LEGACY
207
4. LEGACY.
When I'm dead, then let me slumber
Underneath a mound,
'Mid the rolling steppe, with precious
Ukraine earth around;
That the mighty girth of acres,
Dnieper's craggy shores,
I may gaze on, and may hearken
How the blusterer roars.
When it bears away from Ukraine
To the azure sea
Foemen's blood,—then I'll depart from
Mountain-side and lea:
These unheeding, I'll be speeding
Even unto God,
There to pray, but till that happen,
I'll know naught of God.
Grant me burial, then uprising,
Shatter every gyve;
Drench with evil blood of foeman
Freedom, that it thrive.
And my name in your great kindred,
Kindred free and new,
Ye shall cherish, lest it perish,—
Speak me fair and true.
(1845.)
