In Prison: X 'Tis Hard To Bear The Yoke

Translated by Clarence A. Manning

'Tis hard to bear the yoke—though freedom,
To tell the truth, was never there.
But yet somehow I could live on,
Though in another's home and field.
But now I have been brought to wait
An evil fate as I do God.
I wait for it, and as I look,
I curse my poor and untrained mind
That I allowed poor fools to fool me,
To drown pure freedom in the mud.
My heart grows cold, when I remember
That in Ukraine I shall not die,
That in Ukraine I shall ne'er live,
To love both people and the Lord.

                    1847, St. Petersburg