oh, don't bend the branches, i am grieving...

(I know I've posted this picture before, but it is one of my very favourites of my grandma, Anne Pechanec / моя баба Анна М. Пехник.

February 22, 1915 - November 26, 2005 / 22ого Лютого 1915 - 26ого Листопада 2005)

* * *

It's been two years; still understanding how someone can be here & not here all at once, how I can still feel wholly suffused with their presence & their being (in thoughts & dreams & birds & trees & my mother & my heart, myself) & yet still miss them, still ache.



Ta j vylitala halka, oy, z hliboko yarka

oy, vylitala druha z zelenoho luha...



Ta j sila-vpala halka, oy na zelenij sosni

ta j na zelenij sosni, na hiltsi rozkishnij...



Oy, ne khylijsja hilko, oy, bo tak meni hirko

ne khylijs' na more, oy, bo tak meni hore...

-- ukraïns'ka narodna pisnya.

* * *

and the jackdaw flew off, from the deep little ravine
& another flew away from the meadow

and the jackdaw alit and tumbled from the top of the green pine-tree,
on the top of the pine, luxurious branches of a wedding-tree,

oh, don't bend the branches, i am grieving...
oh, don't bend towards the sea, i am too full of sorrow...

-- ukrainian folk song

'dark bird' performed here (click to get mp3 from yousendit) by alexis kochan & paris to kyiv

* * *