still available through www.Rodovid.net.

Shevchenko wrote simply, elegantly, beautifully, intelligently, bluntly and very bravely. His work is both sophisticated and simple. It is as if he were talking to you. No wonder he is revered by all spectra of Ukrainian society throughout the world, and no wonder it was his Kobzar, along with or without, the Bible that was taken on the journey from the homeland. And, in his works, among all the rich imagery, symbolism and stories - the pysanka tells its story, too.

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