The Voices of Babyn Yar
The Voices of Babyn Yar
Marianna Kiyanovska – Author
Oksana Maksymchuk, Max Rosochinsky – Translators
Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute - Publisher
“In recognition of its masterful use of poetry to convey the unspeakable crimes committed at Babyn Yar, using a first-person perspective of Jewish voices to raise painful questions related to memory and responsibility.”
As one reviewer wrote, Babyn Yar is a part of Ukrainian history regardless of whether ethnic Ukrainians are buried there or not. Victims and their pain have no nationality—the same way crimes don't have one. In this sense, The Voices of Babyn Yar is an attempt to hear these voices and comprehend the future through the past —today's war through the previous war. The poems are an attempt to overcome hate speech by creating a supra-national language of the victim.
Recently, the Polish translation of Voices of Babyn Yar earned author Marianna Kiyanovska the European Poet of Freedom Literary Award. It is the English translation of this moving collection of poems that earned the book its Peterson Literary Fund 2023 Translated Book Award.
Marianna Kiyanovska / author
