July 16, 1990 the Dec­la­ra­tion of State Sov­er­eign­ty of Ukraine was adopt­ed. With this video UAZA (www.uaza.co.za) cel­e­brates 30 years of Dec­la­ra­tion of State Sov­er­eign­ty of Ukraine. South Africans with Ukraine in their hearts and Ukraini­ans read­ing the poem “Love Ukraine” by Volodymyr Sosiu­ra (born Jan­u­ary 6, 1898 in Debalt­seve, Donet­sk region).

The poem-record­ing was ini­ti­at­ed by Mary­na Theron, edit­ed by Han­nah Zhukov­ina, coor­di­nat­ed by Zoia Dei and Rus­lana Malichenko.

This video start­ed as an emo­tion­al impulse of Mary­na to express the love and respect that Ukraini­ans and their friends and fam­i­ly in South Africa have to Ukraine.

“We’re far from home and unable to trav­el in lock­down and miss home very much. So I want­ed to do some­thing that can help us to express the love we, Ukraini­ans in South Africa, have to our coun­try and the respect and love that our friends and fam­i­ly here have to Ukraine. I thought leg­endary Ukrain­ian poet Volodymyr Sosiu­ra best cap­tured the pas­sion for Ukraine in his poem “Love Ukraine”. It always gives goose­bumps when I hear it.” – said Mary­na.

Mary­na has shared the text that many of Ukraini­ans know by heart since child­hood. And dif­fer­ent mem­bers and friends of UAZA vol­un­teered to read it. When the video was done, we want­ed to learn more about the his­to­ry of the poem and… It turned out that the poem that we all know was mod­i­fied!

Volodymyr Sosiu­ra wrote poem “Love Ukraine” in 1944 dur­ing the WWII, when in the evac­u­a­tion. Sosiu­ra was long­ing for Ukraine and anx­ious about the bomb­ing and suf­fer­ing that his Moth­er­land was going through. In that emo­tion­al state, he wrote the poem and expressed the deep love to the coun­try.

But after the war has fin­ished, the sit­u­a­tion has changed. The Sovi­et gov­ern­ment under Stal­in embarked on witch-hunt­ing for nation­al­ists. Sosiu­ra, a well-recog­nised poet at that time, has also been accused of nation­al­ism. In 1951, the poem  “Love Ukraine” was deemed too nation­al­is­tic in its tone because of the words: “With­out you [Ukraine] we’re noth­ing, just cin­der and dust”. Sosiura’s wife was arrest­ed by NKVD and sen­tenced to 6 years of impris­on­ment. He was pre­vent­ed from pub­lish­ing his poems.

Under that pres­sure, Sosiu­ra changed those lines to more sovi­et-ori­ent­ed

“As in a gar­den of fra­ter­nal races [nations of the Sovi­et Union],
She shines above the ages.”

It was too late to change the video that was edit­ed as it involved so much effort from many South Africans and Ukrain­ian. But it is not too late to learn from this exam­ple.

This exam­ple of how the real nar­ra­tive of our past was altered to suit that of the pre­vail­ing peo­ple in pow­er made us realise the intri­cate lev­els of oppres­sion that our lit­er­a­ture has suf­fered. We have learned a valu­able les­son of how impor­tant it is to learn about our past as it can still mod­i­fy our cur­rent real­i­ty. This les­son seems to be equal­ly rel­e­vant to the con­ver­sa­tions about decoloni­sa­tion in South Africa.

Love Our Ukraine

Love our Ukraine, as the sun love her
As the wind, the grass, the waters
Love her in the moments of joy and bliss
As well as in the moments of sor­row

Love our Ukraine in your dreams and awake
Love her as a cher­ry in blos­som
Her beau­ty eter­nal, her lan­guage that rings
Like a nightingale’s song in the orchard

With­out her, we’re noth­ing, just cin­der and dust
That has been dis­persed all around
Love our Ukraine with all of your heart
As well as your thoughts and your tal­ents

For us in this world, she’s the only one
Ukraine with her eyes sober brown
She is in the stars, in the wil­lows and winds
In all our hearts, small and grown

She is in the flow­ers, the birds, pal­isades
In all of our songs and in dumas
She is in the smile of a child, maiden’s eyes
In the crim­son of bat­tle flags fly­ing

She is like the Burn­ing Bush that can’t be burnt
She lives in the trails and oak forests
She’s fac­to­ry whis­tle, Dnipro’s mighty waves
She’s clouds above col­ored pur­ple

She’s cannonade’s roar that chas­es away
Our foes in their green uni­forms
In rifles we hold firm­ly on our way up
Towards spring, so sin­cere and delight­ful 

Young man! She deserves all your laugh­ter and tears
Each sec­ond till your dying hour
You can’t com­pre­hend the ways of oth­er lands
Unless all your love’s for Ukraine

Young maid­en! Like blue sky, above and beyond
You must love Ukraine every instant
Beware, for your dar­ling will break up your bond
If your love for Ukraine’s incon­sis­tent

Love her in trou­ble, in joy, even war
As guns are all open­ing fire
Just love your Ukraine, and your spir­it will soar
And stay with her always inspired!

* trans­lat­ed by mem­bers of Ukrain­ian Embassy in the UK 2017

Вірш Володимира Сосюри (1944)

Любіть Україну, як сонце, любіть,

як вітер, і трави, і води,

В годину щасливу, і в радості мить,

любіть у годину негоди.

Любіть Україну у сні й наяву,

вишневу свою Україну,

красу її, вічно живу і нову,

і мову її солов’їну.

Без неї — ніщо ми,

як порох і дим,

Розвіяний в полі вітрами…

Любіть Україну всім серцем своїм

і всіма своїми ділами.

Для нас вона в світі єдина, одна

як очі її ніжно-карі…

Вона — у зірках, і у вербах вона,

і в кожному серця ударі,

у квітці, й пташині, в кривеньких тинах,

у пісні у кожній, у думі,

в дитячій усмішці, в дівочих очах

і в стягів багряному шумі…

Як та купина, що горить — не згора,

живе у стежках, у дібровах,

у зойках гудків, і у хвилях Дніпра,

і в хмарах отих пурпурових,

в огні канонад, що на захід женуть

чужинців в зелених мундирах,

в багнетах, що в тьмі пробивали нам путь

до весен, і світлих, і щирих…

Юначе! Хай буде для неї твій сміх,

і сльози, і все, до загину…

Не можна любити народів других,

коли ти не любиш Вкраїну!

Дівчино! Як небо її голубе,

люби її кожну хвилину…

Коханий любить не захоче тебе,

коли ти не любиш Вкраїну!

Любіть у труді, у коханні, в бою,

в цей час, як гудуть батареї…

Всім серцем любіть Україну свою, —

і вічні ми будемо з нею!

Text writ­ten by Dzvin­ka Kachur