Taras Shevchenko Quotes

4 Sourced Quotes

It's terrible to lie in chains,
To rot in dungeon deep,
But it's still worse, when you are free
To sleep, and sleep, and sleep.

Taras Shevchenko

Blaze of lights and music calling,
Music weeping, rising, falling!
Like rare and precious diamond,
Youthful eyes are gleaming fair,
Joy and hope are shining there
In laughing eyes. All bliss is sent
To eyes so young and innocent!
On all sides, people laugh and smile,
All are dancing, only I
Like one bewitched, look on meanwhile
And weep in secret, weep and sigh...
Why do I weep? Perhaps that ever
All eventless, like grey weather,
All my youth has passed me by.

Taras Shevchenko

Drowsy waves, sky unwashed and dirty,
And on the bank there out beyond,
The rushes sway without a wind
As they were drunken... God of mercy!
Is it still long I must endure,
Here, in this prison that holds sure
Though lockless, by this worthless sea,
This weary life? It does not speak.
The yellowed grass, but silent, sways
As if alive, across the plain.
To speak the truth is not its task...
And there is no one else to ask.

Taras Shevchenko

Day comes and goes, night comes and goes...
Sinking your head in hands clasped tight,
You wonder why there still comes no
Apostle of wisdom, truth and right.

Taras Shevchenko

Taras Shevchenko

Taras Shevchenko

Creative Commons

Born: February 25, 1814

Died: March 10, 1861 (aged 47)

Bio: Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko was a dissident activist in Imperial Russia, and a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, as well as folklorist and ethnographer.

Known for:

Zapovit
Thought
Ivan Pidkova
The Night of Taras
Haidamaky

Taras Shevchenko on Wikipedia

Taras Shevchenko works on Wikisource

Suggest an edit or a new quote

Ukrainian Painter Quotes

19th-century Painter Quotes