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!

if a lion or a cougar
start hunting you
don’t worry, don’t fight
don’t be afraid of
it makes sense to keep to one side
stray dogs and rats.
the predators with appetite
for you
are hardly
carnivorous.

якщо лев чи пума
почнуть полювання на тебе
не страшно, не бийся
не бійся
варто обабіч триматись
бродячих собак і щурів.
хижаки з апетитом
на тебе
навряд чи
м’ясоїди.

Original poem by SERHII NAUMENKO
Translation by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2020