1871–1913
Lesya Ukrainka
Poet and playwright
She wrote her first poem at nine and, years later, The Forest Song. Lesya Ukrainka, poet and playwright, fought tuberculosis all her life and became, for many, a symbol of strength of spirit.
Key accomplishments
- The fairy-tale drama The Forest Song (1911)
- The dramas The Stone Host, The Noblewoman, Cassandra and The Possessed
- Poetry collections On the Wings of Songs, Thoughts and Dreams and Echoes
- Translations from many European languages; recordings of Volhynian folklore
What does a nine-year-old write about?
Larysa Kosach wrote her first poem, “Hope”, when she was nine. It was prompted by news of her aunt, who had been exiled for taking part in the revolutionary movement. The girl grew up in an educated family in Novohrad-Volynskyi (now Zviahel): her mother was the writer Olena Pchilka, and her uncle was the scholar and public figure Mykhailo Drahomanov. At 13 she published a poem for the first time, “Lily of the Valley”, in the Lviv magazine Zoria.
Stronger than her illness
As a child Larysa fell ill with tuberculosis, and she spent her whole life seeking treatment: in Crimea, Egypt, Italy and Georgia. And all that time she wrote. She knew many European languages and wrote about what stirred all of Europe: freedom, dignity, the choice between submission and struggle. Her poem “Contra spem spero!” (“Without hope, I hope!”) became a symbol of resilience for many. The Forest Song, inspired by the legends of Volhynia, is one of the best-known Ukrainian plays.
In 1908 she paid out of her own pocket for an expedition that recorded Ukrainian dumy on a phonograph. Her husband was the musicologist Klyment Kvitka. Lesya Ukrainka died in the small Georgian town of Surami at 42 and is buried at Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv.
Why she is still read today
Lesya Ukrainka showed that strength of spirit can outweigh physical weakness. And the 200-hryvnia banknote carries lines from one of her poems: “For truth, brothers, let us unite sincerely.”
