Taras Shevchenko: Zapovit (Testament)

Subject: Taras Shevchenko: Zapovit (Testament)
From: Jack Campin
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 08:26 PM

I came across a little book today, published in the Ukraine a few decades ago. It had the poem "Zapovit" (The Testament) by the 19th century Ukrainian poet-painter Taras Shevchenko, in the original along with translations into about 60 other languages, including Japanese, Yiddish, Azeri and Abkhaz. Also musical notation for a choral setting at the back.

It's easy enough to find on the web. Hard to get excited about in English, it isn't exactly a universalist statement a non-Ukrainian could identify with, and the music truly sucks.

Anybody know what this publication might have been for? Was it just a vanity statement about globally significant the local boy was, that he could be translated so widely?

Subject: RE: Taras Shevchenko: Zapovit (Testament)
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 02 Nov 14 - 05:10 AM

Probably the reason was political propaganda, as amply found on the web. Robert Burns for Scottish independence, etc.