‘Kobzar’ Sounds in Danish: An Anthology of Taras Shevchenko’s Poetry Prepared in Denmark
Near the Shevchenko monument in Copenhagen, “Testament” was recited in Danish for the first time, and the publication of an anthology of “Kobzar” was announced.
Denmark is preparing the first anthology of Taras Shevchenko’s poetry in Danish. The collection will include 13 selected works from “Kobzar”, presenting Shevchenko not only as Ukraine’s national poet but also as a humanist and thinker of European stature.
The project is being implemented by the Pylyp Orlyk Foundation together with the Danish-Ukrainian Society and the organisation “Help Ukrainian Children” (Denmark). The initiative continues a longstanding cultural cooperation between Ukraine and Denmark — notably, it was the Danish-Ukrainian Society that initiated and erected the monument to Taras Shevchenko in Copenhagen in 2010.
The symbolic beginning of the project was a ceremony honouring Taras Shevchenko on March 8 near the monument. Translator Ksenia Frost-Fitsova recited “Testament” in Danish for the first time.
“We want to present Shevchenko to Danish readers as a European humanist and poetic thinker whose voice resonates directly in the Danish cultural context while also speaking to the conflicts of our time. For Danish readers who may know Shevchenko only as the ‘national poet of Ukraine’, this anthology should show him as a moral witness who fought through poetry against empires, oppression and the loss of human dignity,” says Carsten Hammer, literary editor, professor at University College Copenhagen and honorary professor of Poltava National Pedagogical University.
“The project aims to present Shevchenko to Danish readers as Ukraine’s national poet and a European humanist and moral thinker. In many respects his ideas can be compared to those of the Danish thinker Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig. Just as Grundtvig played a key role in shaping Danish identity and folk education in the 19th century, Shevchenko became a decisive voice in the national and cultural awakening of Ukrainians,” says project producer Lesia Ihnatyk-Eriksen, head of Help Ukrainian Children (Denmark).
The project team includes literary editor Carsten Hammer, translator Ksenia Frost-Fitsova, producer Lesia Ihnatyk-Eriksen, Oksana Smerek, Liudmyla Valler, and Danish poet Marta Elias, who is working on a poetic adaptation. The Foundation’s curator is Yaryna Yasynievych, from the Danish-Ukrainian Society — Bo Gullak Flindt. The principal Ukrainian-side consultants are writer Oksana Zabuzhko and artist and art critic Rostyslav Luzhetskyi. The first translated poems are planned to be presented at public events in Denmark this spring, including for the anniversary of the first edition of “Kobzar”, published on April 26, 1840.
“We are implementing this project in cooperation with the Danish-Ukrainian Society, which once initiated the installation of the monument to Taras Shevchenko in Copenhagen. For us, this is very symbolic: in 2010, Shevchenko gained a physical presence in Denmark, and now his voice will sound in Danish,” emphasises Artem Mykolainchuk, Chairman of the Board of the Pylyp Orlyk Foundation.
“The anthology is compiled thematically to show the breadth of Shevchenko’s work — from lyrical poems about home, humanity and nature to fundamental texts about freedom, historical memory and human dignity,” says Yaryna Yasynievych, Programme Director of the Pylyp Orlyk Foundation.
