Career
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. In 1852 he became a gymnasium inspector in Poltava gubernia and retired a few years later. Of his numerous poems, the most notable is the ballad "Marusia" (1829), a free reworking of Vasilii Zhukovsky"s "Svetlana." 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.
He also translated the poetry of Horace, Aleksandr Pushkin, and Adam Mickiewicz, compiled a Ukrainian dictionary, and collected Ukrainian folklore.
Borovykovsky"s collected works—Tvory (Works, 1957) and Povne zibrannia tvoriv (Complete Collected Works, 1967)—were published in Kyiv.