Lesia Ukrainka

Lesia Ukrainka was born on 25 February, 1871, in Novohrad-Volyns'kyi, and was the second child in the family. Lesia spent her childhood in the village of Kolodiazhne. She was a weak child. When Lesia was nine, her aunt, a member of the national liberation movement, was exiled to Siberia. Lesia responded to this dramatic family event by writing her first poem "Hope". From that time Lesia Ukrainka constantly raised her voice in defence of human dignity.

In 1881 when she lived in Lutsk the doctors diagnosed her disease as tuberculosis of bones. It meant that her dream to be a pianist was ruined. In 1883 she was operated on her left hand and couldn't play the piano. All her life the illness drove her from clinic to clinic, from country to country. She was in the Crimea, Georgia, Austria (Vienna), Germany (Berlin), Italy, Egypt. She lived in dark years of tsarist social and national oppression and took after her father who was fond of revolutionary ideas. She believed in freedom for her people. In 1897 in the Crimea Lesia made acquaintance with Merzhyns'kyi, a revolutionary. Soon they married. But he suffered from tuberculosis too. Some years later he died; it was a big shock for Lesia. After some years Kliment Kvitka, a writer, became her second husband.

Lesia Ukrainka is not a real name of the greatest poet. She signed her verses Lesia Ukrainka, affirming her love and affection for her country and the spirit of its people. Under this penname Larissa Kosach entered the world of literature and became known as a famous poet. Her character and views were formed under the influence of folk traditions and cultural progressive-minded intelligentsia, frequent visitors at the house. Lesia Ukrainka's literary legacy is rich and diverse. It includes poetry collections "On Winds of Song", "Thoughts and Dreams", "Echoes Songs", dramatic poems "Cassandra", "An Autumn Tale", "Song of the Forest" and many others.

Lesia Ukrainka knew many foreign languages and read classical literature in the original for self-education (she couldn't go to school because of her illness). She knew German, French, English, Italian, Greek, Latin, Polish and other languages. Lesia Ukrainka wanted her people to learn the world culture. She thoroughly arranged a list for a World Library Series aimed at Ukrainian reads and their education. She translated about ninety poems by Henrich Heine, Gerbart Mauptmann's drama "Weavers", works by Schiller and Goethe, Byron and Shakespeare.

Lesia Ukrainka died in 1913 in Georgia, the town of Surami. She was buried in Kyiv.