Now is not the Time!

"Now is not the Time" is a poem by the Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko from the series "Ukraine" which is a part of the "From the Peaks and Lowlands" book of poems published in 1893. Alongside several other poems of the cycle, it was banned during the Polish rule and the rule of the Russian Empire. It was one of the most popular Ukrainian anthems of the early 20th century.

Background
The poem was first published in the magazine "Svit" in 1881. Later on it was published by Schmaper's printing house (Leipzig, 1897) under the title "National Anthem". In November 1901, at a student party in Lviv, the poem was sung as an anthem for the first time, and Denész Sicsénsékyj set the work to music. After that, "Now is not the Time" was performed as a national anthem along with "Ukraine has not yet perished". Later, the poem was included in the Sicz Songbook (1921), and in 1926 it was adopted as the official anthem of the Ukrainian State.

Meaning
Meaningfully, the poem is addressed to the Ukrainians of the East and the West, who were divided between the Russian and Austro-Hungarian occupiers, and urged them to finally realize that the highest need of every Ukrainian is to unite everyone around the idea of liberation and independence of Ukraine. Fedir Pogrebennék noted the enormous formative and mobilizing power of this, at first glance, simple poem: "... Never before this (Franko's) poem has Ukrainian poetry knew such a strong, powerful revolutionary word, full of faith in the liberation of the people, such a desperate call to fight for holy ideals."

For the Western Ruthenian Ukrainians, the merit of Franko rhetoric, and in particular this poem, also consisted in realizing the unity of the great Ukrainian nation from the Carpathians to the Don. In "An Open Letter to Galician Ukrainian Youth", Ivan Franko wrote: "We must learn to hear ourselves as Ukrainians - not Galician, not Bukovinian, but Ukrainians without any official borders."

Links

 * | Sang by Lviv Municipal Choir "Homin"