Amicale

the living flesh of the world

every war is an open wound
in the living flesh of the world
every drop of blood needlessly shed
is an attack on our integrity
and violates our humanity

let us reread Anna Akhmatova's Requiem
who recalls her unspeakable pain as a mother
when she visited her imprisoned son in Leningrad
Let us reread the moving poems of Marina Tsvetaïva
who during the civil war had to abandon her daughter Irina

Let us also reread, especially today, Lina Kostenko
whose collection L'intégrale des étoiles
was rejected by the censors
let us rediscover with her
The journey of the heart

Crowned Ecrivain d'or de l'Ukraine
Lina Kostenko beckons us
let us give her voice again
and to all those
for whom poetry

is a cry that transcends in spirit
war and its madness
let us tune our souls
to reorchestrate in the name of our freedom
the music of the world

Françoise Urban-Menninger