Max Liberman
Ad Ucraīnam
“For Ukraine”
This is an approximate translation of my poem Ad Ucraīnam, written in Latin elegiac couplets. These involve a particular syllabic structure which cannot easily be reflected in English. The translation should give a fair sense of the meaning, but it is not authoritative; the actual poem is the Latin original.
Peace indeed, it is said, should be ardently sought:
but peace only when justice thrives.
They dare to defend their homeland from assault,
those who refuse that might should make right.
They understand that there is no true peace achieved
by submitting to the conqueror’s imposed yoke.
If a new Attila or threatening Alexander arises,1
they shall not let him dictate terms at sword’s point.
In the face of greatest hostility, it is more right at last
to gird on arms than yield to base injustice.
Now the Ruthenian priest summons forth savage Gradivus,2
and now in the red square the Salii dance.3
Grieve with me, humanity, as compassion moves your hearts,
for those driven from hearth and home;
For those who could give loved ones no final farewell;
for the wounded, the maimed and the slaughtered;
For those forced to bear arms into a strange land;
and those who will not thereafter see home again;
For those who will often yearn to put the pains and horrors
out of mind, and will be ever unable;
And those to come, who must wonder why such things happened,
as they rebuild broken homes and lives.
The world well knows who bears the guilt of this brutal crime:
may great Themis give no pardon to the war-monger.4
