Testament (Ukrainian: Заповіт, romanized: Zapovit), also known by its first line When I Die, Bury Me... (Ukrainian: Як умру, то поховайте...) is a poem by Taras Shevchenko, written on 25 December 1845 in Pereyaslav. It was later included by the author into his Three Summers (Ukrainian: Три літа) poetry collection. Composed in the genre of poetical testament, it also includes features of a hymn. Shevchenko's Testament has been translated into more than 150 languages, making it the fifth most translated non-religious literary work in the world.
Contents
Creation
According to scholar Oleksandr Konysky, Shevchenko composed the poem during a period of serious illness, said to be typhus, from which he suffered after getting caught in a snowstorm while travelling in a horse-drawn sled on a visit to the Zakrevsky family manor near Yahotyn on Christmas 1845.
Publication history
The verse was initially spread in handwritten copies, one of which was confiscated by Russian authorities from Vasyl Bilozersky during the 1847 process against the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius. It was first printed in 1859 in Leipzig, with omissions and based on a version provided by Panteleimon Kulish. The full text of the poem first saw the light in 1863 in Lviv, once again with differences from the original. The author's edition of the poem was first published in the 1907 edition of Kobzar issued in Saint Petersburg.
Legacy
Numerous musical settings of the poem have been created, with the earliest ones being presented in 1868 by Mykola Lysenko and Mykhailo Verbytsky. The most popular musical adaptation of the Testament was produced during the early 1870s by Hordii Hladkyi, an amateur composer from Poltava. Numerous choir arrangements of Hladkyi's melody have been created since then. The poem became an inspiration for cantatas by Stanislav Lyudkevych, Borys Lyatoshynsky and Levko Revutsky, as well as for a symphonic poem by Reinhold Glière. An Italian translation of Shevchenko's Testament has been put to music by Dead Rooster.