To read / 25 March 2024

Facts & Land

Poetry


Facts

sleepwalkers and husks 
of mans’ ancient power 
fill border towns
with hundreds of healthy bodies
ready for war

a century-old fear crawls among them:
hot firearms squeezing against their cheeks 
leaving the shore from their mothers, scared wifes 
their oldest sons, their tiny daughters

in front of a sheet of paper
drawing our flag and stars in the sky
and in de-occupied yellow fields 

and they realize faith put upon men’s shoulders
will sprout boundlessly in every heart
multiplying by hundreds in the speeches of artists 
and restorers of our ‘tomorrow’

#

for in faith 
you find power

#

for in truth 
you find victory

#

Land

It burns, screams and bleeds
among panel ruins –
the country’s heart

humming, knocking
against blackened walls;
the wide fields are alone
as they lull the seeds
of its grief:

the agony
of unsprouted compassion. 


Translated into English by Alice Haida and Kateryna Kishchynska.

Author

Taras Ril

Taras Ril is an Ukrainian author. Here are some of his works:

Poetry collection Біла книжечка (The White Book, 2022)

Art book Рефлексія тилу (The Reflection of the Rear, co-author Lviv artist Oleg Kira)

Novel Скажи, скажи: ні! (2024)

Podcast Складочки на літературі (The Creases on Literature, in cooperation with Urban Space Radio)

Online album of poetry and prose

Related