Do not sing me this song
Do not sing me this song | Не співайте мені сеї пісні | Ne spivajte meni seji pisni
Composer: Zenoby Lawryshyn | Зеновій Лавришин
Lyricist: Lesia Ukrainka | Леся Українка
One of Ukraine's best-known poets and writers and the foremost woman writer in Ukrainian literature, Larysa Petrivna Kosach-Kvitka (1871-1913) assumed the pseudonym Lesia Ukrainka at age 13 because at that time publications in the Ukrainian language were forbidden. Diagnosed with tuberculosis of the bone at an early age and often house-bound, her writing became the main focus of her life. Due to her illness, she spent extended periods of time in Germany, Austria, Italy, Bulgaria, Crimea, the Caucasus, and Egypt. Knowing that her life would be short often led her to share her joy in nature, as well as her regrets and anguish, through her poetry. In this song, she articulates that her love of Ukraine is so deep that just hearing a Ukrainian song will awaken the sorrow that lies sleeping just below the surface in her heart. This sorrow is Ukraine’s lack of freedom under tsarist rule, and her social isolation and exile due to her severe illness. Zenoby Lawryshyn, a prolific Ukrainian-Canadian composer based in Toronto, Canada, has created a poignant musical score that punctuates Ukrainka’s anguish, sorrow and eventual acceptance of her fate.
Vesnivka commissioned Zenoby Lawryshyn to write the music to the wrenchingly personal words of Lesia Ukrainka, which had its premiere in the fall of 2013 at a concert commemorating the 100th anniversary of her death. Vesnivka's music archives include classical works with text drawn from poetry from many of Ukraine's great literary figures.