Half a Breath: A Brief Anthology of Young Ukrainian Writers

Half a Breath is a brief anthology of young Ukrainian writers. It includes Lyubko Deresh, Irena Karpa, Kateryna Khinkulova, Svitlana Pyrkalo, and Ostap Slyvynsky. (It is indeed very brief, since there are many more interesting young writers in Ukraine today than these five, but our hope is that such anthologies will appear in the future as well.) The title comes from a poem by the great Ukrainian poet Hryhoriy Chubai (1949-1982):

He marks the wonder woven through

...not half a breath but still withdraws...

Her eyes confiding, wide, and blue

...and he with half a step to cross...

I will now present a poem by Ostap Slyvynsky from the anthology. It is called "Limbo" (and here is a Swedish translation of this poem) (UPD: I found recently a Russian translation of this poem as well: here):

The nocturnal hills were as crumpled bedsheets

In which birds had nested. Remember:

One can trust only chance discoveries,

I found the remnants of someone's coat

That had become hooked on an oar. The heap

Resembles only second-hand clothing and

Concentration camps, and here? A massive laundering

Arranged for us by the nightlong fog?

As though a hotel had been opened above the sleek

Smoothness of the lake -

Glowing lanterns illuminate the water through-and-through

A fire ladder leads down to the floor-bed sands below

One could spend the night airborne, if only the earth and

Its putrefying cemetery wouldn't persist in dreams!

With the whole bundle of insulted

Coats, abandoned shoes and deserted hats!

One must be cautious, so as not to slip on a dead shirt,

For example. - It's enough not to close the window to

Keep away moths that transport the virus of a different light.

The act of one of the dreams took place in a wardrobe

Which gives birth to the rival universe.

Translated by Lyuba Gawur