Today is a day for lament. Perhaps it’s appropriate that it comes on the first Tuesday in Lent.
I’m lost for words. There are those there who know so much more about its significance. And of course, so much more about its agony. But I will point to two things that have resulted from much talking and sharing with friends in recent days.
Here is a piece I was asked to write for Seen and Unseen to mark this gruesome date. It’s not perfect by any means, and Ukrainian friends will undoubtedly find some things to question. But it is an attempt to give some historical perspective to this horror. It was published last Thursday:
Artur Dron’ is a veteran of this war. And has found his words by writing verse. These have been beautifully translated by Yuliya Musakovska and published in UK in 2024 under the title WE WERE HERE.
So I have read 3 of the poems that struck me in the solar plexus. The whole book did but these will have to represent for now. Buy the book. It’s astonishing.
I wanted to find something appropriate to accompany them. This seemed perfect, from Ukrainian Canadian composer Roman Hurko: his Requiem for the Victims of Chornobyl.
