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Yaryna Chornohuz’s stunning new book, Nobody’s Saffron —her second to be translated into English by Amelia Glaser—invites readers to overhear the poet grappling with an almost unbearable challenge: how to stay human under extreme circumstances few of us can imagine. “So here is humanity’s paradox: / that some stand still before / another life in another’s body, / ready at any moment to give their life.” Active military since before Russia’s full-scale war began, first as a medic, later as a drone operator, Chornohuz writes for her comrades in arms, dead and living. But she also writes of her daughter in Kyiv, whose future she is defending: “when it comes time to part with my daughter /(the moment of the next return to the front), / I dream of a religion with parables and symbols / to take the pain out of parting.” Writing from the front lines, Chornohuz’s poetry can be read as missives to those who have not experienced war close up, and to those future generations who, she hopes, will know a sovereign thriving Ukraine.
Yaryna Chornohuz’s stunning new book, Nobody’s Saffron —her second to be translated into English by Amelia Glaser—invites readers to overhear the poet grappling with an almost unbearable challenge: how to stay human under extreme circumstances few of us can imagine. “So here is humanity’s paradox: / that some stand still before / another life in another’s body, / ready at any moment to give their life.” Active military since before Russia’s full-scale war began, first as a medic, later as a drone operator, Chornohuz writes for her comrades in arms, dead and living. But she also writes of her daughter in Kyiv, whose future she is defending: “when it comes time to part with my daughter /(the moment of the next return to the front), / I dream of a religion with parables and symbols / to take the pain out of parting.” Writing from the front lines, Chornohuz’s poetry can be read as missives to those who have not experienced war close up, and to those future generations who, she hopes, will know a sovereign thriving Ukraine.
