Lesja Ukrajinka

Lesja Ukrajinka, 1888

Group picture at the opening of a monument to Ivan Kotlyarevsky in Poltava in 1903. From left to right: Mychajlo Kozjubynskyj , Wassyl Stefanyk , Olena Ptschilka , Lesja Ukrajinka, Mychajlo Staryzkyj , Hnat Chotkewytsch , Volodymyr Samijlenko

Lesya Ukrainka ( Ukrainian Леся Українка , scientific. Transliteration Lesya Ukrainka , actually Лариса Петрівна Косач Laryssa Petriwna Kossatsch ; born February 13 ^{. Jul} / 25. February 1871 ^greg. In Novohrad-Volynskyi , volhynian governorate , Russian Empire ; † 1. August 1913 in Surami , Tbilisi Governorate ) was a Ukrainian poet, dramaturge and translator. Her work initially comprised folkloric, traditional poetry , later Impressionist natural poetry through to historical poetry. It is considered an important contribution to neo-romanticism .

Life

As the daughter of a lawyer and the writer Olena Ptschilka , the poet enjoyed a good education and came into contact with literature and culture at an early age . She was particularly encouraged by her maternal uncle, the historian and political thinker Mychajlo Drahomanow , which enabled her to meet famous Ukrainian artists such as the poet and playwright Mychajlo Staryzkyj and the composer Mykola Lyssenko as a child . She wrote her first poems when she was nine. In 1884 two poems appeared in the Lviv magazine Sorja ; there she used the pseudonym Lesja Ukrajinka for the first time .

Despite her inclination to music and her great musical talent, she turned to literature because of the tuberculosis disease with which she had to struggle all her life . Due to illness, she did not attend a public school, but was taught privately by her mother and Drahomanow.

In her poem Contra Spem Spero (“I hope against hope”), which stands out clearly in her work, the whole will to fight and the optimism is expressed, which she never left despite her illness.

Lesja Ukrajinka contributed 92 translations to the book of songs by Heinrich Heine , published in Lemberg in 1892 . She has also translated poetic works by Iwan Sergejewitsch Turgenew , Adam Mickiewicz and Victor Hugo , Macbeth by William Shakespeare , Dante's Inferno and pieces by Byron and Gerhart Hauptmann . In order to make the Ukrainian language popular alongside the Russian language , she consciously selected popular texts for translation. In her own poems, the longing for freedom as well as folkloric subjects played a major role. Numerous lyrics, ballads and fairy tales come from her pen .

As a member of the young literary group Plejada , she published prose texts on historical and other topics in Kiev . From 1894 to 1895 she lived with her uncle Drahomanow in Bulgaria , where she wrote the political poetry cycle Unfree songs . Later she supported the radical Galician press and published satirical-patriotic texts in the Lviv magazine Narod (Volk).

In 1898 an article by Iwan Franko appeared in a literary magazine , who named Lesja Ukrajinka in the same breath as Taras Shevchenko . In 1900 she made the acquaintance of the Russian literary scene in Saint Petersburg and published several Russian-language articles on German , Polish and “Little Russian” literature in the magazine Shizn (Leben) .

Because of her damaged lungs, she repeatedly had to take spa stays that took her all over Europe and to Egypt, where she was able to broaden her horizons and process the diverse impressions in her works. At the beginning of the 20th century she joined the social democratic movement. She translated socialist and Marxist texts by Lenin , Karl Marx , Friedrich Engels and others. a. After the revolutionary events of 1905 she wrote more and more political satires in which she criticized the bourgeoisie .

Ukrajinka spent her last years in Georgia and Egypt. Despite her progressive illness, she continued to write poetry until her death in 1913. Her body was transferred from the Georgian Surami to Kiev and buried in the Baikowe cemetery .

family

Lesja's father, the State Councilor Petro Kossatsch ( Петро Антонович Косач 1842–1909) was a lawyer, educator and philanthropist. Her mother, the writer Olena Ptschilka , was the daughter of the Ukrainian poet and translator Petro Drahomanow and sister of the historian and political thinker Mychajlo Drahomanow .

Her siblings were the physicist, meteorologist, writer and translator Mychajlo Kossatsch ( Михайло Петрович Косач ; 1869-1903), writer, literary critic, translator, teacher, Bibliografin and ethnographer Olha Kossatsch-Krywynjuk (1877-1945), the musician and translator Oksana Kossatsch-Schymanowska ( Оксана Петрівна Косач-Шимановська ; 1882-1975), the public figure Mykola Kossatsch ( Микола Петрович Косач ; 1884-1937) and the translator and cultural activist Isydora Kossatsch-Boryssowa ( Ізидора Петрівна Косач-Борисова ; 1888-1980 ).

Honors

In the city of Lutsk there is Lesja Ukrajinka Street , at the end of which there is a monument to Lesja Ukrajinka. A room has been set up for Lesja in the Lutsk local history museum. In her former home in Kiev there is now a museum dedicated to her . In addition, a boulevard in the Pechersk district of Kiev and a street in Pripyat are named after her. In 1952 the Georgian sculptor Tamar Abakelia created a monument in Surami in her honor.

Her likeness is also shown on the current 200 hryvnia banknote of Ukraine. The National Theater of Russian Drama in Kiev has been named after her since 1941 .

Memorial plaque in Berlin

On August 30, 2010 , a plaque in her honor was unveiled at Johannisstrasse 11 in Berlin , where Lesja Ukrajinka was staying in the clinic.

The main inner belt asteroid (2616) Lesya was named after her.

Works (selection)

Dawnja kaska ("An old fairy tale", verse epic 1893)
Contra Spem Spero! (Poem, 1890)
W domu roboty, w krajini newoli ("In the workhouse, in the land of bondage", dramatic dialogue, 1906)
The forest song (drama, 1911)
Orhija ("The Orgy", dramatic poem, 1913)

Web links

Commons : Lesja Ukrajinka - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ 200 hryvnia banknote on the website of the National Bank of Ukraine
^ Entry on the theater in the Encyclopedia of the History of Ukraine ; accessed on December 3, 2018 (Ukrainian)
↑ Gedenkenafeln-in-berlin.de
^ Lutz D. Schmadel : Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . Fifth Revised and Enlarged Edition. Ed .: Lutz D. Schmadel. 5th edition. Springer Verlag , Berlin , Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 978-3-540-29925-7 , pp. 186 (English, 992 pp., Link.springer.com [ONLINE; accessed on August 28, 2019] Original title: Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . First edition: Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg 1992): “970 QV. Discovered 1970 Aug. 28 by TM Smirnova at Nauchnyj. "

personal data
SURNAME	Ukrajinka, Lesja
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Українка, Леся; Косач, Лариса Петрівна (Kosach, Laryssa Petriwna)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Ukrainian poet, dramaturge and translator
DATE OF BIRTH	February 25, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH	Novohrad-Wolynskyj , Volyn Governorate , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH	August 1, 1913
Place of death	Surami , Tbilisi Governorate

[1] 200 hryvnia banknote on the website of the National Bank of Ukraine

[2] Entry on the theater in the Encyclopedia of the History of Ukraine ; accessed on December 3, 2018 (Ukrainian)

[3] Gedenkenafeln-in-berlin.de

[4] Lutz D. Schmadel : Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . Fifth Revised and Enlarged Edition. Ed .: Lutz D. Schmadel. 5th edition. Springer Verlag , Berlin , Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 978-3-540-29925-7 , pp. 186 (English, 992 pp., Link.springer.com [ONLINE; accessed on August 28, 2019] Original title: Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . First edition: Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg 1992): “970 QV. Discovered 1970 Aug. 28 by TM Smirnova at Nauchnyj. "