Song that becomes extremely popular worldwide
Popular poem takes aim at hypocrisy of Russians
by Nataliya Trach
It took only one poem to make 23-year old Anastasiya Dmytruk a YouTube celebrity.
In the video posted on March 19, Dmytruk recites her own poem “We Will Never Be Brothers” (“Nikogda mi ne budem bratiami”), dedicated to Ukrainian-Russian relations. Just the main version of the video was viewed 1.65 million times, while others have hundreds of thousands views.
The poem was written in early March, soon after Russian forces invaded Ukraine’s Crimea.
“I stirred up my pain about the events happening in my country. It was crying from my heart,” Dmytruk says about her poem.
Dmytruk, who was born in independent Ukraine, says she “does not accept the propaganda about the fraternity of Ukrainian and Russian nations.” In the poem, she denies the “brotherhood” of the two nations, because Russians, according to her, “do not have the spirit to be free.”
“Events of EuroMaidan and all that condemnation and aggression by Russians make it clear that the difference between the two nations is tremendous,” Dmytruk says, adding that Ukraine’s entire history is the struggle for independence from Russia.
The poem is in Russian and it's English translation is:
"We Will Never Be Brothers,"
Never ever can we be brothers.
Neither blood, nor homeland unite us.
You don’t own that spirit of freedom,
You are not our stepbrother either.
You have claimed you are elder brothers...
We’d be younger ones, but of others.
You’re so many, but every faceless.
You are huge, but we’re great since ages.
And you strangle us, toss about in pain.
You’ll gulp down the poison of own envy.
You will never know what liberty is,
Since your birth enchained, you’ve lost dignity.
You praise silence like gold in your motherland.
We have cocktails of fire, raised in our hands.
Yes, that blood is hot, running through our hearts.
What a blind kinfolk are you now to us!
And no slightest fear’s found in our eyes.
We are dangerous, though we have no arms.
We’ve grown up and now we become so brave,
As a walking target, a sniper’s aim.
Their hangmen wanted us on our knees,
But we rebelled and chastened the fallacies.
And those lurking rats, they just pray in vain.
Only their blood will redeem our pain.
You just get new orders and you are fine.
While we offer our souls for uprising’s fire.
You have Tzar, and we gain democracy.
And your “brother” appeal is hypocrisy.
(translated by Natalinska Lumska)
(translated by Natalinska Lumska)
Many Russians do not enjoy Dmytruk’s poem. From the day when the poem was released on YouTube, Dmytruk regularly has been receiving threats from Russians through her Facebook and Vkontakte pages.
“I think that Russians were moved by my poem because they have read the truth about themselves,” Dmytruk says.
Russians call her a “traitor” and accuse her of inciting ethnic conflict.
“How can I be the one encouraging hostility if it was Russia who attacked my country?” she asks.
Several Lithuanian musicians were so inspired by the poem that they turned it into a song, which has become another YouTube hit with over 2.1 million views.
“When I heard the (Lithuanian) version I was delighted because I did not expect that a composer could feel the mood of my poem,” Dmytruk says.
Her poem is gaining popularity among post-Soviet countries now.
“The idea of unwillingness to fraternize with Russians is close not only to Ukrainians but also to Georgians, Lithuanians, Azerbaijani and Kazakhs,” Dmytruk adds. “People believe the song is the hymn of freedom.”
Dmytruk started writing poems two years ago, but before the EuroMaidan events she only wrote love poems. Now she has some 10 poems dedicated to political and social issues in Ukraine. Her love lyrics number less than one hundred poems. Despite the fame, she does not show any arrogance.
“My life did not change after this popularity. Inside I remain the same,” Dmytruk added.
She published the first 15 copies of her book of poems, “Give Us Back Our Sky,” on May 14.
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