Bohdan Lepky
Encyclopedia
Bohdan Lepky, pen name: Marko Murava ' onMouseout='HidePop("24036")' href="/topics/Kingdom_of_Galicia_and_Lodomeria">Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
, Austro-Hungary – July 21, 1941, Cracow, General Government
, Nazi Germany
) was a prominent Ukrainian
writer, poet, scholar, public figure, artist and patriot.
It seems symbolic today that the future writer was born on November 9, 1872, in the picturesque village of Zhukiv
, in the same house where the famous Polish insurgent Bogdan Jarocki, hero of the national liberation struggle, once lived.
. The boy went right into the second grade because he had uncommon aptitudes even at this early age. Later, still in Berezhany, Lepky attended a grammar school. Although the grammar school in Berezhany was far away from the main cultural centers (even inspectors from Lviv
would come just once every few years to scrutinize the "teaching process"), the young Lepky had good memories of it, not in the least because most of the young Ukrainians and Polish students were noted for their ethnic tolerance, mutual respect, and openness. Especially venerated in the grammar school were the names of Taras Shevchenko
and Adam Mickiewicz
: there were annual recitals in honor of the two great poets, as well as regular concerts by Ukrainian and Polish choirs. Stage productions and concerts with both Polish and Ukrainian repertories were usually attended by young Ukrainian and Polish audiences.
After completing grammar school in 1891, Lepky was admitted to the Academy of Arts in Vienna
, but he soon realized that literature was his true vocation. He then studied at Lviv University, from where he graduated in 1895 and returned to "his" grammar school in Berezhany as a teacher of the Ukrainian and German languages and literature.
launched a series of lectures on Ukrainian language and literature and offered a chair to Lepky. At the time he did not know that Cracow was destined to become his second homeland for many decades until his death in July 1941. This was the city where he not only worked but also found lifetime friends among Polish and, naturally, Ukrainian intellectuals.
At the turn of the twentieth century Cracow was a city seething with artistic, literary, and intellectual life, both Polish and Ukrainian. For Cracow's Ukrainian community Lepky's house at 28 Zelena St. was a kind of "cultural headquarters", where one could encounter Kyrylo Studynsky, Vasyl Stefanyk
, Viacheslav Lypynsky, Mykhailo Zhuk, Mykhailo Boichuk, and other prominent figures of Ukrainian scholarship and culture. As for the Polish artists with whom Lepky maintained close creative cooperation for many years, at least three should be named: Kazimierz Tetmajer (1865-1940), an outstanding poet and prose writer, and author of the historical novel Legend of the Tatra Mountains Stanisław Wyspiański, a talented playwright; and Władysław Orkan, a gifted poet and a wonderful human being (Lepky left behind some interesting reminiscences of him, with extracts cited below).
Among the things that aroused the deep respect for Lepky on the part of Cracow's Polish and Ukrainian intelligentsia was his authorship of a brilliant Polish translation of The Lay of Ihor's Host (1905) and the famous poem "Cranes" (1910) known to Ukrainians throughout the world as the song ("You see, my brother, my friend, a gray string of cranes soaring high into the sky..."). The history of this poem is very interesting. The poet said that a performance of a Stanisław Wyspiański play prompted him to write this poem: "In the fall of 1910, in Cracow, I was walking home after viewing a theatrical production of Wyspianski's drama Noc Listopadowa. The withered leaves rustled beneath my feet, and the departing cranes were trumpeting high above me. The poem seemed to be coming out by itself, without my knowledge or effort. My brother Lev Lepky set it to music."
Bohdan Lepky died on July 21, 1941, in Cracow and was buried in the local Rakowicki Cemetery
. Meanwhile, every autumn cranes fly over the old Polish city that he loved so much.
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria was a crownland of the Habsburg Monarchy, the Austrian Empire, and Austria–Hungary from 1772 to 1918 .This historical region in eastern Central Europe is currently divided between Poland and Ukraine...
, Austro-Hungary – July 21, 1941, Cracow, General Government
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
, Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
) was a prominent Ukrainian
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
writer, poet, scholar, public figure, artist and patriot.
It seems symbolic today that the future writer was born on November 9, 1872, in the picturesque village of Zhukiv
Zhukiv
Zhukiv , is a major village in Brzeżany Raion of Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine. It's located about 18 km north of Brzeżany, beside the hill named Huk.It is the native village of the famous Ukrainian writer Bohdan Lepky....
, in the same house where the famous Polish insurgent Bogdan Jarocki, hero of the national liberation struggle, once lived.
Education and studies
At the age of six Bohdan was sent to a "normal school" in BerezhanyBerezhany
Berezhany is a city located in the Ternopil Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Berezhanskyi Raion , and rests about 100 km from Lviv and 50 km from the oblast capital, Ternopil. The city has a population of about 20,000, and is about 400 m above sea level...
. The boy went right into the second grade because he had uncommon aptitudes even at this early age. Later, still in Berezhany, Lepky attended a grammar school. Although the grammar school in Berezhany was far away from the main cultural centers (even inspectors from Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
would come just once every few years to scrutinize the "teaching process"), the young Lepky had good memories of it, not in the least because most of the young Ukrainians and Polish students were noted for their ethnic tolerance, mutual respect, and openness. Especially venerated in the grammar school were the names of Taras Shevchenko
Taras Shevchenko
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko -Life:Born into a serf family of Hryhoriy Ivanovych Shevchenko and Kateryna Yakymivna Shevchenko in the village of Moryntsi, of Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire Shevchenko was orphaned at the age of eleven...
and Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ) was a Polish poet, publisher and political writer of the Romantic period. One of the primary representatives of the Polish Romanticism era, a national poet of Poland, he is seen as one of Poland's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all of Polish literature...
: there were annual recitals in honor of the two great poets, as well as regular concerts by Ukrainian and Polish choirs. Stage productions and concerts with both Polish and Ukrainian repertories were usually attended by young Ukrainian and Polish audiences.
After completing grammar school in 1891, Lepky was admitted to the Academy of Arts in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, but he soon realized that literature was his true vocation. He then studied at Lviv University, from where he graduated in 1895 and returned to "his" grammar school in Berezhany as a teacher of the Ukrainian and German languages and literature.
Years in Cracow
The writer's "Polish period" as such began in 1899, when Cracow's Jagiellonian UniversityJagiellonian University
The Jagiellonian University was established in 1364 by Casimir III the Great in Kazimierz . It is the oldest university in Poland, the second oldest university in Central Europe and one of the oldest universities in the world....
launched a series of lectures on Ukrainian language and literature and offered a chair to Lepky. At the time he did not know that Cracow was destined to become his second homeland for many decades until his death in July 1941. This was the city where he not only worked but also found lifetime friends among Polish and, naturally, Ukrainian intellectuals.
At the turn of the twentieth century Cracow was a city seething with artistic, literary, and intellectual life, both Polish and Ukrainian. For Cracow's Ukrainian community Lepky's house at 28 Zelena St. was a kind of "cultural headquarters", where one could encounter Kyrylo Studynsky, Vasyl Stefanyk
Vasyl Stefanyk
Vasyl' Semenovych Stefanyk was a classical Ukrainian prose writer and political activist. He was a member of the Austrian parliament 1908-1918....
, Viacheslav Lypynsky, Mykhailo Zhuk, Mykhailo Boichuk, and other prominent figures of Ukrainian scholarship and culture. As for the Polish artists with whom Lepky maintained close creative cooperation for many years, at least three should be named: Kazimierz Tetmajer (1865-1940), an outstanding poet and prose writer, and author of the historical novel Legend of the Tatra Mountains Stanisław Wyspiański, a talented playwright; and Władysław Orkan, a gifted poet and a wonderful human being (Lepky left behind some interesting reminiscences of him, with extracts cited below).
Among the things that aroused the deep respect for Lepky on the part of Cracow's Polish and Ukrainian intelligentsia was his authorship of a brilliant Polish translation of The Lay of Ihor's Host (1905) and the famous poem "Cranes" (1910) known to Ukrainians throughout the world as the song ("You see, my brother, my friend, a gray string of cranes soaring high into the sky..."). The history of this poem is very interesting. The poet said that a performance of a Stanisław Wyspiański play prompted him to write this poem: "In the fall of 1910, in Cracow, I was walking home after viewing a theatrical production of Wyspianski's drama Noc Listopadowa. The withered leaves rustled beneath my feet, and the departing cranes were trumpeting high above me. The poem seemed to be coming out by itself, without my knowledge or effort. My brother Lev Lepky set it to music."
Bohdan Lepky died on July 21, 1941, in Cracow and was buried in the local Rakowicki Cemetery
Rakowicki Cemetery
Rakowicki Cemetery is one of the best known cemeteries of Poland, located in the centre of Kraków. It lies within the Administrative District No. 1 Stare Miasto meaning "Old Town" – not to be confused with the historic Kraków Old Town further west...
. Meanwhile, every autumn cranes fly over the old Polish city that he loved so much.
Literary works by Bohdan Lepky
Title - year - number of pages- Cranes (You see, my brother - Ukr.: Видиш, брате мій) - 1910 - famous poem known to Ukrainians throughout the world as the song ("You see, my brother, my friend, a gray string of cranes soaring high into the sky...").
- Song lead (Ukr.: Заспів)
- Mazepa (Ukr.: Мазепа) - about Ivan MazepaIvan MazepaIvan Stepanovych Mazepa , Cossack Hetman of the Hetmanate in Left-bank Ukraine, from 1687–1708. He was famous as a patron of the arts, and also played an important role in the Battle of Poltava where after learning of Peter I's intent to relieve him as acting Hetman of Ukraine and replace him...
, Ukrainian hetman - Away from life, small grief (Ukr.: Набік життя журбо дрібна)
- I’ve Lost Contact with You (prose poem) - 1906 - 2
- Nastya (Ukr.: Настя) - 1897 - 12
- In the Forest (Ukr.: В лісі)- 1896 - 9
- Revenge (Ukr.: Месть) - 1901
- Three Portraits - a book of memoirs in which he relates his encounters and creative relationships with Ivan FrankoIvan FrankoIvan Yakovych Franko was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, interpreter, economist, political activist, doctor of philosophy, the author of the first detective novels and modern poetry in the Ukrainian language....
and Vasyl StefanykVasyl StefanykVasyl' Semenovych Stefanyk was a classical Ukrainian prose writer and political activist. He was a member of the Austrian parliament 1908-1918....
and reminiscences extensively about Władysław Orkan.