Bird of the Ukraine

(From the battlefields, attributed to Vasily K., citizen and soldier, March 2022, Ichnyiv, Chernihiv, Ukraine)

What has the Russian madman done?

Where have the Nightingales all gone?

Return winged singers, please don’t roam!

And bear our fighters safely home!

Lone Nightingale, sing forth your courageous song!

Be our companion all dark night long!

With us, watch o’er the next long train

That, filled with loved ones, leaves Ukraine!

Die Russian madman! Be dead and burn!

In time for our Nightingales’ return;

Angelic then, they’ll rise and sing

To restore sacred peace to our early spring!

Come back soon, to bells that peel in joyous tones!

Bear prayers of faith from our battle zones!

For all our brave heroes that we’ve lost here…

Dry each and every single tear!

Take courage...gaze fiercely out with open eyes

And scourge the enemy whom we despise!

That score we’ll settle soon enough,

Though our fight is long and exceeding rough!

And our Nightingales shall sing free once again,

Each note shall help us heal our pain!

Return, winged singers, no longer roam

And escort all of our brave heroes safely home!

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NOTE: This has been translated (probably somewhat imperfectly) from the original Ukraine and slightly altered, but only to make it rhyme in English. It was sent me a day or two ago from a friend who tells me he knows Vasily personally... I was fascinated to learn that the 'Common Nightingale', known in Ukrainian as 'Soloveiko', is the national bird of that nation. The term 'Soloveiko' is also used as a term of endearment in the Ukraine.