Friends!

Today is the birthday of outstanding Ukrainian poetess LesyaUkrainka! 146 years ago, she was born in Zvyagel. In honor of this important date, I want to tell you some interesting facts about her, you might not know.

I think it is no secret that LesyaUkrainka is a nickname. The real name of the poet is Larissa Kosach. At home, she was called Lesya, Zeyeya and Mysholosiya. Mysholosiya isa combination of the names Mysha and Lesia, brother and sister Kosach. According to legend, alias "Ukrainian" Larissa borrowed from her uncle Michael Dragomanov, that way he signed his articles. He is extremely influenced her life views.

Lesya was a very intelligent girl, she knew several foreign languages ​​and at the age of 5 learned to play the piano, at eight - began to write poetry. When she was 9, she contracted tuberculosis of the bones, so has been forced to lie down for months. Even in this state, she beat hear leg, as if playing the piano. To write and publish Lesya began just 12 years! Her early works include Ukrainian translation of "Evenings on a Farm" by Nikolai Gogol, which she made in collaboration with his brother.

LesyaUkrainka had very strong in spirit. There are stories that once dad gave her a little goat. Once it fled into the woods, where it wastored by the wolves. Lesya was extremly upset when she learned about it, but said that would have crushed the wolf with his bare hands, so he does not hurt anyone weaker.

Ukrainka knew how to love. Some consider her first love was a poet-translator Maxim Slavinsky. When they met, she was only 15, her lover - 18. They loved the same –to write. Together they translated works by Heine. To SlavinskyLesya devoted love poetry masterpieces such as "Lit my heart," "Midsummer Night's Dream," "I wanted to be a song."

Some believe that the LesyaUkrainkawas in love with Olga Kobylianska - known Ukrainian writer. All through Lesya’s correspondence where she often called Kobylianskawith caressing words, such as "htosichka." But it was just friendship.

Instead, true love of LesyaUkrainka was Sergei Merzhynsky, revolutionary. He was sick with tuberculosis, and met her in Yalta in 1897, during the treatment. It was not love from the first sight, but as time passed they understood each other like nobody else. He called the poet "Lesya-Larochka." Beloved died on the hands of his second half - from pulmonary tuberculosis. She devoted him a poem - "Obsessed." Six years after the death Merzhynsky, when she wasthirty-six years old, she met with the studentClement Kvitka. He loved Ukrainian, was a collector of folk songs. They were so different, but decided to get married, though the family was againstit. It was Clement, whom she affectionately called Klonya, who took care of her until her death. All the money they spent on Lesya’streatment. But the vain and the disease eventually won. Lesia died in 1913 in Georgia, and is buried it in Kiev, Baikove cemetery.

Friends, we have to remember such magnificent people like LesyaUkrainka, because they are not our past, they are the pillar on which emerges the future of our nation. Eternal honor!