I’ve just come across this poem by Oleksandr Oles, written in 1931 as Ukrainians began to see the full horror of the collectivisation which led to what we now call the Holodomor: Stalin’s man-made famine. It seems apt to our present discontents, no?
When Ukraine fought the torturers
Giving life and death for its right to live,
Asking only for compassion,
Europe stayed silent.
When Ukraine lost blood and tears
In an unequal struggle,
Looking friendly assistance,
Europe stayed silent.
When Ukraine, maimed, laboured for the master,
Dragging an iron yoke across the earth,
When even the mute mountains moved,
Europe stayed silent.
When Ukraine was dying,
Having reaped a bloody harvest for the torturer,
Too hungry even to speak,
Europe stayed silent.
When Ukraine cursed its life
And become a mass grave,
When the devil himself wept,
Europe stayed silent.
I’ve just come across this poem by Oleksandr Oles, written in 1931 as Ukrainians began to see the full horror of the collectivisation which led to what we now call the Holodomor: Stalin’s man-made famine. It seems apt to our present discontents, no?
When Ukraine fought the torturers
Giving life and death for its right to live,
Asking only for compassion,
Europe stayed silent.
When Ukraine lost blood and tears
In an unequal struggle,
Looking friendly assistance,
Europe stayed silent.
When Ukraine, maimed, laboured for the master,
Dragging an iron yoke across the earth,
When even the mute mountains moved,
Europe stayed silent.
When Ukraine was dying,
Having reaped a bloody harvest for the torturer,
Too hungry even to speak,
Europe stayed silent.
When Ukraine cursed its life
And become a mass grave,
When the devil himself wept,
Europe stayed silent.