Taras Shevchenko "Oh, My Brainwork"

“OH, MY BRAINWORK, BRAINWORK"

by Taras Shevchenko

Oh, my brainwork, brainwork, 

You are my deep woe!

Why, at all, on the white paper, 

You line in sad rows?

Why the wind hasn’t dispelled you, 

In the steppe, like grit?

Why the grief hasn’t overlied you, 

As its own wee kid?

The woe brought you to the world at a mocking hour,

Sour tears washed you, why haven’t they overpowered?

Why haven’t they brought you to the sea, blurred on the land’s plot?

Then, the folks would not be asking, why I am all sore, 

They would not be asking, why I curse my lot, 

Why I hate the world? “Nothing doing”, -he’s a bore-

They won’t say in laughter…

Oh, my flowers, my kids in care, 

Why I loved you, nursing as a real treasure?

Will, at least, a lone heart blare, 

As I cried with you?.. I might have measured…

Maybe, there could be found

A girl with heart, brown eyes, around, 

That will cry ‘cause of my brainwork, -

I do not want any other:

Just a tear form brown eyes-

I’ll be a lord, my bro!

Oh, my brainwork, brainwork, 

You are my deep woe!

Translation from Ukrainian into English by Ivan Petryshyn

USA, 17.03.2018