Literary classics aren’t always created by the greying elder statesmen and women of the writing world. You know the ones. They’re all wise and wrinkly and impassive, and woe betide the scholar who dares mount an honest critique of their bodies of work.

You see, literary classics are also written by upstart youngsters. These youngsters are full of vitality and creativity. They live fully awake and fully aware during these very difficult times. Nothing escapes their notice and they’re unafraid to share what they really think. They walk among us right now, breathing, smiling and crying, loving and hating, experiencing the full range of their humanity without apology.

This series presents names that you won’t find in textbooks or on Wikipedia, but these are the very youngsters who are creating modern Ukrainian literature right now. Trust us, you will want to check them out because it’s only a matter of time before they become household names. When we go back to these writers in two hundred years, we have no doubt that they’ll be mentioned in the same breath as luminaries such as Taras Shevchenko and Lesya Ukrainka.

Untitled

The violin case
black and tiny
reminds of a coffin
a blue amphibious baby
with a sob on its wee lips
the full moon in a shroud trizna
honey locust
poplar fluff through
a mirrored sword
cry with yours get drunk
into the danube – out of grief
like kittens in a pail
afraid of water
summer-ripening papirovka
doneshta kandil
the bottle of bromine
shackled with a ball and chain
the antenna from Donbass transmits
wounds and dust
at the radio-and tv-golgotha
you are grey spear grass

Без назви

Чорний футлярчик
для скрипки
схожий на гріб
синє маля іхтіандрів
у вустоньках схлип
повня у савані тризна
мед саранча
пух із тополі наскрізно
в свічадо меча
плач зі своїми напийся
в дунай – із журби
як кошенята в цеберці
бояться води
з літніх сортів паперівка
донешта кандиль
ядром до литки прикутий
брому бутиль
антена з Донбасу транслює
рани і пил
на радіо- й телеголгофі
ти – сивий ковил

Original poem by VALERIIA SERHIEIEVA
Translation by TETIANA ALEKSINA
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