Шевченко

The most widely used and widespread definition of Taras Shevchenko is that he is a folk poet. We can definitely agree with him, as far as the blood and inseparable connection of the poet with the people is concerned. However, the term folk poet needs clarification. There were people who considered Shevchenko only a composer of songs in the folk spirit, who accidentally mastered the literary art and therefore became known as the continuer of the nameless folk singers. There were certain grounds for this undoubtedly one-sided view. Shevchenko grew up in the folk song element, although, it should be noted, he broke away from it very early. The poet knows and loves his native folklore excellently - this is evident not only from his poetic heritage, but also from his stories and diary written in Russian, as well as from the numerous testimonies of his contemporaries. In his creative practice, Shevchenko often resorted to the folk song form, sometimes preserving it entirely and even inserting entire lines and stanzas from the songs into his poems. We know the masterpieces of Shevchenko's "female" lyrics, i.e., the poem-songs written by a female or maiden name and testifying to the extraordinary sensitivity and tenderness of the reincarnated poet. Such poems among them as: "Oh, if I had shoes", "And I am rich", "I fell in love", "Mother gave birth to me", "I was going to the grove", of course, very much resemble folk songs in their structure, in their stylistic and linguistic structure, in their epithets, etc.

1963 is a jubilee year in the history of Bulgarian-Ukrainian literary ties. A century ago, Rayko Zhinzifov's book "New Bulgarian Collection" was published in Moscow and marked the beginning of the influence of the great Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko on the Bulgarian reader. Therefore, the appearance this year of Olena Shpileva's work "T. G. Shevchenko and Bulgarian Literature",1 in which this issue is examined in its hundred-year development, acquires special significance.