Resistance and its price
We do not know what Mickiewicz thought of Shevchenko’s work, nor what he knew about his fate. When the latter published his first poems, Mickiewicz had long travelled West. We do know, however, that in 1846, shortly before his arrest, Shevchenko tried to pass a copy of his ‘Caucasus’ to Mickiewicz through an acquaintance travelling to Paris. Unfortunately, we do not know if Mickiewicz read it, or even if he received it at all. Yet it is beyond doubt that the subversive spirit of anti-imperial resistance that saturates Shevchenko’s work must have been dear to him. Perhaps he would have even seen a kindred spirit – someone like himself, struggling against the Empire, chiselling a firm moral foundation in his poetry, one that would bear fruit in the future. And one who paid the ultimate price, losing his freedom for his indomitable stance.
Author: Mikołaj Gliński, August 2023; translated by Soren Gauger.
Sources: Marian Jakóbiec, ‘Wstęp’, in Taras Szewczenko, Wybór poezji, 1974; Hryhorij Werwes, ‘Szewczenko i polski romantyzm’, in Tam gdzie Ikwy srebrne fale płyną, 1972. Excerpt from ‘The Caucausus’ translated by Alyssa Dinega Gillespie
