Oleh Herman: “How long does it take to comprehend Kobzar…”

On the occasion of the 210th anniversary of the birth of Taras Shevchenko, on March 6, 2024, TNMU Library hosted a meeting with Oleh Herman, a famous poet, public figure, scientist, professor of the Department of Ukrainian Studies and Philosophy of I. Puluj Ternopil National Technical University.

March 9 marked the 210th anniversary of the birth of Taras Shevchenko, the genius of the Ukraine, the Prophet, the Great Kobzar.

His life is an eternal struggle for the will of Ukrainians, and his creativity is an inexhaustible treasury of wisdom, the true conscience of the Ukrainian nation, patriotism and love of freedom.

Of the 47 years that Kobzar’s fate measured, he spent 34 in captivity: 24 years were spent under the pressure of serfdom and more than 10 in exile in the Kazakh steppes. And for 13 so-called “free” years, he was under the watchful eye of the gendarmes. The poet lived in Ukraine for only 15 years, but the Motherland and its destiny were always in his thoughts, dreams, and creativity. He believed that the time would come when Ukraine would become free. And he didn’t just believe – he knew that:

… There will be no enemy, adversary,
And there will be a son, and there will be a mother,
And there will be people on the land. (translated by John Weir)

Kobzar’s prophetic words are coming true today thanks to the courage of Ukrainian soldiers and the strength of the spirit of the Ukrainian people!

Oleh Herman gave his traditional lecture about T. Shevchenko, this time on the topic “Unite Ukraine with Taras’s word”. At the beginning of the meeting, songs based on the poet’s poem were performed: “Reve ta stohne Dnipr shyrokyi” (“The Mighty Dnieper Roars and Bellows”) performed by Maria Brona (MM-111) and “Zore moia vechirniaia” (“My Evening Star”) performed by Anastasia Slobodian (MM-304).

Shevchenko’s prophetic poetry resounds through the ages and gives strength to win. It is always alive and always modern. Each of us has our own way to Kobzar. Oleh Herman spoke about how important it is to find this way, to meet Taras’s words, to wash the soul with them, to dissolve in them. And he also told about how Shevchenko came into his life and showed a small “Kobzar” book, yellowed from the time. This volume is unique, because it was published in the German concentration camp in the city of Regensburg in 1943.

“This is a special book,” says Oleh Herman. – This booklet has 8 poems by Shevchenko. But its fate is very unique. My father, when he was a German prisoner, worked in a printing house. Professor Hryhorenko, a former worker of Kyiv University worked there with him. It was he who asked the Germans for permission to print a small “Kobzar” for Shevchenko’s birthday.

Regensburg is a small town in southern Bavaria with a thousand-year history and rich culture. Perhaps that is why the concentration camp printing house was allowed to publish the works of the Ukrainian poet. Professor Hryhorenko wrote the foreword to the publication. But when the German commandant read it, he ordered to remove it. The preface seemed too patriotic to him. But the poems were still printed. And where there should have been a preface, blank pages remained.

The Kobzar from the concentration camp includes the same eight poems as in his first edition, but some contain errors. This is because the captives were reproducing them from memory. “Maybe they couldn’t remember something,” Professor Herman suggests. “Then, over time, my father took a pen and corrected the book as it was written.”

When the camp in Regensburg was liberated, Mykhailo Herman was taken to a Soviet concentration camp across the Urals. And he took that little “Kobzar” there with him to read Shevchenko’s poems. But it was not possible to read Ukrainian there. For the Soviet authorities, “Kobzar” was a weapon. “Dad wrapped that “Kobzar” as much as he could so that it wouldn’t get wet, – continues Mr. Oleh, – and hid it under a cedar tree, buried it under the roots. And after he had also finished his sentence there, he found that cedar tree and the book and brought it home. From this book, my father taught me to read, taught me my native language. This is the shrine that he carried through the German and Stalinist camps, which became a family heirloom and which is passed on to my children and grandchildren!”

You can’t read Shevchenko like letters, Mr. Oleh says, you have to read his poems with your heart. To live by it, to understand it, to embrace it. “Kobzar” is a shrine of our people. If we want to be recognized in the world as Ukrainians, then we must comprehend ourselves. And by what can we comprehend ourselves? Through the Ukrainian word, through the Ukrainian language, through Shevchenko’s poems.

Shevchenko is a great Ukrainian poet, a Ukrainian genius, a Ukrainian prophet who was ahead of his time. Therefore, his works remain modern even today:

I care not if it’s in Ukraine
Or far from her I live and die;
I care not if ’neath alien sky
Remembered or forgotten by
Her and her people I remain.
In slavery, midst alien folk
Grow up I did, and ’neath the yoke
Of slavery I’ll die unmourned,
Far from the land that is our own
And yet is not — I’ll leave forever
Our sweet Ukraine, and no trace there
Of me, an exile, will be left.
And father will not say to son:
“In prayer our voices let us lift
For one who suffered martyrdom
For our Ukraine…” I care not if
They ever pray for me or not,
To me this matters little. But
If Evil lulls my hapless land
To sleep by ruse and cunning, and
She wakes in flames and robbed,
if such,
As fear I greatly, is her lot —
To me this matters… very much. (translated by Irina Zheleznova)

“Love Shevchenko in your own way,” Oleh Herman wished the attendees at the end of the meeting, “accept him in your own way”. Because he is so different, so special, so unique…”

We thank Professor Oleh Herman for an interesting story and hope that such meetings will remain a good tradition of our Library.

The video of the meeting can be viewed on Facebook at the link https://fb.watch/qL54-uomDm/

and on TNMU Library’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@user-lb9bt3xd6s).

Olena Protsiv, Director of TNMU Library.

Photographs by TNMU Press Secretary Yanina Chaikivska.