{IVAN FRANKO

1856-1916

Є люди як свічки – Згоряють, відходять в небуття.

Є люди як зірки – Горять і світять усе життя. Та ні, це не зірки, холодні,

мертві, Вони – сонця, засвічені у небі,

Які горять, обігрівають все й не гаснуть.

І не загинуть…. В. Сухомлинський

“There are two classes of poets - the poets by education and practice, these we respect; and poets by nature, these we love.”Ralph Waldo Emerson

The great poet is always a seer, seeing less with the eyes of the body than he does with the eyes of the mind. Oscar Wilde

Ivan Yakovych Franko was

a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and

literary critic, journalist,

interpreter, economist, political

activist, doctor of

philosophy, ethnographer, the author of the first

detective novels and modern poetry in

the Ukrainian language.

Ivan Franko was born in the village of Nahuievychi (now Drogobytskyy district, Lviv region). He wrote about his childhood in the short stories: U kuzni (In the Smithy), Malyi Myron (Little Myron), Pid Oborohom (Under the Haystack).

Ivan Franko "In the Smithy"

translated by Ivan Petryshyn In the valley, there’s a country side,above the village, the mist’s spreading wide,by the village, on an elevation,there is a big smithy station.In that smithy, a blacksmith is striking,and his heart is deeply a-liking,and he’s smithing singing in gracecalling up the people to his place.“Come out, people, from the huts, from the fields!here’s the place, where a better luck yields.come out, people, till it’s not late,get out from the fog, do not wait!”

But the fogs are a-rocking,at the village, they are mocking,over the fields, they are spreading,blocking with darkness the people’s treadding,Every path for them to block,not to let them upwards from the fog,to the smithy, where they forgethe weapons, bright,instead of clogs, fetters and ties.

House of gymnasium (Drogobych, Shevchenko str., 24), where in 1867 – 1875 Ivan Franko had been studied.

After finishing gymnasium in the town of Drogobych Ivan Franko

continued his education in Lviv and later in Chernivtsi. In 1891 he

graduated from the department of Philology of Chernivtsi University.

The National University in Lviv was named after Ivan Franko

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One of the innovators of all genres of literature was Ivan Franko. He raised the post-

Shevchenko Ukrainian poetry of the late 19th and early 20th century to new heights. He did the same in prose. He devoted much attention to translations from foreign languages. His

merits as a thinker and scholar were great in many

fields: the history and theory of literature, folklore, political

economy, history, ethnography.

His greatest poem, "Moses" (1905), which in a biblical setting deals with the conflict between a leader and his people and proclaims

the ideal of service to one's people, was

based to a large extent on

autobiographical material.

"Zakhar Berkut" (1883), a historical novel based on ancient Ukrainian chronicles, presents the heroic resistance

of Ukrainian highlanders to the Mongols in

1241.

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In drama Franko proved himself a master of the sociopsychological and

historical play and of comedy. His best plays are the

sociopsychological drama "Stolen Happines" (1894) and the historical drama in verse "The Dream of Prince

Sviatoslav" (1895). Special mention must be made of Franko's work as a

translator, which he carried on throughout his life. He

translated masterpieces from 14 languages by famous

authors including Homer, Dante, W. Shakespeare, J.

Goethe, E. Zola, O. Pushkin, M. Lermontov.

IVAN FRANKO is so important for Ukrainian

people that there are many monuments to him

all over Ukraine.

In 1962 the city of Stanyslaviv in western Ukraine

(formerly Stanisławów, Poland) was renamed Ivano-Frankivsk in

the poet's honor.

Monument to Ivan Franko in

Ivano-Frankivsk

On the 28th of May (1916) Franko died in Lviv. He was burried at the Lychakivsky Cemetery. His death was a great loss for Ukrainian literature

Ivan Franko is the favourite author of millions of Ukrainians, a real people’s poet.

I thought of the new human brotherhood’s birth,

And wondered: how soon it will come to the earth?

I saw in a vision the vast, fertile fieds

Worked jointly, providing magnificent yields,

Supporting the people in freedom and bounty.

Can this the Ukraine be, my own native country,

Which once was forsaken the conquerors prey?

Yes, that is indeed the Ukraine, new and free!

I gazed, and the ache in my heart ebbed away!

IVAN FRANKO