43.

Core Message: This is a raw, intimate graveside lament (verses 5–8 of song 19). The speaker stands before her beloved’s (“Милий”) high grave and pours out her heartbreak in direct address. She questions why fate—Mother’s reproach, God’s will—took him from her, describes her helpless tears, and begs him to wake up and rise, only to confront the brutal finality that the grave holds him fast in eternal sleep.

Main Themes:

• Irrevocable loss and the finality of death – The contrast between the living lover’s desperate longing and the dead man’s “sound sleep” under the “high grave” is the emotional core.
• Grief as physical and spiritual torment – The speaker’s heart is literally “crying” (“сплакала”) and her “little heart” is left without him (“Серденько без тебе”).
• Questioning fate / divine and maternal will – Why did God take the one she “faithfully loved”? Why the mother’s reproach? It blends folk fatalism with personal accusation.
• Enduring, one-sided love – Even in death the bond remains; she still speaks to him as if he could answer, showing love that outlives the body.

The piece belongs to the classic Ukrainian folk-lament tradition (плач, голосіння), where the survivor confronts the grave and pleads with the deceased. The notebook’s repeated “Непензьк” signature suggests these are either collected folk songs or the compiler’s own imitations in authentic style. The tone is intimate, almost conversational, turning private mourning into poetic song.