Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912) Reve ta stohne Dnipr shyrokyj

Rozanna Madylus (mezzo-soprano), acc. Fran Hills at the HGO Summer Concert 2023.
Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912) is regarded as the father of Ukrainian music. He collected his country’s folk-music, and wrote operas and chamber and orchestral music. This song is a setting of a poem by the poet and patriot Taras Shevchenko.
Reve ta stohne Dnipr shyrokyj
Serdytyj viter zavyva
Dodolu verby hne vysoki
Horamy khvyli pidijma.
I blidyj misjats’ na tu poru
Iz khmary de-de vyhljadav,
Nenache choven syn’im mori
To vyrynav, to potopav.
Shche tret’i pivni ne spivaly,
N’ikhto nide ne homoniv,
Sychi v haju pereklykalys’
Ta jasen’ raz u raz skrypiv.
The wide Dnieper river roars and groans,
And there wails an angry wind,
Bending the tall willows to the ground,
Waves rising like mountains.
And the pale moon at that moment
Looked out from behind the scattered clouds,
Like a boat on the blue sea,
Sometimes rising, sometimes falling.
The cockerel had not yet cried three times,
No person so much as murmured,
Screech owls in the groves called to each other,
And the ash tree creaked again and again.