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!

Let
Life go to hell
Drink hard
I’ll see how a ray ripens
Don’t keep
Spring screws off the tails
Of all tomcats, hard
to recall

Floats
So bright and dull
Lives
Before isn’t too late, from the boat
Escapes
In a trice to the bottom for pearls
What will others say? Doesn’t matter

Forget
Keep waves, don’t let ’em slip
No humans
Who keep the keys from every passway
Our path
Is tangled with lianas. The very same.
Since morn the beasts already
Roar

Нехай
Життя іде під три чорти
Бухай
Я подивлюсь як зріє промінь
Не май
Весна відкручує хвости
Усім котам, важким
на спомин

Пливе
Така яскрава і нудна
Живе
Поки не пізно із човна
Втече
Мигцем за перлами на дно
Що скажуть інші? Все одно

Забудь
Тримайся хвилі, не впусти
Не людь
Знає ключі від всіх ходів
Наш путь
Уплівсь ліаною. Той самою.
А звірі зранку вже
Ревуть

Original poem by SERHII ZUBATENKO
Translation by TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2018