poets-from-ukraine

"⁃ У понеділок? — лінькувато перепитав Цвичок. - Понеділок, ґаздику, тяжкий день. Хоч у узимі, хоч уліті."

"Сінокосна трава у корінні іще жива, але стеблами мертва не-боли-голова. Тратить кров зеленаву, не знає мовчати ні мовити. Позбуваючись мови, прибувають на силі слова.."

"Що змінилося, сестро? Куля повітряна стала свинцевою. Метафора – мертвою."

"Ось Господь. Він убитий лежить у труні. Воскресіння злетіло, здається, із графіка. Він був волонтером в останній найгіршій війні."

"Democracy is not a gift but a prize that has to be won over and over again, and it is worth fighting for."

"I talk about the things that grandparents ran away from, the things that wouldn't have let them survive and become actual grandparents had they decided not to suffer, leave everything they loved behind—and flee."

"Halyna Kruk has found a language to ingest violence and horror — blunt and eloquent, witty and aphoristic, her language is layered and electric as it takes on the daily dislocations of Russia’s barbaric war on Ukraine. Idiosyncratic and universal, these poems bring us necessary news as only poetry can."

"We stopped digging deep long ago in this uncertain field of ours-yours because all kinds of junk can turn up: human bones, horses’ heads, unexploded mines"

"The death of these people will leave a gaping wound in our souls, in our culture, science, economy, industry and society. This is not a metaphor; I don’t know of any poetry that can heal this wound"

"War shortens the distance from person to person, from birth to death."

"Lesya Ukrainka set Ukrainian culture free from the image of provinciality imposed on it by discourse of the Russian Empire around the turn of the 20th century."

"He who has not lived in the midst of a storm does not know the value of strength"

"Ні, я хочу крізь сльози сміятись, Серед лиха співати пісні, Без надії таки сподіватись, Жити хочу! Геть, думи сумні!"

"Ні! Я жива! Я буду вічно жити! Я в серці маю те, що не вмирає."

"А ви думали, що Україна так просто. Україна – це супер. Україна – це ексклюзив. По ній пройшли всі катки історії. На ній відпрацьовані всі види випробувань. Вона загартована найвищим гартом. В умовах сучасного світу їй немає ціни."

"Людям не те що позакладало вуха – людям позакладало душі."

"Нації вмирають не від інфаркту. Спочатку їм відбирає мову."

"Жах не в тому, що щось змінеться, - жах у тому, що все може залишитися так само."

"...Marjana Savka’s poems ― lyrical, exuberant, but underwritten by a tough-minded skepticism... sum up this middle generation’s difficult and lasting achievement.”"

"The time has come and fall has come so pretty... The yellow leaves are flying over the city... I am in love with you. Your golden hair is flying so clear in the air. I am in love with fall, which came with rain… It brought the morning mists… The days are waned... I know the wintry wind will break her gown. I say to fall: come back, don’t let me down. The yellow leaves are whirling in the city. I’ve met my love too late, it is a pity. At last we are together and forever. I know well that better late than never. The time has come and fall has come so pretty... The yellow leaves as dreams adorned the city... I am in love with you. Your golden hair is flying as a cobweb in the air..."

"My darling, I will try to guess What do you want or wish. I know you prefer to dream About a Gold Fish. But I believe that you will find The famous and gold key. So, you will open the door. You saw it in your dreams. I know: you shall overcome All troubles in your way. But do remember every time About “must” and “may”."

"Якби я був націоналістом, то відповів би тобі, — кажеш повільно й виразно, аж занадто повільно, занадто виразно. — Але який з мене націоналіст, коли я отут з тобою п'ю пиво?"

"Головне переселити чукчів в Араратську долину, а молдаван на Землю Франца-Йосифа, хоч природніше на ній почувалися б австрійці."

"Це підкорення світу, це комунізм, це безсмертя мумій у мавзолеях. Це сяйво сонць і правителів. Це вежа, яку будують десять тисяч років. Це сила армій, це спалення відьом, це рух народів, постійний та об'єднавчий. Це велике злягання народів, це поглинання менших більшими, слабших сильнішими."

"На чолі новоспечених, пардон, незалежних урядів виникнуть апробовані нами і нами ж призначені виконавці Хаос породжуватиме хаос. Там, де це неможливо, до влади прийдуть просто виб(…)ки. Або політичні проститутки, Володимире Іллічу."

"Ми навчимо їх перемагати у референдумах. Бо референдум — це Ідеальний спосіб маніпулювати людьми, залишаючи в них ілюзію, нібито вони самі вирішують свою долю."

"Армія вже не здатна виконувати накази пращурів: вона симулює. Вона бридиться вбивати. Це вже не армія — це велике збіговисько педерастів і пацифістів, що, зрештою, одне й те ж."

"Ви ж знаєте, що в нас тепер вільне виявлення сатиричних думок. Як кажуть, демократія — прекрасна річ, але нічого гіршого людство вигадати не могло."

"Бути п'яним у Москві — це все одно, що мати волосся досить поширеного кольору. Хіба можна докоряти людині за колір її волосся? Мабуть, ні."

"До речі, наша солов'їна мова посідає друге у світі місце за милозвучністю."

"When I am dead, bury me"

"Barefoot girl-child weeping at her grandma's door, her disquiet deep: аutumn's limping in. No beauty in a cold heart... the cock won't crow again. "Who are you sorry for, so?" "Everyone," she says."

"A Jew brought up among Germans may assume German custom, German words. He may be wholly imbued with that German fluid but the nucleus of his spiritual structure will always remain Jewish, because his blood, his body, his physical-racial type are Jewish. ... It is impossible for a man to become assimilated with people whose blood is different from his own. In order to become assimilated, he must change his body, he must become one of them, in blood. ... There can be no assimilation as long as there is no mixed marriage. ... An increase in the number of mixed marriages is the only sure and infallible means for the destruction of nationality as such. ... A preservation of national integrity is impossible except by a preservation of racial purity, and for that purpose we are in need of a territory of our own where our people will constitute the overwhelming majority."

"Eliminate the Diaspora, or the Diaspora will surely eliminate you."

"We cannot offer any adequate compensation to the Palestinian Arabs in return for Palestine. And therefore, there is no likelihood of any voluntary agreement being reached. So that all those who regard such an agreement as a condition sine qua non for Zionism may as well say "non" and withdraw from Zionism. Zionist colonisation must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population. Which means that it can proceed and develop only under the protection of a power that is independent of the native population - behind an iron wall, which the native population cannot breach. That is our Arab policy; not what it should be, but what it actually is, whether we admit it or not."

"Two brief remarks: In the first place, if anyone objects that this point of view is immoral, I answer: It is not true; either Zionism is moral and just or it is immoral and unjust. But that is a question that we should have settled before we became Zionists. Actually we have settled that question, and in the affirmative. We hold that Zionism is moral and just. And since it is moral and just, justice must be done, no matter whether Joseph or Simon or Ivan or Achmet agree with it or not."

"My readers have a general idea of the history of colonisation in other countries. I suggest that they consider all the precedents with which they are acquainted, and see whether there is one solitary instance of any colonisation being carried on with the consent of the native population. There is no such precedent. The native populations, civilised or uncivilised, have always stubbornly resisted the colonists, irrespective of whether they were civilised or savage."

"Our starting point is to take the typical Yid of today and to imagine his diametrical opposite … because the Yid is ugly, sickly, and lacks decorum, we shall endow the ideal image of the Hebrew with masculine beauty. The Yid is trodden upon and easily frightened and, therefore, the Hebrew ought to be proud and independent. The Yid is despised by all and, therefore, the Hebrew ought to charm all. The Yid has accepted submission and, therefore, the Hebrew ought to learn how to command. The Yid wants to conceal his identity from strangers and, therefore, the Hebrew should look the world straight in the eye and declare: "I am a Hebrew!""

"[It is the] iron law of every colonizing movement, a law which knows of no exceptions, a law which existed in all times and under all circumstances. If you wish to colonize a land in which people are already living, you must provide a garrison on your behalf. Or else – or else, give up your colonization, for without an armed force which will render physically impossible any attempts to destroy or prevent this colonization, colonization is impossible, not “difficult”, not “dangerous” but IMPOSSIBLE! … Zionism is a colonizing adventure and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed force. It is important to build, it is important to speak Hebrew, but, unfortunately, it is even more important to be able to shoot – or else I am through with playing at colonialization."

"The Jews might become the dynamite that will blow up the British Empire."

"Our habit of constantly and zealously answering to any rabble has already done us a lot of harm and will do much more. … We do not have to apologize for anything. We are a people as all other peoples; we do not have any intentions to be better than the rest. As one of the first conditions for equality we demand the right to have our own villains, exactly as other people have them. … We do not have to account to anybody, we are not to sit for anybody's examination and nobody is old enough to call on us to answer. We came before them and will leave after them. We are what we are, we are good for ourselves, we will not change, nor do we want to."