To My Wife

If we were to multiply the love of mankind,
The love that was, and is, and will be,
It would be pitch black...My love is bright as day...
People have not yet experienced this feeling.

If we were to bring down all the stars from heaven,
All the suns of the heavens of the universe,
My love would burn brighter than
All the suns for a millennium of centuries....

If we were to gather all the flowers of all the planets,
That the wind rocks at dawn,
The smell of my love would be stronger than
The perfume of all the flowers through eternity...

From which star did you fall down here,
My comapnion, my dear friend, my wife?
Brighten my life, brighten it always,
You are the only one above all stars.

  --Volodymyr Sosiura

She Sings

She sing - and every impulse of her heart
She pours into those notes that she prolongs,
And all the burning diction of her songs
Flames with fire of passion and of art.

She sings - and youthful eyes with ardent zeal
Under her brows shine forth, than starts more bright...
How much of dauntless hope is in their light,
How many dreams of rapture they reveal!

Let her sing, and let her songs beguile,
And let those eyes of hers both flash and smile,
And let the fire of love within them blaze!

Yet, let her sing! Since for no second time
The golden spring will blossom thus sublime
And from her soul burst forth in vocal praise!

  --Boris Hrinchenko

A green grove
A clear brook
On the green maple tree
A singing nightingale.

A maiden by the brook
Made two crowns
And her white hand
Let them go on the water.

One is made of periwinkle,
The other of ruta;
One crown is for the Kozak,
The other for her.

:Go crown of periwinkle
Down to the bank;
Come back to my beloved from Ukraine
Take me into your arms.

When will you, crown of periwinkle
Reach the other bank?
When will you, my beloved Kozk
Come back from Ukraine?"

The dove cooed
In the grove, right in the middle;
And a strangely sad feeling
Overtook the maiden.

"In Ukraine, on the grave
The guelder-rose bloomed
There, your kozak is resting
My dear orphan child.

When the waters which passed here
Seven years ago, come back
Then will your dear Kozak
Come back from the Ukraine."

  ---Jakiv Holovats'kyi

You Know How the Linden Tree Whispers..... (Ukrainain Love Poem)

You know how the linden tree whispers
In the springtime, at night, by the light of the moon?
          My love sleeps, my love sleeps,
          Let's go and wake her up, kiss her eyes.
          My love sleeps...
You heard because of the way the linden tree whispers.

Do you know how the old grove sleeps?
It sees everything, even through the fog.
          Here is the moon, here are the stars, the nightingales...
          "I am yours," overheard the old grove.
          And those nightingales...
Well! You already know, how the old grove sleeps! 

--Pavlo Tychyna