WORDS LIVE ON // Viktoriia Amelina

Down through the ages, Russia has tried to kill the Ukrainian identity. They have done everything to present Ukraine as the rural outskirts of the ‘great, educated and advanced’ Russian empire. But the ones who proclaimed themselves enlighteners were merely butchers, murderers. They did everything they could to erase Ukrainian culture, traditions, and even the Ukrainian language itself.

And they are still doing this, even now, literally. During the last eleven years of war, Russia has killed hundreds of people of literature. Writers, poets, translators, editors, publishers and librarians. Ukrainian men and women. As you read these words, others are left to disappear in an unread draft forever.

There is a project called ‘Nedopysani‘ (‘Unfinished‘ in English). It’s a memorial site for people of literature who will never be able to put that final dot in their notebook, who will never be able to take into their hands their first published book. And so, this is our hard and painful mission. This is what we must do for them. It is inevitable.

Today, we present the next instalment of our translation series, ‘Words Live On’. We have done our best, and we hope that it will speak to our Dear Readers in a way that cold, clinical war statistics cannot.

Glory to Ukraine! To our heroes — glory!

Do you see the woman with her arm stretched back?
Like she is pulling a suitcase or leading someone behind her
The invisible suitcase is heavy because the woman walks slowly
Such women are called insane by society

She had nothing left to take from her burned down house
And who’d lived with her there, now nobody knows
But they follow her and the youngest one cannot keep up
And then the woman stops, she is always waiting for him

Бачиш жінку з простягнутою назад рукою?
Вона ніби тягне валізу або веде когось за собою
Невидима валіза важка, бо жінка іде повільно
Такі жінки загалом називаються божевільні

Їй нічого було брати з її згорілого дому
І хто там із нею жив, невідомо тепер нікому
Але вони йдуть за нею і молодший все не встигає
І жінка тоді зупиняється: вона завжди на нього чекає

Original poem by VIKTORIIA AMELINA
Translation by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2023

9 thoughts on “WORDS LIVE ON // Viktoriia Amelina”

  1. This is heart breaking to read and comprehend. I imagine it is heart shattering for those who write what they see, hear, and feel. This is an unimaginable horror for Ukraine but it is a foretelling of Europe’s fate if Ukraine is allowed to succumb to the unfathomable iniquity they face.

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  3. I’m I guess 3rd generation…I know my mom’s parents came to Canada after the Russian Revolution (my gege/grandfather first to pier 17 in Halifax, by baba after)……this is nothing but horrible, nations around the world talking, maybe helping out a bit, but not I guess not wanting to poke the Russian bear, but f#ck them, Russia invaded like Germany invading Poland, and how’d that turn out…

    a lot of Ukrainian moms/wives with their children are here now….which has to be horrible…a picture I have in my head is of someone I watched in a movie called the Spirit of the Marathon 2, one of the featured athletes was Olympic runner, Ukrainian Vasyl Matvichuk…there’s a video of him I think I saw on YouTube or somewhere else of him helping children and women on buses to get them out of the country with a lot of tears……all the nations of NATO should stand in Ukraine and tell Russia, and Trump, NO!

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