z These pictures show workers setting the base of the Shev-
monument in placeyand (below) building the mesum at
the new Shevchenko Memorial Park at Palermo, Ont.”

Bard of
Ukraine

By JOHN WEIR

i reprint exc from the first and final chapters of a new 64-page book published this

ee Ne of Ohesinn. | by ‘John Weir, editor of the Ufrainian Canadian. In it the author tells

the story of ‘Taras Shevchenko, the great people’s poet, the fighter for freedom and liberation from op-
pression, bard not only of Ukraine, but of all humanity.
On July 1 at Palermo, Ontario, a monument to Bhascheiko will be unveiled at ae newly estab-

lished Shevchenko Park as tens of thousands ‘of Ukrainian Canadians mark the 60th anniversary of the

life and work of Ukrainians in Canada.

In every province in the coming weeks there will be festivals

honoring the asion—the British Columbia festival will be held in the Auditorium, Vancouver, this
ott Steed: June 23—to culminate a national jubilee festival in which the finest talent of the
Association of United Ukrainian Canadians will perform in Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens on June 30.

John Weir’s book, beautifully illustrated, may be obtained from the National Jubilee Committee,

42 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto.

Probable ‘Price, 35 and 75 cents for paper or hard cover.

IDWAY between Toronto and Hamilton, beside a busy highway near the village of Palermo, a
beautiful new 18-acre park has been fashioned, complete with tree, shrubs, green lawns and fie
alleys. At the far end of the park there stands an impressive monument and back of that and to a side

there is a new brick building, which is a public museum.

All this was born in 1951.

The monument is an imposing
work of Ukrainian granite and
marble on which stands a heroic
_ bronze statue of a man, his face
_ turned towards the morning sun.
To 500,000 Canadians—those of

Ukrainian origin—that face with
its high, broad forehead, gentle,
level eyes and drooping mous-
_ taches, is as familiar and as dear
as the portrait of each one’s fa-
- ther.

‘Taras Shevchenko! :

When we, the Ukrainian Cana-
dians set about celebrating the
_ sixtieth anniversary of the com-
ing of our pioneer settlers to Can-
ada, and the six decades of life

adians of all origins.

and labor of our people in their
new country, there was no hesi-
tation about selecting that which
would best symbolize everything
that we are and hope to be, that
which we most want to introduce
as our finest to our fellow-Can-

Shevchenko! A monument to
Shevchenko, A Shevchenko Park.
A Shevchenko Museum. The story

of Shevchenko’s life. The poems, ©

paintings and works of Taras
Shevchenko.

The monument, park and mu-
seum are already here. Our peo-
ple contributed their hard-earned
dollars and ‘transformed the

dream into a realify. And. this
booklet is our modest introduc-
tion to the man himself, his life
and his works to the general Can-
adian public.’
e

We have before us three thick
volumes of the works of Taras

-Shevchenko in the original Uk-

rainian—and the several poems
and plays and most of his novels
and his diary which he wrote in
Russian. More than six hundred ~
of his paintings and drawings —
have survived.

Shevchenko’s works have been
translated by flhe best poets in all
the Slavic languages, into nearly

ail the European tongues, into
Chinese, into other Asian lang-

uages,

But there is very little so far
in English.

We would have preferred to
wait until a truly great transla-
tion, which would give full jus-
tice to the genius of Shevchenko;
appear in the English language.
But this is the* year when the
monument is being erected. Our
second and third Canadian-born
generations, which do not have a
good knowledge of Ukrainian,
want to know more—in the Eng-
lish language— of the man whom
they learned to adore from their
parents, but of whom they actu-
ally know but little. And our
fellow-Canadians of other national
origins rightfully expect to be in-
formed and given at, least some
idea of the works that have so
influenced, over a century, the

_ thinking and doing of the fortty

million Ukrainian people, and
which have taken their place
among the world’s greatest
treasures,

@'

When Shevchenko wrote that
in his own life the life of his
people was mirrored, he was
speaking nothing but the truth.

Born a serf—a slave!—he was
orphaned as a little child, became
a house servant of his master,
learned to paint and started to
write under the most barbaric
conditions, was brought out of
serfdom by the Russian demo-

_ crats when he was twenty-four

years of age, arrested nine years
later and sent to prison exile,

where he spent ten years of his :

life, returning to ill-health, con-
stant police persecution and death
barely four years later.

That’s the skeleton of Taras
Shevchenko’s biography .

Shevchenko was a Biase: just’
as his people were enslaved. But
he would ndt be reconciled to
Slavery, he fought for freedom
and he called on his. people to

fight. Even from his prison cell,
where he felt that he was neither
living nor dead, he called to give
courage to the people:

Where art thou, Fate? Where-art
thou, Fate?

I have no fate at all! ;

If you begrudge good fortune,
Lord, ‘

Let evil fate befall!

Don’t let me walk about asleep,

A dead heart in my breast)

-And roll about, a rotten log,

A hindrance to the rest,

O’ let me live, live with my heart

And love the human race, ;

But if not that ... then let me
curse

And set the world ablaze!

How terrible go lie in chains

And die in dungeon deep,

But it’s still worse, when you are
free,

To sleep and sleep and sleep—

And then forever close your eyes

And leave not e’en a trace,

So that the fact you lived or died

No whit of difference makes!

e ;

That's Shevchenko’s stint te
That’s what he taught when
was himself in bondage. Thee
what he wrote when he was freed.
He continued to proclaim it when
he was in prison and exile, And
when he was near death and it
seemed to him that his eyes saw
something looming ahead — the
abolition of serfdom—he sensed
that it was not real liberation ang
warned the people:

... Await no good.
Awaited freedom do not wait—
It is asleep: Tsar Nicholas”
Lulled it to sleep. But if you’d

wake

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 22, 1951 — PAGE 0

©

This sleeping freedom, all the m
Into the hands must hammers ak
And sharpen well the battle-axe—
And thus start freedom to awake.

And he who dedicated his life
to the liberation of his own, the
Ukrainian people, fought for the
liberty of all mankind.

In “The Caucasus,” which we ©
give you complete in this booklet,
he took his stand with the Cau-
casian peoples who were resisting
enslavement by the Russian em-
pire—and penned a wrathful in-—
dictment of all colonialism and
“white man’s burden” and “éX-
tension of our way of life” all
over the earth. ~

He ‘became a close friend of the
former American Negro slave, the
great tragedian Ira Aldridge, and
the ex-serf and ex-slave—neithet
knowing the other’s language—
spent whole nights together, sing-
ing the songs of their peoples and
pledging their brotherhood. a

And on his return from prisoB —
the ailing Shevchenko signed and
circulated the angry protest
against pogroms on the Jewish
~people: “No honest person can re-
main silent in the face of such
shameful acts!”

And today he lives in the hearts
not only of his own, the !Ukrain-_
ian people, but of all men and
women everywhere who cherish
human freedom.

* ¢ *
e! so

Soon after Shevchenko’s death,
serfdom was abolished in Rus-
sia, but the lot of the common
people was not improved. The —
struggle continued and Shevchen- —
ko’s name and words were a. ban-
ner in the struggle. UkrainiaD
reading societies and cultural in- _
stitutions bore his name, his
works were published—illegally, —
where it was not possible to pub-
lish them legallly—and circulated.

The poor and often illiterate
Ukrainian peasants, who fled oP-
pression and sought land, work
and freedom “beyond the oceans;
took Shevchenko with them to
Canada, to the United States, t0
|Argentina, everywhere they went. —

He wept .with them in_ theif
homesickness, for he too spent
most of his life in foreign lands
He gave them courage in their
hard life, for his life, too, had
been thorny. Above all, he gave :
them human dignity amid con-
stant indignities, and he gave
them hope and faith in the future
And they taught their childreD
and grandchildren to “learn from
other folks, but never spurn vor
own.”

The time came when “all the
mass” did take hammers and axe
into their hands and the throne —
of the Romanoys toppled in the
dust, and the great Ukrainian 14
tion began to rise from centurie# 7
of thraldom. . ‘

Shevchenko’s works, uncenso™
ed and unexpurgated, poured from
the presses in thousands and mil- ;
lions of copies in Ukrainian, 1? —
many other languages. Mone
ments to Shevchenko, Shevchenk? _
Museums, Shevchenko boulevards ee
and parks and squares. . . -
name was associated with Svers
great endeavor, with plants
collective farms, with scientific —
institutions, with partisan detach —
ments that fought twice in a s¢%
eration against the German i” :
vaders and would-be conquerors:

And today, we are building. 9
monument, a Shevchenko park
and a Shevchenko museum 0 —
Canadian soil.

We, too, the Ukrainian Cane
dians, remember the greatest
of our people, Taras Shevchenko
And we share our pride with
our fellow-Canadians.