![Kobzar1840](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Kobzar1840.png)
''Kobzar'' (
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
: Кобзар, "The bard"), is a book of
poem
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...
s by
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...
and
painter Taras Shevchenko
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko ( uk, Тарас Григорович Шевченко , pronounced without the middle name; – ), also known as Kobzar Taras, or simply Kobzar (a kobzar is a bard in Ukrainian culture), was a Ukrainian poet, wr ...
, first published by him in 1840 in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
. Taras Shevchenko was nicknamed ''The
Kobzar
A ''kobzar'' ( ua, кобзар, pl. kobzari ua, кобзарі) was an itinerant Ukrainian bard who sang to his own accompaniment, played on a multistringed bandura or kobza.
Tradition
Kobzars were often blind and became predominantly so b ...
'' after the publishing of this book. From that time on this title has been applied to Shevchenko's poetry in general and acquired a
symbolic meaning
In logic, mathematics, computer science, and linguistics, a formal language consists of words whose letters are taken from an alphabet and are well-formed according to a specific set of rules.
The alphabet of a formal language consists of symb ...
of the Ukrainian national and literary revival.
[Encyclopedia of Ukraine](_blank)
/ref>
The first publication consisted of eight poems: "Думи мої, думи мої, лихо мені з вами" (''My thoughts, my thoughts, you are my doom''), "Перебендя" ( Perebendya), "Катерина" (''Kateryna''), "Тополя" (''Poplar tree
''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood.
The ...
''), "Думка" (''Thought''), "Нащо мені чорні брови" (''Why should I have Black Eyebrows''), "До Основ'яненка" (''To Osnovyanenko''), "Іван Підкова" (''Ivan Pidkova
Ivan Pidkova ( uk, Іван Підкова) or Ioan Potcoavă (died 16 June 1578), also known as Ioan Creţul, and Nicoară Potcoavă among Romanians, was a prominent Cossack ataman, and short-lived Voivode (Prince) of Moldavia (November–Decem ...
''), and "Тарасова ніч" (''Taras's night'').
There were three editions of the ''Kobzar'' during Shevchenko's lifetime: 1840, 1844 and 1860. Two last of them included ''Hajdamaki'' — another famous book (poem) by Taras Shevchenko, published in 1841. 1844 edition was entitled as ''Чигиринський Кобзар і Гайдамаки'' ("Chyhyryn's Kobzar and Hajdamaki" or "Kobzar of Chyhyryn and Hajdamaki").
Censorship in the Russian Empire
In the Russian Empire, government agencies exerted varying levels of control over the content and dissemination of books, periodicals, music, theatrical productions, works of art, and motion pictures. The agency in charge of censorship in the Russ ...
prompted publication of the poetry by Taras Shevchenko
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko ( uk, Тарас Григорович Шевченко , pronounced without the middle name; – ), also known as Kobzar Taras, or simply Kobzar (a kobzar is a bard in Ukrainian culture), was a Ukrainian poet, wr ...
in non-Russia-ruled lands, such as Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
(now in the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
) or German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
editions.
Word definition
Literally, kobzar in Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
means a bard, although not a regular one, but rather the one who along with singing plays on a musical instrument, kobza
The kobza ( uk , кобза), also called bandurka ( uk , бандурка) is a Ukrainian folk music instrument of the lute family ( Hornbostel-Sachs classification number 321.321-5+6), a relative of the Central European mandora. The term ''kob ...
. Kobza is roughly similar to a lute.
In the contemporary Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
the word is also associated with the famous Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko ( uk, Тарас Григорович Шевченко , pronounced without the middle name; – ), also known as Kobzar Taras, or simply Kobzar (a kobzar is a bard in Ukrainian culture), was a Ukrainian poet, wr ...
who was given the same nickname.
A complete collection of Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
poems by Taras Shevchenko
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko ( uk, Тарас Григорович Шевченко , pronounced without the middle name; – ), also known as Kobzar Taras, or simply Kobzar (a kobzar is a bard in Ukrainian culture), was a Ukrainian poet, wr ...
is called Kobzar too, after the title of Shevchenko's first book.
Important editions of the XIX — early XX centuries.
Publications in Osnova magazine
Read more: Kobzar 1861
In January–December 1861, an unordered selection of 69 poems by Taras Shevchenko was published in the magazine Osnova (Books I-XII) edited by Vasyl Bilozersky. Each of the publications was entitled "Kobzar". The text is printed in Kulishivka and has accents on words with several syllables (except for the letter "i", on which the printing house could not always mark accents for technical reasons). Book I appeared during Shevchenko's lifetime, and an obituary was published in February II.
In 1867, the Kobzar was published at the expense of the Russian publisher D. Kozhanchikov. It was at that time the most complete edition of "Kobzar", compiled by MI Kostomarov and GS Vashkevich. On June 6, 1867, IT Lysenkov filed a lawsuit with the St. Petersburg District Court, accusing D. Yu. Kozhanchikov of illegally publishing Shevchenko's works. MO Nekrasov, MI Kostomarov and OM Pippin acted as experts in court. The process, which lasted ten years, ended in favor of D. Kozhanchikov (see: Bezyazychny V. Taras Shevchenko and bookseller Ivan Lysenkov... // Book trade. — 1964. — No. 3).
"Kobzar", published in 1911 in St. Petersburg
More extensive (containing many previously unpublished works of the poet) was the Prague edition of "Kobzar" in 1876, commissioned by the Kiev "Community" Alexander Rusov. He brought Taras Hryhorovych's brothers Osyp and Mykyta to Kyiv from Kyrylivka. Citizens bought from them the right to publish all works. On October 24, 1874, a "merchant" was concluded in Kyiv. Under its terms, for four years Shevchenko had to receive 5 thousand rubles — a huge amount at the time. In 1875, Alexander Rusov left for Prague, where he published Kobzar (1875-1876) in two volumes. Russian imperial censorship allowed to import only the first volume into Russia. In the second volume, 18 poems (from the Big Book) appeared for the first time.
1878 — in Geneva, Mikhail Drahomanov published a pocket version of the Kobzar in reprint. The size of the book is 9 by 5 cm. The books were smuggled into Ukraine in cigarette packs.
1880 — Mikhail Drahomanov published a version of the Kobzar in Ukrainian Latin.
1889 — The Kobzar was first published in Kyiv.
In 1907, 1908 and 1910 a relatively complete edition of "Kobzar" was published, prepared by the Ukrainian scientist Vasyl Domanytsky.
A 19-volume Kobzar was published by the same scholar in 1911 at the Valentin Yakovenko publishing house in St. Petersburg, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Taras Shevchenko's death. The title page of the publication with a portrait of Shevchenko was made by Ivan Kramskaya, and the drawings were prepared by Samiylo Dudin and Mykhailo Tkachenko.
1914 — in Lviv The Taras Shevchenko Scientific Society reprinted a small number of phototypes of the first edition from 1840 (114 pages), which are also rare today. They differ from the first printing by lower quality of paper. On a separate page the initial data of this edition — the publisher, year of the reprint edition, circulation were specified. Books with this page are very rare.
1928--in Kyiv-Kharkiv, was published an illustrated edition by the publishing house Radianske selo (Soviet village). The cover wrappers are by Okhrim Sudomora.
Edition
Lifetime publications
The first edition
The first edition of "Kobzar" was printed in the private printing house of EF Fischer in St. Petersburg (Russia) with a circulation of 1,000 copies. Of these, the first 100 copies had 115 pages of text, but most of them, after the intervention of the censor, were removed and destroyed before the sale, and about ten, which Taras Shevchenko gave to friends — remained. Currently, the only known copy, which has 115 pages of text that belonged to Taras Shevchenko and was confiscated from him during his first arrest, is kept in St. Petersburg (Russia), and the remaining books have 114 pages.
The first edition of "Kobzar" included eight early works:
* "My thoughts, my thoughts, woe is me with you!"
* "Perebendya",
* "Katerina",
* "Poplar",
* "Thought" (Why do I have black eyebrows...),
* "To Osnovyanenko",
* "Ivan Pidkova",
* "Tarasova night".
Six of them were dedicated.[Від редакційної колегії.— В кн: Тарас Шевченко. Кобзар. Повна збірка поезій./Академія наук УРСР. Інститут Української Літератури ім. Т. Г. Шевченка. Ред. колегія: Корнійчук О. Є., Тичина П. Г., Рильський М. Т., Редько Ф. А., Копиця Д. Д.— К.: Державне Літературне Видавництво, 1939.— С. V.]
Of all the lifetime editions of the works, the first "Kobzar" had the most attractive appearance: high-quality paper, convenient format, clear font. A notable feature of this "Kobzar" is the etching at the beginning of the book by Vasyl Sternberg: the folk singer is a kobzar with a boy-guide. This is not an illustration of a separate work, but a generalized image of a kobzar, which gave the name to the collection. The release of this "Kobzar", even cut by tsarist censorship, is an event of great literary and national significance.
After the arrest of Taras Shevchenko in 1847, the Kobzar was banned in the Russian Empire and confiscated from libraries and bookstores, as well as from individual citizens, which made this publication rare during the poet's lifetime. Only a few copies of Taras Shevchenko's Kobzar of 1840 have survived in the world. One of them (114 pages) is stored in the National Library of Ukraine named after Vernadsky, another — in the Cherkasy Museum "Kobzar", is also in the Museum of the Liberation Struggle. S. Bandera (London — Great Britain) and in the library of Harvard University (USA). Kobzar was copied and even sold in manuscripts. A copy of the Kobzar, transcribed and painted by T. Shevchenko's friends, which they presented to him instead of the one taken away by the guards after his return from exile, has been preserved.
Second edition
In 1844, under the title "Chyhyryn Kobzar", a reprint of the first edition of "Kobzar" was published with the addition of the poem " Haydamaky".
Third edition
"Kobzar" was published in 1860 at the expense of Platon Symyrenko, with whom Taras Shevchenko met during his last trip to Ukraine in 1859 in Mliiv. Platon Simirenko - a well-known sugar producer and philanthropist in Ukraine - allocated 1,100 rubles for the publication of "Kobzar". This edition was much more complete than the previous ones: it included 17 works. At the beginning - a portrait of Taras Shevchenko. However, the poems "Dream", "Caucasus", "Heretic", the poem "Testament" and similar works could not be included in the publication due to censorship.
Other lifetime publications
A number of poems that were not included in the Kobzar due to censorship were published by the poet's friends in Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
in 1859: a collection of New Poems by Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
and Shevchenko.
In the same year, 1860, Kobzar was translated by Russian poets (St. Petersburg, 1860; translated into Russian by M. Gerbel). This is the last edition of "Kobzar" during the author's lifetime.
Publication of the Ukrainian diaspora
1922 - an illustrated collection of T. Shevchenko's poems entitled "Kobzar" with a biography and foreword by Bohdan Lepky
Bohdan Teodor Nestor Lepky, ( uk, Богдан Теодор Нестор Лепкий, November 9, 1872, Krehulets, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary – July 21, 1941, Kraków, General Government, Nazi Germany) was a Ukrain ...
was published by the Ukrainske Slovo publishing house in Berlin.
1940 - A unique alphabet of the Kobzar is published by the Ukrainian publishing house in Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
.
See also
* Izbornyk Izbornyk is an internet-library project of the old Ukrainian literature also known as "History of Ukraine 9-18th centuries. Primary sources and interpretation". It functions since the 21st of August 2001.
The project is a collection of major works ...
* List of Ukrainian-language poets
* List of Ukrainian-language writers
This is a list of authors who have written works of prose and poetry in the Ukrainian language.
A
*Nikolai Amosov (1913–2002), novelist, essayist, and medical writer
* Emma Andijewska (born 1931), novelist, poet, and short story writer
* Nadi ...
* Ukrainian literature
Ukrainian literature is literature written in the Ukrainian language.
Ukrainian literature mostly developed under foreign domination over Ukrainian territories, foreign rule by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Poland, the Russian Empire, t ...
References
External links
''The Kobzar of the Ukraine: being select poems of Taras Shevchenko'' by A. J. Hunter
at Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
*
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Ukrainian poems
Taras Shevchenko
Ukrainian books
Poetry collections
1840 books
Ukrainian-language books