As the sun sets and hills grow dark,
as the birdsong ends and fields fall silent,
as the people laugh and take their rest,
I watch.
My heart hurries
to the twilit gardens of Ukraine.
And I hurry.
O, how I hurry with my thoughts,
as my heart yearns for rest.
As the fields grow dark,
as the groves grow dark,
as the hills grow dark,
I see a star.
And I weep.
Hey, you star! Have you reached Ukraine?
Do dark eyes scour the blue sky for you?
Or don’t they care?
May they sleep if they don’t.
May they know nothing of my fate.
~ Taras Shevchenko
(To N. N.)
💕 🙏🏼
Taras Shevchenko’s poem stirs the soul and you paired it nicely with that painting Barbara.
Thank you, Linda. It’s horrifying what is still happening to Ukraine and I wanted to remember her great poet and a female Ukrainian artist, too.
I like that you do this Barbara. In my daily prayers I pray for all the people that are affected by war and weather-related events. I know families are being torn apart, possessions are being lost and/or destroyed all around the world. I don’t know how these people go on, with the ravages of either. How do you start over again if you’ve lost your family and all your possessions? I suspect that many people would lose the will to live after such devastation. People say to me as to losing your home from natural disasters “that is what insurance is for” but I feel, you cannot replace the memories … those cannot be replaced by an insurance settlement. It is very sad.
So true, Linda. It’s not the financial loss that is so troublesome about losing our possessions. It’s the memories we attach to them that make them so irreplaceable.
Yes, some things can never be replaced and an insurance check will not cover it those losses.