Six lyrics from the Ruthenian of Taras Shevchenko, also The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov from the Russian of Mikhaíl Lermontov

Two poets, born in the same year, destroyed by the Tsarist empire that feared their words. Taras Shevchenko, the peasant who became the father of Ukrainian literature, wrote verses in his native Ruthenian that smuggled forbidden national identity past imperial censors. Mikhail Lermontov, the Russian Byron, channeled Caucasian wilderness and aristocratic restlessness into poetry that outraged the court. Both were exiled. Both died young, Lermontov in a duel at twenty-six, Shevchenko from the slow destruction of years in penal servitude. This collection gathers six of Shevchenko's lyrics, spanning his life from youthful love to bitter exile, alongside Lermontov's swashbuckling narrative poem The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov, a tale of honor, blood, and vendettas on the Russian frontier. Ethel Voynich's translations preserve the raw immediacy of verses written in chains. For anyone who believes poetry can be dangerous, these voices from the 19th-century struggle against empire remain urgent.