Volodymyr Tymchuk: Translated by Olena O’Lear

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Debaltseve Prayer

Half of the “Es Pee Gee” and a “fly” — against many a tank!
On the Debaltseve scaffold — in their half-height, the top rank…!
Lord, in the snow-swept fields, how many have found their last bed!
Lord, how much tears the earth for her beloveds has shed!
Lord, … unloved, and our uncared for son!
Lord, I’m alone like you in this world in the long run!
Lord, let me make it alright and feel comforted being old!
… Half of the “Es Pee Gee” and the blood on the snow are cold…

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Дебальцевська молитва

~ Володимир Тимчук

Пів «ес-пе-ге» і «муха» супроти танкових рот!
Крайні у пів росту — на дебальцевський ешафот!..
Господи, скільки лишилося у заметених снігом полях!
Господи, скільки вже виплакала за коханими грішна земля!
Господи, … недоцілована і недопещений син!
Господи, зрештою я, як і Ти, в цьому світі — один!
Господи, дай все виправити, дай утішатись в літах!
…Пів «ес-пе-ге» і «муха», і кров холодіє в снігах…

Переяславська сотня
11.V.2018

* Debaltseve — a town in Ukraine. The Battle of Debaltseve — The key battle in the Russian-Ukrainian war in January-February 2015 before the Minsk II ceasefire.
*Half of the “Es Pee Gee” — Fifty percent of the surviving SPG -9 Kopyo (Spear).

*“Fly” — The RPG-18 Mukha.
*The top rank — The echelon of defense, with no one behind them. *In their half-height — Running under fire.

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Volodymyr Tymchuk, born in Zakarpattia in 1979, is a Ukrainian writer and lieutenant colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who participated in the Russian-Ukrainian war. He is also a senior teacher at the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Army Academy and a Candidate in Technical Sciences. He is the author of “To Burn and Fire, to Outlive and Overcome!” (2016), “Verlaine and Song” (2017), “Opus of Pace” (2018), “Azov … Crossed” (2020), and other books, and manager of the “World Poetry Day For Ukraine” project in 2022. He has been awarded the Bohdan Khmelnytskyi Prize for the best coverage of military themes in literature and art, the Markiyan Shashkevych Regional Prize in the poetry category, and other literary awards.

Olena Brosalina (pen-name, Olena O’Lear) is a Ukrainian poet, translator, literary critic, and editor, Ph.D. Born in Kyiv in 1976, she is the author of two poetry collections: My Hand Is on the Headboard… (1997) and Pilgrims’ Songs (2006). She works as a translator in Astrolabe Publishing and translates mainly from English. She translated The Hobbit and other works by J. R. R. Tolkien, fairy tales by Beatrix Potter, prose works of Joseph Conrad, William Butler Yeats, and Beowulf. She has been awarded the Hryhorii Kochur (2012) and Maksym Rylskyi (2022) literary prizes and others.

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