The Cherry Orchard
Aside the house and cherry orchard
Evening arrives and June bugs hum
the plowmen to the dark succumb
and girls sing on their ways homeward
While mothers wait, their families come.
Aside the house they sit together
only the stars to light their faces
tonight the daughter sets their places
what the mother looks to teach her
lost when nightingales sing her praises
Aside the house mother lulls to sleep
her youngest with a fairytale
beside them, her eyes close, nighttime’s veil
All quiet except the distant suite
chorus of girl and nightingale
By Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861)
Ukrainian Poet and Artist
Translation by Dean Temple (read on the June 9, 2005 show in the original Ukrainian and in translation)