Chen-ou Liu's Translation Project: First English-Chinese Haiku and Tanka Blog

Friday, February 24, 2023

News after News Tanka

written on the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine

news after news
of death from the war
an ocean away
a boy's stare at the camera
interpellating me



Added: Protests marking the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Russian Embassy (in Berlin)
the T-72 tank covered 
with rust and moss

an old man 
blasts a siren at 3 am
Russian Embassy (in Oslo)

a skull 
on the blood-stained cake 
Russian Embassy (in Belgrade)

Russian Embassy (in London)
a river of paint spilled 
in blue and yellow

the Eiffel Tower
lit in blue and yellow
Russian Embassy (in Paris)


Added:

one year on
in the world of snow on snow
blue and yellow flowers 
at Taras Shevchenko's statue
in Saint Petersburg

FYI: Taras Shevchenko was the best known 19th century Ukrainian poet ad fighter for the independence of Ukraine and the freedom of all mankind. Of many monuments/statues built for him around the world, The first one in Russia was unveiled in Petrograd (Saint Petersburg) on December 1, 1918.

The inscription says: "To the great Ukrainian poet-peasant T. G. Shevchenko (1814 - 1861) from the great Russian nation."

And ABC News, Feb. 24: Russians mark Ukraine war anniversary with flowers, arrests:

Russians in Moscow and other cities brought flowers to Ukrainian poets and held one-person pickets with antiwar slogans to mark the first anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.