A commandment
Vasyl Sagaydak 1990
Never let a barbarian on your doorstep, my son –
No matter if he comes with war or with sweet vows.
He will take your house, your bed, and your wife,
And will burn all your books at maidan.
He will bury your language in vocabularies and graves,
And everything you have right now, my son,
He will reweave thread by thread, rewrite word by word,
Rebuild stone by stone, and claim as his own.
*Maidan is a town square. The word originated in the Persian language and came to Ukraine from the Crimean Tatar language.
Oleksandr Oles (1878–1944) – a Ukrainian writer, poet, translator, and activist. Due to persecution for his pro-Ukrainian views, he was forced into immigration to Vienna. There, he headed the Union of Ukrainian Journalists and edited the Ukrainian magazine. His son, Oleh Olzhych, was a Ukrainian poet and political activist who returned to Ukraine and became head of the cultural branch of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. For his pro-Ukrainian position, he was arrested, tortured, and killed in 1944.
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