The Polish Poet Who Loved Ukraine: The Story of Tymko Padura
In the 19th century, the Polish-Ukrainian poet Tomasz Padura wrote songs in admiration of the history and people of Ukraine. Today, Padura is considered one of the most talented Polish Romantics to write in the Ukrainian language and a herald of Polish-Ukrainian friendship. Together, we take a closer look at his story and his outstanding work.
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Former Kremenets Lyceum buildings, photo: Konstantin Brizhnichenko / Wikimedia.org
Tomasz Padura, otherwise known as Tymko Padura, Tomasz Padurra or Tymko Padurra, was born on 21st December 1801 in Ilińce, a town in what is now central Ukraine. At that time the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned between Prussia, Austria and Russia and parts of its former territories in Ukraine, including Ilińce, were under Russian rule.
Padura was born into a patriotic noble Polish family. His father had a small estate and had participated in the Kościuszko Uprising, a failed Polish insurgency against the partitions that took place in 1794. After attending the parish school in Ilińce, Padura became a student of the gymnasium in the town of Winnice in 1814. There he studied with his friend Seweryn Goszczyński who, like Padura, was born in Ilińce and would go on to become a noted poet.
Padura started to write poetry already during his school days:
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Characteristically, T. Padura began to write in Ukrainian, using letters of the Latin alphabet. The poet’s fascination with Ukrainian folklore went back to his childhood, because he was spending his entire time in Ukrainian surroundings.
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From ‘Biography and Artistic Activity of Tomasz (Tymko) Padura’, a 2019 paper by Rostysław Radyszewśkyj, trans. MK
In 1820, he began his secondary education in the town of Kremenets, where he spent a lot of time learning about the history of Ukraine. His friends and teachers appreciated his unique talents when it came to poetic improvisation and were in awe of his knowledge of Ukrainian folk songs. Padura’s goal soon became writing up the history of Ukraine in verse.
After completing his schooling in Kremenets, Padura lived at the Ukrainian manors of the noble Potocki and Sanguszko families and continued his studies of Ukrainian history.
House to house, with song
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Justyna Sieniawska in the play ‘Torban’, Stefan Żeromski Theatre in Kielce, 2005, photo: Jarosław Kubalski / AW
As a young man Padura began to raise the question of Ukraine’s autonomy. He came into contact with a group of anti-Tsar conspirators known as the Decembrists, who asked him to create an anthem, a battle cry against Tsarist rule. As a result Padura penned the song Ruchawka: Piśń Kozaćka (Uproar: A Cossack Song) in 1825. Here’s the first verse:
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Hey Cossacks, it’s a holy time!
At church the bells are ringing
If you value freedom high
The enemy you shall go chasing!
Hey Cossacks, charge the enemy
Hooray! Hooray!
Theat same year, Padura moved to the estate of his friend Wacław Rzewuski in the town of Savran. There, Rzewuski set up a school for folk poets and named Padura the headteacher. By this time, the author of Uproar had made a name for himself and written numerous songs and poems.
A few years later, Padura famously travelled across Ukraine, going from house to house, and singing songs. This journey and Padura himself became the stuff of legend:
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Wearing simple clothes, carrying a torban [ed. note: a Ukrainian musical instrument that combines the features of the Baroque Lute with those of the psaltery], T. Padura in the years 1828-29 went travelling through Ukrainian lands along the south bank of the Bug river, further – toward the liman [landform] of the Dnieper river, to the Black Sea and over land all the way to the Kuban region. […] During this journey as a folk poet, he fostered and shaped the spirit of freedom among the folk, sung of old Cossack glory and encouraged an armed struggle against the Tsarist despotism.
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From ‘Biography and Artistic Activity of Tomasz (Tymko) Padura’, trans. MK
However, Padura’s deep involvement in the propagation of Ukrainian freedom didn’t bring the results he’d hoped to achieve. When the November Uprising, a Polish insurgency against Russia, broke out in 1830, the Ukrainian people were reluctant to join it. Padura fought in the uprising under Rzewuski, who went missing after a battle against Russian forces in 1831. Padura, who had also taken part in the battle, was arrested for his involvement in the rebellion which, unfortunately, failed later that same year.
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‘Kurgan in Ukraine’ by Leon Wyczółkowski, 1894, photo: Leon Wyczółkowski Regional Museum in Bydgoszcz
Padura spent more than a year in prison in the town of Skvyra. The fall of the November Uprising had broken his spirit and may have had adverse effects on his mental health. Some say, however, that this was just a ruse to get himself out of jail. Eventually, he was released from prison and avoided being exiled to Siberia. Shortly afterwards he was arrested once more, but yet again was freed due to his condition. Future freedom movements no longer captured much of his attention.
Padura settled down at his family’s estate. In the 1830s and 1840s he authored a few poems and translations of Adam Mickiewicz’s work but later ceased to be active as a poet. In 1841, he married his old flame Franciszka Barańska who had turned him down for another man before the uprising.
The next year, the first printed collection of Padura’s works was published in Lviv. Titled Pienia Tomasza Padury (The Songs of Tomasz Padura), it contained his Ukrainian songs in Latin lettering, poems he had written in Polish, as well as a few translations wrongly ascribed to him. The mistakes stemmed from the fact that, quite astonishingly, this volume was published without Padura’s permission or oversight.
The appearance of this unexpected publication prompted Padura to work on his own collection of his writings. As a result, he issued Ukrainki z Nutoju Tymka Padury (Ukrainians with Notes by Tymko Padura) in Warsaw in 1844. The book included Padura’s Ukrainian songs in Latin lettering accompanied by their Polish translations. The book also provided the musical notations for each song, composed by Padura, Rzewuski and the composer Karol Lipiński. The poet also added some historical background.
In 1848, Tymko Padura won a substantial amount of money in the lottery (some believe he may have actually received it as a donation), which he then used for a trip to what would be Germany, Czechia, Switzerland and Italy today. The journey was meant to improve his health. Unfortunately, if there was any betterment, it was only temporary. In the mid-1850s the poet went back to his family estate in a lonely, tired state. He passed away on 20th September 1871 in the town of Koziatyn, at the estate of his friend, Marian Wasiutyński.
Tomasz Padura’s poems during his lifetime were mainly passed on from mouth to mouth and in manuscript form due to the fact that they were seldom published. Stylistically, many of his poetic writings reference Ukrainian folk songs and are meant to be sung rather than recited. Padura dreamed of writing a history of Ukraine in verse:
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The idea that arose back in his school years […] to write a song history of Ukraine, was for many years Padura’s mission and programme. The Cossack past, Zaporozhian Sich and famous historical figures became the main themes throughout most of his works.
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From ‘Biography and Artistic Activity of Tomasz (Tymko) Padura’, trans. MK
‘Cossack Wedding’ by Józef Brandt, 1893, photo: Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom, CC-By licence Padura is often remembered for his two series of poems titled Ukrainki (Ukrainians) and Dumy (Dumas), both of which revolve around Ukraine’s past. Although the differences between these series aren’t very sharp, one could say that the first includes themes of a more general historical character, while the second focusses on particular people in Ukrainian history.
Within the Dumas series – a duma is a sung epic poem – you can find, for example, Roman z Koszyry (Roman of Kamin-Kashyrskyi) which is considered one of Padura’s best poems. It is about the 16th century nobleman Roman Sanguszko who, after a military victory against the Tatars in Ukraine, is welcomed in Lublin by Poland’s king, Zygmunt August.
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But the memory of the people’s protector lasts,
It shines like the sun in the dawn of day:
Oh city of Lublin, remember the years past!
When you welcomed Roman within your gates.
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From ‘Roman z Koszyry’ by Tomasz Padura, trans. MK
On the other hand, an interesting example from the Ukrainians series is Weślari (Rowers), a poem that describes the unique freedom of the Cossacks:
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Whether we camp in the steppe with the winds,
Or over the waves of churning waters,
Always delighted like the God of nations
We reign over the free world!
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Fragment of ‘Weślari’ by Tomasz Padura, trans. MK
Apart from writing poetry Padura also wrote historical essays. As an author, Padura often addressed Poland and Ukraine’s shared traditions and history. He believed that Poles and Ukrainians can live peacefully and prosperously alongside each other. He considered Ukraine his ‘mother’ and Poland his ‘fatherland.’ His love for Ukraine can clearly be seen in this verse from his poem Ukraina (Ukraine):
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Land! O beautiful land! Mother of heroes!
With the benefit of hindsight
Title page from the book ‘The Songs of Tomasz Padura’, 1842, photo: National Digital Library Polona There are a few issues, however, that readers had with Padura’s writings. Some noted that his treatment of history was not always accurate: he often idealised Poland and Ukraine’s relationship. Also, certain aspects of Padura’s use of Ukrainian have been criticised: not only does his Ukrainian have dialectical and Polish influences but it also includes supposedly Ukrainian words constructed by the poet. Because of this he’s even been described as using pseudo-Ukrainian. This could be explained by his early encounters with the Ukrainian language. It could have been impacted by his use of Latin lettering. Nevertheless, despite these linguistic questions Padura is considered one of the most talented Polish Romantics to have written in the Ukrainian language.
Apart from creating original works, Padura also translated famous foreign works into Ukrainian: he translated fragments of Konrad Wallenrod by Adam Mickiewicz, as well as works by George Byron. He even began writing an unusual continuation of Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage in Polish, entitled Podróż Chajd-Harolda po Słowiańszczyźnie (Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage through Slavic Lands). This narrative poem, however, was never completed.
In 1874 a posthumous book of Padura’s works was published in Lviv under the title Pyśma Tymka Padurry (Writings by Tomasz Padurra). It was printed in Latin lettering and contains, among other things, his Ukrainian poems with Polish translations as well as his translated fragments of Konrad Wallenrod. Padura’s poems were also published in Cyrillic script in the 1878 book Spivanky Ukraintsia Tymka Padury (Songs by the Ukrainian Tymko Padura).
This quote from the essay Biography and Artistic Activity of Tomasz (Tymko) Padura – the Polish-Ukrainian Lyrist by Rostysław Radyszewśkyj is a suitable summation of the importance of Tomasz ‘Tymko’ Padura in both Polish and Ukrainian culture:
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Today, with the benefit of hindsight, aside from the political and poetic activity of Tomasz Padura, one can note that he was the perfect person to express the thoughts and feelings of the Polish community, that lived in Ukraine [at the time] and were able to feel the power of the Ukrainian people’s revival. Both in a political and cultural sense they had the courage to proclaim their liking for this people and to see in the future Polish-Ukrainian alliance the solution to the biggest problem of their times – the Russian Empire and its expansionism.
Written by Marek Kępa, Mar 22
Source: based on the 2019 paper ‘Biography and Artistic Activity of Tomasz (Tymko) Padura – the Polish-Ukrainian Lyrist’ by Rostysław Radyszewśkyj
