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Thursday, April 06, 2017

Yevgeny Yevtushenko ~


† April 1, 2017

BABI YAR
by Yevgeny Yevtushenko

No monument stands over Babi Yar.
A steep cliff only, like the rudest headstone.
I am afraid.
Today, I am as old
As the entire Jewish race itself . . .

3 comments:

Charles said...

Yevtushenko's poem commemorates the massacre committed by the Nazi Einsatzgruppe during World War II at Babi Yar, in a ravine located within the present-day Ukrainian capital of Kiev. In just one of these atrocities – taking place over September 29–30, 1941 – Jewish men, women and children numbering 33,771 were killed in a single Einsatzgruppe operation.

http://remember.org/witness/babiyar
Read the poem Babi Yar in English Translation

Charles said...

I found out about Yevtushenko's passing from one of my past students, Nancy Leff , from the the then Point Park College in Pittsburgh who remembered me reading this poem to the class. Then I took a book of Yevtushenko's poems down off my shelf that a former student, Steven Tatrai, had given me when I left the college.

humorqueen said...

Charles, I just noticed that you mentioned me in your post. Thanks for the honor! Be well.