Inella Ohnyeva: Prophetic poems by an 18-year-old poet from Bucha, written in 2017

When you read these poems, written a few years before the horrific events in her native land, you begin to believe in a higher power.

Article editors: Mark Beygelzimer, PhD, systems analyst, head of the Trust but Verify project

Reference: Inella Ohnyeva (29 October 1999 - 12 March 2020) was a Ukrainian writer and poet. She was born and raised in Bucha, Kyiv region. She started writing at the age of six. The girl was called the new Lina Kostenko for her talent. Inella managed to publish three collections of poems before a terrible illness took her life (Sources: Wikipedia, Ukrainian Humanitarian Institute, Channel 24, 0352.ua). 

The poems below (in original Ukrainian) were first published by Inella on her Facebook page back in 2017 (Source: Mala Storinka website). 
The English text below is a verbatim, not a literary translation of the Ukrainian-language original
 

 
And you know that we will sprout
On the ruins like spring flowers!
We will fall on your heads as rain,
So that you know we are invincible!

You kick us in the stomach,
Kick us in the stomach...
And we will find the strength to take off,
We'll be there at dawn!

You will take the last of us,
You've robbed us to the bone...
But know that the moment will come,
When we'll come out of nowhere...

We will come to you at night,
When you're sleeping soundly...
We'll light a candle with fire
And we'll break down the iron bars...

We will come... We will rise from the ruins!
Do not sleep, but wait anxiously....
We will sprout a thirst for change...
We are not dead, we are alive! You must know this!

Our wound is still fresh and hurts,
But we don't care about that pain...
And you trample us underfoot,
We'll keep on singing...

We will meet you one day...
At the Judgment, where you can't hide...
You didn't hear the order: "Stop!"
You just wanted to keep on mocking...

And you know that we will sprout
In our children, like spring flowers...
We are not dead, we are still alive!
Our souls are invincible!

We will come to you suddenly,
Maybe by wind, maybe by rain...
Don't sleep, you're waiting for us
We are alive, we will meet you...

Inella Ohnyeva, October 17, 2017

All photos in the text refer to the aftermath of the missile attack on the Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv on July 8, 2024. Photo sources: Journalist Andriy Tsaplienko's Telegram channel, the Facebook page of the Ohmatdyt National Children's Hospital and Telegraf

Cover photo: Inella Ohnyeva/Facebook (source: RBC-Ukraine)

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