Lyubar, Ukraine

49°55' N /27°45' E
205 km WSW of Kyyiv, 47 miles WSW of Zhytomer,
37 miles W of Berdychiv, 17 miles SE of Polonnoye

Poem by Boris (Lyusik) DEKHTYAR
Submitted by Maya LISAK in Florida
Translated from Russian Courtesy of Boris Feldblyum, © 2003

I am typing these lines from pages written by the amazing handwriting of my mother, Roza PRIVEN. Tears don't let me write [clearly]. Mother has been gone for three years. She would be so happy to see the Lyubar [web] site. Thank you.

I'd like to send you a poem by Boris (Lyusik) DEKHTYAR. I remember he came to us from Autozavod and he and Mother edited it. Mother translated in into Ukrainian for a Lyubar newspaper. We lived in Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky) then. We came to America (Florida) in 1994. Mother lived with us for six years. We visited Israel with her, where we met with Perl KANTOR and Sema IOFFE. They took us in Zion to see the plaque in memory of Lyubar residents. We will not forget it.

13 September 1991

When we walked down a narrow path
That autumn morning,
The grass dropped morning dew
As its tears.

And then as we walked through a dusty field
To that tragic forest,
Pieces of mother earth
Bonded with our shoes.

I shuddered from the thought
That we carry on our shoes
Our relatives' dust
Along with the soil.

The wheat is growing tall
In this field soaked with blood
Caused by the monsters,
Traitors of our land.

When we finally came to that place
Where our relatives lie,
My fingers pressed into fists
And my lips were shaking and going numb.

Their strength drained,
The old people fell on the pile of earth,
Shaking quietly,
Just touching each other's hands.

The lines [on the monument] stated predictably
About the killing of "Soviet citizens".
But the beasts murdered everyone
Only because they were Jews.