Levko Borovykovsky

Levko Borovykovsky ([Borovykovs'kyj] (22 February 1806 – 26 December 1889 in Myliushky village, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire) was a Ukrainian romantic poet, writer, translator, and folklorist.

After graduating in 1830 from Kharkiv University, Borovykovsky taught in a Kursk gymnasium and from 1839 in the Poltava Institute for Daughters of the Nobility.

[1] Of his numerous poems, the most notable is the ballad Marusia (1829),[2] an adaptation of Gottfried August Bürger's ballad Lenore (1796) and reminiscent of Vasilii Zhukovsky's Svetlana (1813).

Levko Borovykovsky successfully nationalised the Gothic-Romantic theme of Marusia, enriching its plot with elements of Ukrainian ethnography,[3] including folklore.

[4] During his lifetime only one collection of his writings was published, Baiky i Prybaiutky [Fables and Sayings] (1852), which brought him recognition as a storyteller.