09/03/2021
On the 9th March, 1814, one of the most talented and famous poets in Ukraine and the world, Taras Shevchenko, was born. Today we want to tell you little-known facts about a person so monumental that he is compared to Goethe, Cervantes and Byron in the world.
- Shevchenko was 47 when he died. The first 24 years he spent as a serf and the last ten years he lived in exile. While all his poetry featured Ukraine and Ukrainian people, Shevchenko spent about three years of his mature life in his native Ukraine.
- Shevchenko is often painted as a moustache man in a hat and a peasant's overcoat. But young Shevchenko dressed quite fashionably. Thus, in his diary, Taras was happy to describe his purchase of a Mackintosh coat for 100 rubles. The only clothing that the poet disgusted was a soldier's uniform.
- Shevchenko's «Zapovit», known to everybody in Ukraine since school, was translated into over 100 languages (comparatively, J. K. Rawling's «Harry Potter» series were translated into approximately 70 languages). However, Shevchenko's father speaking of the own testament, ordered not to give Taras anything from his household, citing «My son does not need any of my property; the legacy of mine will mean nothing to him or be of no help..."
- Very often, you can hear fake information that Shevchenko was a drunkard. From the memoirs of one of Shevchenko's closest friends, Mykola Kostomarov, we learn that he had never seen Shevchenko drunk, but he did like adding a rum to his tea. Shevchenko himself condemned drunkenness and even ridiculed alcoholism in his works, showing it as a shameful social phenomenon often associated with human grief, a sea of tears, the crippled fate of women and children.
- In addition to portraits, landscapes, Shevchenko, familiar with European art, also painted naked nature. Until recently, Shevchenko naked self-portrait was kept under lock and key. Both the tsarist and Soviet regimes imposed taboos on the "seditious" self-portrait.
Currently, Ukraine is modernizing and rethinking the image of Taras Shevchenko. However, his image always remains prominent and is always very close to each of us.
Happy birthday, Taras! 🎂
