Ukraini Slava!

We stand and wait here, once again,
And listen for the northern men,
Who’ve come once more to make us slaves
Or else to thrust us in our graves.

We hear the rumbling tracks draw near,
We grip our rifles, white with fear,
We crouch down, keeping well apart,
Each one with terror in his heart.

Yet none will run. We will defend
Our little country to the end.
We will resist the tyrant’s spawn
Until they leave, or we are gone.

There’s not much hope of help or aid.
They have their missiles, my grenade
Can only do its bit of harm
And nothing throws it but my arm.

I will not live no longer free,
And so they’ve come to murder me.
We’ll stand and buy time with our lives
For elders, children, friends and wives.

We are Ukraine. We have survived.
We kept our culture and we thrived
When our slavemasters ran away.
But they are coming back today.

The jets roar over, rockets shriek,
The tanks grow closer, I grow weak
My rifle rattles out in rage.
I’ll choose the coffin, not the cage!

We fight, we fall, and friends I’ve known
And laughed, and drank with, die alone.

 Perhaps someday children will see
The sunflowers which grow over me…