Yuri Solomko
Territorial Defense Forces / AFU
Seven poems translated by me from Ukrainian for #7uapoems project.
7uapoems.substack.com/p/seven-ukra...
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#7uapoems, Christmas edition.
Poems by seven Ukrainian authors who currently serve in the military, translated by yours truly.
All -- about Christmas, or how you write about it during the war.
7uapoems.substack.com/p/seven-ukra...
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Issue 11 of #7uapoems project (translations of modern Ukrainian poetry, written by poets currently serving in the army).
7uapoems.substack.com/p/seven-ukra...
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Eva Tur
Armed Forces of Ukraine
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian
All seven poems translated by me last week, plus original texts and some links.
7uapoems.substack.com/p/seven-poem...
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I would have told you what it’s like to be a woman at war, if I were a woman at war. but no: at war I am a genderless creature. of course my female characteristics don’t go anywhere don’t vanish don’t get erased: breasts, waist, hips, even a vagina and a womb — I assure you, everything is on me and with me but it doesn’t stop me from being a genderless creature at war.
Eva Tur
Armed Forces of Ukraine
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian
full poem below 👇
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“beware of mines” sheepishly inform — in such faded, bloody letters that my eyes are hurting to stare — delicate white tables of the steppe.
Eva Tur
Armed Forces of Ukraine
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian
full poem below 👇
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he blessed me with such an admiration that I fit in the worlds of the living and the dead alike. all curses upon me are erased, all sins forgotten, all offenses forgiven, old wounds have healed, and new ones, and future ones.
Eva Tur
Armed Forces of Ukraine
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian
full poem below 👇
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how many feelings are kept in railroad tracks asphalt roads unseen pandora’s boxes don’t touch them don’t touch or else my sadness will swallow this world and you
Eva Tur
Armed Forces of Ukraine
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian
full poem below 👇
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“revenge is too small a word for what must be done to the enemy, — continues his thought my closest friend. — revenge has an end, you did it — you burned — you calmed down, but our story will have no end, not as long as we are alive. as our path is virtually never-ending: our goal is not an eye for an eye, not a tooth for a tooth, not a hand for a hand, not a leg for a leg, not a life for a life.”
Eva Tur
Armed Forces of Ukraine
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian
full poem below 👇
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and yet you make yourself bleed and write with that blood on yourself your empty self words starting with "r": russia russian russians
Eva Tur
Armed Forces of Ukraine
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian
full poem below 👇
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the bird in a field on a lonely branch, chirping sonorously on the thin grass. time has stopped to listen. but cover me with your wing give me the cover of your wing. until the grass is rustled by the wind. the bird is rustled by the wind. and I am.
Eva Tur
Armed Forces of Ukraine
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian
full poem below 👇
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A screenshot of 7uapoems.substack.com new entry. Link in the next post.
A new installment of #7uapoems (modern Ukrainian poetry by poets currently serving in the army, translated by yours truly).
Seven poems by Vasyl Dukhnovskii. Link below.
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and their chatter is like winter rain as if it will freeze soon as if one breath is enough to end everything as if there are so few words and every word is frail
Vasyl (Vasek) Dukhnovsky
25th Separate Rifle Battalion
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian
full poem below 👇
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the best description of war is neither a book nor a movie but a computer game worms an outside observer might think the game is pure madness where everything is ruled by chance but an experienced gamer knows also in this game you can unleash on the enemy mined sheep suppress the enemy with a holy grenade and (to liquidate masses of enemy manpower) smash the ground with a giant stone donkey also when a worm dies it leaves behind a small funny grave if even that
Vasily (Vasek) Dukhnovsky
25th Separate Rifle Battalion
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian
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and now in my lungs there is a sea of oil my heart is a coal pump that runs gasoline in two circles and all the fishes are dead
Vasily (Vasek) Dukhnovsky
25th Separate Rifle Battalion
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian
full poem below 👇
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she had very few things with her a wallet documents a small bag with a towel and a toothbrush a change of underwear her medicine a photo of her granddaughter (to not forget her face) a small mirror (to not forget her own) and a jar of soil
Vasily (Vasek) Dukhnovsky
25th Separate Rifle Battalion
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian
full poem below 👇
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the earth vanishes and its fruits vanish paper vanishes and so the words vanish a person vanishes a person vanishes without a sound
Vasily (Vasek) Dukhnovsky
25th Separate Rifle Battalion
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian
full poem below 👇
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and so we live we are the leaves of an apple tree that grew through the fence on one side, the fruits are for the living on the other, for the dead in one hand, well-earned kisses in the other, mournful songs
Vasily (Vasek) Dukhnovsky
25th Separate Rifle Battalion
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian
full poem below 👇
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it was never so dark in Kyiv before he says to his little sister his feet dangling over the edge of a five-story building roof there were never so many stars before all the lights of the city have been replaced by the light of his cigarette who smokes at thirteen? children of war she says the war started before I was born the war continued when I learned to speak when I went to school when I fell in love for the first time but it wasn't so fucked up then who swears like that at eight? children of war
the city beneath their feet is dark yet alive life hides underground it pulses in tunnels it gathers in cellars sometimes it even laughs Kyiv tells jokes about war the war with the pechenegs the war with the mongols the war with the russians the war with the germans the war with the russians the war with the russians one more fucking war with the russians who jokes like that at thousand and five hundreds? who jokes this way?
Vasily (Vasek) Dukhnovsky
25th Separate Rifle Battalion
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian
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Screenshot of the Substack page
Seven poems by Ukrainian poet and soldier Serhii Rubnikovych, translated by me.
(Part of #7uapoems project, please subscribe!)
7uapoems.substack.com/p/seven-poem...
#ukrainian #poetry
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the indulgence a three-hour nap guarded by a brother in arms the nap you cling to with your hands feet eyelids clamping in your fingers the last of the sleepy warmth of this drenched forest it slips out like a titmouse straight to the sky full of lead birds with heat sights a three-hour nap to the rumbling of rusty beaks to the gnashing of sharpened claws to the pounding of breaking eggs usually high-explosive fragmentation ones how can I break free from this bird vocabulary ornithological metaphors considering my military specialty a three-hour nap among mice brood in the comfort of the cover of thin acacia logs it is important to not even think that it won't save you in any case even from the rain the regular one the wet one the one after which you'll hardly dry out in three hours of nap
it is important to not think about bad things it is important to get some warmth it is important to knock off the edge of sleep with a three-hour nap don't torture yourself with a poem -rereading- a clumsy one which nevertheless will require rewriting editing as even war doesn't absolve you from the responsibility to write well as even poetry is not an indulgence from war
Serhii Rubnikovych, call sign ″Rubik″
112 brigade of Territorial Defense
#7uapoems
#ukrainian #poetry
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the floes sooner or later the winter will come for everybody with overused images predictable metaphors with white sheets on top of camouflage netting or hospital gurneys as the night is cold but the lamp gives smoke and whatever heat you have you lose while opening for air also mysteriously gone torn from the context are the personages of mice that we catch and drop in a hole behind the protective wall it is like a plot hole and nearby, there are traces of editing my brother says it's a fox as the night is cold and the floes of thoughts are grinding against each other you can't lift them you can't move
wrap your feet neck lower back put your palms under the vest move around if you can make the blood flow in your limbs a bit warmer my creative courses advice for novices recently drafted into the literary field as the night is cold like the stiff corpses of mice brought in teeth to children in a den as in the morning the fox with a sun tail comes and looks with sad eyes so yellow you want to hug with your last warmth the entire autumn even though you know it won't help the winter will come for all and everybody though now it will come one moment later is it not a motivation
Serhii Rubnikovych, call sign ″Rubik″
112 brigade of Territorial Defense
#7uapoems
#ukrainian #poetry
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forgiveness since everybody's tired this poem won't be about the war it will be about forgiveness and the love for thy neighbor thus, with a loving heart and with no alternative I forgive my neighbors mice field ones and forest ones long-tailed and quick-pawed I forgive them for nibbled Snickers in my backpack and the backpack itself chewed through I forgive I forgive the rustling behind the plastic wrap right above my head and the mice reconnaissance group entering my sleeping bag I forgive their mating dances on my chest and their surprised gazes at a woken up human why the hell do you spoil our courtship?
I forgive the dirt behind my collar and their droppings in my pockets the audacity of climbing my face and the broken cable of a Starlink I forgive even the snapping of branches in the autumn forest at night twenty meters from the outputs when the thermal sight is out of power and you become an ear sensitive trembling those long-nosed sneaks I forgive for everything but the last pack of blue Camel chewed through I planned it to help me to hold at least one more day and now no forgiveness no mercy to those who never gives you mercy only mice-accre only mice-ihad only mice-cide it turns out I lied this poem is too about the war
Serhii Rubnikovych, call sign ″Rubik″
112 brigade of Territorial Defense
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian
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the question an elderly grey-whiskered cat who had left his home to die in peace ran into our position stormed us at dawn in full accordance with CQB carrying ticks on himself like grenades looks at the canned meat turns his nose like guys it's a forest can I have fresh meat he curls on a box of ammo doesn't lick his white paws being white-pawed is embarrassing doesn't purr when scratched behind the ear doesn't play with his tail tired to the brim like a true infantryman
doesn't mind explosions doesn't flinch from the news doesn't count on his fingers the number of mice caught the dugout has four corners every corner has a cat in front of every cat there are three more cats but the question is not how many cats there are and even not how many lives they have in total the question is why the fuck nobody is firing to cover the approaches
Serhii Rubnikovych, call sign ″Rubik″
112 brigade of Territorial Defense
#7uapoems
#poetry #ukrainian #cats
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Serhii Rubnikovych, call sign ″Rubik″
112 brigade of Territorial Defense
#7uapoems
#ukrainian #poetry
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Serhii Rubnikovych, call sign ″Rubik″
112 brigade of Territorial Defense
#7uapoems
#ukrainian #poetry
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