Feb 25, 2016
Lesya Ukrainka’s 145th Birthday
This Doodle’s Key Themes
Happy 145th Birthday, Lesya Ukrainka!
Today's Doodle celebrates the life and art of Lesya Ukrainka, famed Ukrainian lyric poet. She is known for beautiful poems, stories, and plays about other-worldly forest creatures and nymphs. Guest artist Nata Metlukh, a Ukrainian illustrator and animator living and working in San Francisco, chose to depict a scene from Ukrainka's play Лісова пісня, or "The Forest Song" which she published in 1912, a year before her death.
The play tells the tragic tale of Mavka, a naïve forest rusalka or "water nymph" who falls in love with Lukash, a young man tied to the human world. Ukrainka's characters remind us of the magic and fragility of nature, and the complexity of the human spirit. "The Forest Song" has become a classic piece of Ukrainian literature which is still produced in film and on stage today.
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