Anastasia Dmytruk (Ukrainian: Анастасія Дмитрук; born 31 January 1991 in Nizhyn) is a Ukrainian poet who writes in the Russian and Ukrainian languages. She writes poetry and has worked as an information security specialist after graduating from Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Never ever can we be brothers, written in Russian, has become her most widely cited poem.
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Никогда мы не будем братьями! | |
| Це моя і твоя війна | |
| Небесній сотні присвячується | |
| Письмо соседу | |
| Я нам мира у Бога вымолю | |
| I will pray for peace (song) | |
| Небо падає! |
The poem was written in response to the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014. The poem celebrates the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and rejects "Great Russia":
Freedom's foreign to you, unattained;
From your childhood, you've been chained.
In your home, "silence is golden" prevails,
But we're raising up Molotov cocktails.
In our hearts, blood is boiling, sizzling.
And you're kin? – you blind ones, miserly?
There's no fear in our eyes; it's effortless,
We are dangerous even weaponless.
According to literary critics, the poem might have been influenced by Russian translation of the "Britons never will be slaves!" or by Marina Tsvetayeva.
The YouTube video of Dmitruk reading her poem went viral, quickly accumulating more than a million hits. A song based on the poem was created by musicians from Klaipėda. It also quickly accumulated more than a million hits. The poem was hotly debated in the press and received many thousand responses from Russian and Ukrainian audience It became a target of many parodies, especially by Russian readers who considered the poem "Russophobic" According to Yuri Loza, the "elder Russian brothers" in the poem appear as the reincarnation of Big Brother from Nineteen Eighty-Four It is one of the two most popular poems which were written in Ukraine immediately following the Euromaidan.
References
- Another side of glory by segodnya.ua (Russian)
- Записала Наталья Вагнер (18 March 2014). ""Вы огромные, мы - великие": Vgorode поговорил с киевлянкой-автором стиха об агрессии России - Киев". Kiev.vgorode.ua. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
- A fragment of the poem, English translation by Andrey Kneller
- ^ Bulkina, Inna (1 April 2016). ""Стихия Майдана": русская и украинская "майданная поэзия"" (in Russian). Gefter.ru. Archived from the original on 4 April 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
- "Литовцы записали песню на стихи украинки "Никогда мы не станем братьями!" (видео) - Политические новости Украины - "Духа нет у вас быть свободными – нам не стать с вами даже сводными", - поется в обращении к россиянам | СЕГОДНЯ". Segodnya.ua. 5 April 2014. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
- Фото: Кадр відео. "Литовцы записали песню о России на стихи украинки". Korrespondent.net. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
- ? Как к Вам обращаться?. ""Никогда мы не будем братьями" киевлянка написала стихотворение для россиян | Новини на". Gazeta.ua. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
- "Русофобия "в исполнении" украинской поэтессы-националистки АНАСТАСИИ ДМИТРУК | Новости Ру - информационное бюро". Novosti-ru.ru. 29 March 2014. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
- Review of the poem by Yuri Loza