DOI issue:
II. Ostatnie prace Jana Białostockiego
DOI article:Artykuły
DOI article:Białostocki, Jan: Matejko's "Wernyhora": a Slav prophet and bard
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19643#0189
Could with sibylline sighs
Answer when the wind blows.
I saw Doroshenko's sword
And the horse's golden hoofs.
I would suppose they are only of copper
Gilded well in the fire.
The old man however... sits in the den
Quietly and in a mixed peasant tongue
He clumsyly narrates things dreamt of,
Fuli of noise and disarray.
That he should be a sorcerer
I would not believe...
This sober image of a provincial augur could perhaps have been a model for Kapliński's
composition but never for the pathetic image created by Matejko.
We do not know anything about the historical Wernyhora. His person — whatever
historical reality it once had possessed — has been appropriated by Polish Romantic poetry
and political philosophy. And for them it became a personification of the idea of concord
between nations and classes. Located by writers in the period of the Confederation of Bar and
of the Humań Massacre (rzeź humańska) — otherwise called "Koliszczyzna" (1768),
Wernyhora was interpreted as representing an attitude favourable to Poland, as a supporter
of the understanding and reconciliation between peasants and nobles, as an opponent of the
peasant upheaval of 1768, and as one whose goal was towards the common good of the great
Slav fatherland.
The text entitled Wernyhoras Prophecy has no elear origins. Most probably it was
formulated by Polish political thinkers in about 1809 and it was published by Lelewel during
the Polish November Rising (1830). It was an optimistic forecast of the rebirth of the Polish
state. Although it claimed to be sung by a Ukrainian singer, it included only one sentence at
the end on the fate of Ukrainę —
"it too will achieve happiness; but the time will not come for it in which great things will
happen. I would like to speak about them but I am afraid the Dnieper will get out ot its bed".
(The Prophecy is quo ted after the reprint in the article by Kasjan, op. cit, p. 117—118).
A similar, "Polish" Wernyhora was painted by Matejko. What we see is powerful wishful
dreaming, both nationally and socially.
Looking excitedly into the abyss of the futurę with wide open eyes Wernyhora is
surrounded by Ukrainian peasants and Polish lords in complete harmony with one another.
The two main figures are, on the left, the governor of Korsuń, Suchodolski (mentioned by
Słowacki in Beniowski9) who diligently notes the words of the augur and, on the right, the
orthodox priest. In meditation, attentively, in a concord of classes and nations, nine listeners
—from a child to an old man — experience the vision of futurę history as seen by the prophet,
185
Answer when the wind blows.
I saw Doroshenko's sword
And the horse's golden hoofs.
I would suppose they are only of copper
Gilded well in the fire.
The old man however... sits in the den
Quietly and in a mixed peasant tongue
He clumsyly narrates things dreamt of,
Fuli of noise and disarray.
That he should be a sorcerer
I would not believe...
This sober image of a provincial augur could perhaps have been a model for Kapliński's
composition but never for the pathetic image created by Matejko.
We do not know anything about the historical Wernyhora. His person — whatever
historical reality it once had possessed — has been appropriated by Polish Romantic poetry
and political philosophy. And for them it became a personification of the idea of concord
between nations and classes. Located by writers in the period of the Confederation of Bar and
of the Humań Massacre (rzeź humańska) — otherwise called "Koliszczyzna" (1768),
Wernyhora was interpreted as representing an attitude favourable to Poland, as a supporter
of the understanding and reconciliation between peasants and nobles, as an opponent of the
peasant upheaval of 1768, and as one whose goal was towards the common good of the great
Slav fatherland.
The text entitled Wernyhoras Prophecy has no elear origins. Most probably it was
formulated by Polish political thinkers in about 1809 and it was published by Lelewel during
the Polish November Rising (1830). It was an optimistic forecast of the rebirth of the Polish
state. Although it claimed to be sung by a Ukrainian singer, it included only one sentence at
the end on the fate of Ukrainę —
"it too will achieve happiness; but the time will not come for it in which great things will
happen. I would like to speak about them but I am afraid the Dnieper will get out ot its bed".
(The Prophecy is quo ted after the reprint in the article by Kasjan, op. cit, p. 117—118).
A similar, "Polish" Wernyhora was painted by Matejko. What we see is powerful wishful
dreaming, both nationally and socially.
Looking excitedly into the abyss of the futurę with wide open eyes Wernyhora is
surrounded by Ukrainian peasants and Polish lords in complete harmony with one another.
The two main figures are, on the left, the governor of Korsuń, Suchodolski (mentioned by
Słowacki in Beniowski9) who diligently notes the words of the augur and, on the right, the
orthodox priest. In meditation, attentively, in a concord of classes and nations, nine listeners
—from a child to an old man — experience the vision of futurę history as seen by the prophet,
185