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Pretty Girls on Banknotes ~ Ukraine


Scottishmoney

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  • 7 months later...

lesyaukrainkaportrait.jpg

ua2002007.jpg

 

Lesya Ukrainka is featured on this very colourful and lovely 200 Hryven note issued 27 May 2007 in Kyiv. Lesya Ukrainka(1871-1913) was a remarkable poet who lived a short life, but her poems in Ukrainian helped spur a resurgence in literature in Ukrainian which even in her native Ukraine was a banned language in the Russian Empire. Her work had to be published in Western Ukraine, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and smuggled back into the Russian Empire for distribution.

 

CONTRA SPEM SPERO!

 

Away, dark thoughts, you autumn clouds!

 

A golden spring is here!

 

Shall it be thus in sorrow and in lamentation

 

That my youthful years pass away?

 

No, through all my tears I still shall laugh,

 

Sing songs despite my troubles;

 

Have hope despite all odds,

 

I want to live! Away, you sorrowful thoughts!

 

On this poor, indigent ground

 

I shall sow flowers of flowing colors;

 

I shall sow flowers even amidst the frost,

 

And water them with my bitter tears.

 

And from those burning tears will melt

 

The frozen crust, so hard and strong,

 

Perhaps the flowers will bloom and

 

Bring about for me a joyous spring.

 

Unto a winding, flinty mountain

 

Shall I bear my weighty stone,

 

Yet, even bearing such a crushing weight,

 

Will I sing a joyful song.

 

Throughout a lasting night of darkness

 

Ne'er shall I rest my own eyes,

 

Always searching for the guiding star,

 

The bright empress of the dark night skies.

 

I shall not allow my heart to fall sleep,

 

Though gloom and misery envelop me,

 

Despite my certain feelings

 

That death is beating at my breast.

 

Death will settle heavily on that breast,

 

The snow covered by a cruel haze,

 

But fierce shall beat my little heart,

 

And maybe, with its ferocity, overcome death.

 

Yes, I will laugh despite my tears,

 

I'll sing out songs amidst my misfortunes;

 

I'll have hope despite all odds,

 

I will live! Away, you sorrowful thoughts!

 

Lesya Ukrainka

 

May 2, 1890

 

Lesya Ukrainka wrote this above poem after recovering from a bout with tuberculosis, an ailment she suffered from for much of her later life. It is a very stirring and emotional missive about inner strength.

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