Hryhory Skovoroda is considered by many as the first great Slavic philosopher and poet. Written over a period stretching from the 1750s until 1785, his The Garden of Divine Songs is a unique collection of 30 poems, featuring a complex system of strophic structures and with only a few of the songs written in a traditional way. Skovoroda never repeats one and the same strophic structure; this being the case, his Garden of Divine Songs according to writer-scholar Valery Shevchuk functions as a "practical guide to the art of poetry," exemplifying all the meters and strophic patterns that were possible in Ukrainian poetry of that time. The poet makes masterful use of the accomplishments of academic poetry; the so-called "songs of the world" are the most prominent poems in this collection. These songs are an expression of Skovoroda's views in poetic form, and many ideas from The Garden of Divine Songs, such as the search for happiness in the world in song 21, would later form the basis for some of Skovoroda's philosophical treatises. Skovoroda's originality, and his ability to approach the most cardinal problems of human existence, stem from his capacity to combine known motifs, borrowed from literary sources such as classical texts, the Bible, and ancient Ukrainian poetic works, with his own system of thinking that focuses on his philosophy of the heart. The complete poems of Skovoroda are appearing in their entirety here in English for the first time, accompanied by a guest introduction by prominent Ukrainian writer Valery Shevchuk. This title has been realised by a team of the following dedicated professionals: Translated by Michael M. Naydan with an introduction by Valery Shevchuk Translations Edited by Olha Tytarenko Maxim Hodak - (Publisher), Max Mendor - (Director), Ksenia Papazova (Managing Editor). "
Author
Gregory Skovoroda also known as Grigory Skovoroda (Russian: Григорий Сковорода) and Hryhory Skovoroda (Ukrainian: Григорій Сковорода) was a Ukranian philosopher of Cossack origin who lived and worked in the Russian Empire. He was also a poet, teacher and composer of liturgical music. His significant influence on his contemporaries and succeeding generations and his way of life were universally regarded as Socratic, and he was often called a "Socrates." Skovoroda's work contributed to the cultural heritage of both modern-day Ukraine and Russia. Skovoroda wrote his texts in a mixture of three languages: Church Slavic, Ukrainian and Russian, with a large number of Western-Europeanisms, and quotations in Latin and Greek. Most of his preserved letters were written in Latin or Greek, but a small fraction used the variety of Russian of the educated class in Sloboda Ukraine, a result of long Russification but with many Ukrainianisms still evident. He received his education at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy in Kyiv (Ukraine). Haunted by worldly and spiritual powers, the philosopher led a life of an itinerant thinker-beggar. In his tracts and dialogs, biblical problems overlap with those examined earlier by Plato and the Stoics. Skovoroda's first book was issued after his death in 1798 in Saint Petersburg. Skovoroda's complete works were published for the first time in Saint Petersburg in 1861. Before this edition many of his works existed only in manuscript form. His literary work include a collection of 30 verses-songs composed from 1753 to 1785 and titled Sad bozhestvennykh pesnei (eng. Garden of Divine Songs), his collection of 30 fables composed between 1760 and 1770 and titled Basni Khar’kovskiia (eng. Kharkiv Fables), his dozen or so other verses-songs, his letters to friends written mostly in Latin, and his translations from Latin and Greek of Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC) Plutarch (46–119) and Sidronius De Hossche (1596 - 1653). His philosophical works consist of a treatise on Christian morality and 12 dialogues. His Ukrainian language profile can be found here Григорій Сковорода His Russian language profile can be found here Григорий Сковорода
