Je voudrais être une chanson

I would like to be a song

Larissa Kossatch chooses as a pseudonym the very name of her people (the strictly phonetic transcription is Oukraïnka). She was called the “Ukrainian Madonna”. She died very young of tuberculosis. Very cultured, she knew a dozen languages and translated Heine, Musset, Hugo and others into Ukrainian. While remaining faithful to oral tradition and folklore, she did not fail to be influenced by romantic poetry.

This painting is inspired by one of his poems.

This painting was painted with the support ofPrebocage Intercomand ofReality Art Current.

It was presented during the "Stop" exhibition in favor of Ukraine in March 2022 at the Hôtel du Doyen in Bayeux.

Performance by Lena h. Coms on a canvas offered by Prébocage-Intercom with the support ofReality Arts to make the canvasI would like to be a song (Ukrainian Madonna), movie byPilot Motiv(Jean-Marc Léger) during the first Caumont-sur-Aure festival in September 2021.

Exhibition-sale "Stop!" from March 5 to 13, 2022 at the Hôtel du Doyen in Bayeux

bringing together the artists Pierre Auvray, Jacques Bacheley, Caty Banneville, Régis Bodrug, Fred Bonnin, Alain Chevalier, Anne Deshaies, Paul Gros, Patrick Thomé, Guillaume Landemaine, David Lemaresquier, Jean-Marc Léger, Loïc le.Guillou, Léna-H. coms, Jean-Pierre Lépy, Linaupe Carter, Michal Litwinowicz, Ingrid Matysiak, Nico, Bernard Louvel, Pénélope, Françoise Philippe, Nicole Psuj, Claude PY, Stéphane Quoniam, Patrick Séron, Lydia Steciuk

Lessia Ukrainka, la madonne ukrainienne (Je voudrais être une chanson), acrylique sur toile, 195x130cm, 2021.

Lessia Ukrainka, the Ukrainian Madonna (I wish I were a song), acrylic on canvas, 195x130cm, 2021.

I would like to be a song
In this clear moment of fortune,
To fly like a butterfly,
Like the wind chasing the moon.

I would fly to the stars,
Haunted by sonorous melodies,
Then I would go on the waves without a veil
Modulate new chords.

And we would see how they exhale
My dreams and my secret joys,
Brighter than the stars,
More powerful than a broken sea.

When I happened to fall
In the distant days of my childhood,
Though goaded with pain

I got up without complaining.

" You are hurt ? I was asked,
But I never confessed...
Being a very proud kid,
In order not to cry I laughed.

Now that in cruel farce
The drama will end for me,
And that already could spring
The wickedest epigrams,

Laughter, this ferocious weapon,
I dread to serve myself,
And, well buried my pride,
I sob not to laugh.1

1897

1 Text translated from Ukrainian and found on Henri Abril's website:http://henri-abril.fr/lessia-ukrainka-poesie-ukraine