Does anyone still think
that we are to blame?
Russia is killing us
because it forbids us
to fight against it.

Someone will lie down under the thief.
“Big deal,” he’ll say, —
“What’s the difference?
We’d switch to Russian.
I’ll speak it myself.
I’d replace Ukrainian
with their song.
Servant or slave,
even with a bowed brow,
but I’ll live.”

It came to “liberate.”
To destroy and to seize.
Such is its love
for orphans and widows.