#stepan rudansky

[wanderer-on-the-steppe]

Before continuing with the Khmelnytsky songs, I wanted to draw attention to another song from the concert that Гей, браття козаки was from: Мене забудь (Forget me), also based on a poem by Stepan Rudansky (Степан Руданський). This has nothing to do with Cossack rebellions, but is simply an incredibly sad and beautiful love song - and I can so well imagine Bohun singing it in the evenings in rebuilt Rozłogi after the end of the novel...

[wanderer-on-the-steppe]

Songs about the Khmelnytsky uprising, part 2: Гей, браття козаки

(The video should start at 49:33 automatically - but if it doesn't, that's where the song can be found.)

This is one of my personal favourites. Not only for the beautiful music (though that doubtlessly is a reason ;)), but also because it is based on a 19th century poem by Stepan Rudansky (Степан Руданський) which is highly interesting with regard to later perceptions of the uprising.

For, while some songs written by contemporaries for contemporaries are so full of references to specific events that one has to have some background knowledge - or one just doesn't understand what the singer is talking about -, this one's so timeless, one wouldn't even know for sure which rebellion it is about if it wasn't originally called "Khmelnytsky's song" (Пісня Хмельницького) before it became known by its first few words: Гей, браття-козаки...

Which gives readers, as well as singers and their audiences, some interesting choices how to interpret the song. It is of course perfectly plausible to assume that the person inciting the Cossacks to rebellion here is Khmelnytsky himself, and, when he reminds them that they are just as strong as their ancestors, and have sabres and horses just like them, he could refer to even earlier Cossack rebellions. At least one wouldn't be able to proof that this isn't all the author wanted to say. But it's just as possible to think of the ancestors as the participants of the Khmelnytsky uprising - and immediately the reminder to the Cossacks that they have horses and sabres just like them (and are therefore able to fill the graves in the steppe with the bones of their enemies once again!) gets quite a different meaning...

This second way of understanding the lyrics is made escpecially easy by the fact that the enemy is only referred to as such: by the generic word "enemy" (ворог). Songs about the Khmelnytsky uprising written by contemporaries that are really about its specific events and only about its specific events are usually quite clear as to who that enemy is: it's the Polish noblemen, and if you listen to two or three of these songs, you'll probably hear the word ляхи at least a dozen times ;) If a 19th century poem, by contrast, vaguely talks of "the enemy", this does stand out – especially if the message is all about teaching that enemy a lesson and defending the Cossacks’ freedom and dignity once again…

This song is also fascinating because it shows how much the perception of Khmelnytsky varied two hundred years after the uprising. Because on the one hand, there’s considerable criticism of the Treaty of Pereyaslav and its aftermath at this time – it’s even part of the famous poem by Pavlo Chubynsky (Павло Чубинський) that, in a modified version without these lines, was turned into the Ukrainian national anthem:

Ой Богдане, Богдане, славний наш гетьмане! Нащо віддав Україну москалям поганим?!

Oh Bohdan, Bohdan, our glorious hetman! / Why did you give Ukraine to the bad moskali?!

(And as a side note, this particular part of the poem never ceases to amaze me, because… it’s basically one line for flattering him, and one line for telling him he really messed up. Which sounds funny when one puts it like this, but – there’s undeniable skill in summing up the complicated relationship with a historical character this simply in just two lines of poetry.)

At the same time, recalling the Khmelnytsky uprising the way Rudansky does it has obvious subversive potential. It is used to remind the descendants of the rebels what they are capable of, and to warn the enemy about the consequences of “mocking Cossacks”. And the message, of course, is not confined to the 19th century: the reason that I linked this particular performance of the song – not just by this artist, but also from this one concert – is that it makes full use of the song’s potential even for today. Because the first time, the lyrics are sung in their original form – but at the end, when the singer repeats a few lines, he replaces that purposefully indistinct word “enemy” by who exactly it is nowadays…

[nsmurty]

ప్రవాసం లో ప్రేమగీతం... స్టీపెన్ రుడాన్ స్కీ, యుక్రేనియన్ కవి

ప్రవాసం లో ప్రేమగీతం… స్టీపెన్ రుడాన్ స్కీ, యుక్రేనియన్ కవి

ఓ మారుతమా, యుక్రెయిన్ దిశకు వీచు! ఎందుకంటే, అక్కడ నా ప్రియురాలుని విడిచి వచ్చేను. అవును, రెండు ముదురుగోధుమరంగు కళ్ళని వదిలి వచ్చేను— కనుక, ఓ పవనమా, నిశిరాత్రి నుండీ  వీచు. అక్కడ యుక్రెయిన్ లో ఒక కనుమ ఉంది, కనుమలో ఒక పల్లె ఉంది, ఆ పల్లెలో ఒక గుడిశలో ఓ పడుచు ఉంది, ఒక చిన్న కన్నియ, లోకం తెలియని గువ్వ. అక్కడ ఓ మారుతమా, సడిచేయకు, నెమ్మది! ఆమె ముఖం మీద నిశ్చలంగా సేదదీరు; నువ్వు ఆమె గులాబిరంగు …

View On WordPress