A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails

 

A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails / Halyna Kruk
trans. from the Ukrainian by Amelia M. Glaser & Yuliya Ilchuk
Cambridge, MA: Arrowsmith, c2023.
192 p.

I wanted to read some poetry for Women in Translation Month; this volume is one that I've had on my list for a while. I finally got a copy, and have been working my way through it over the last week. It is published with the original Ukrainian on the left hand page, and the English version on the right. I really liked this, even though I can't read Ukrainian myself - but it would be a really great element if you did. As it is, I still feel it added to the reading experience; there was the original poem, breathing right in front of you. 

These poems are stark, responding to the outbreak of full scale war in 2022. There are metaphors and imagery that evoke the visceral experience of living with violence and upheaval, and emotional threads that pull you in despite the brevity of the lines. This collection is powerful and moving, but also quite accessible, I thought. The poems are shorter, and are addressing universal concerns about war, life, literature, choices, through the lens of the Ukrainian experience. 

There were a couple of poems that really stood out to me, but all of them were solid - I don't think there was a weak link in this collection. There are stark statements about violence and death, and about the span of history; Kruk uses the Ukrainian past to illustrate the present in so many ways - from one poem:

we stopped digging deep long ago

in this uncertain field of ours-yours

because all kinds of junk can turn up:

human bones, horses’ heads, unexploded mines,

a battle ax, the peg that marked the border

between our side and yours...

There is so much to reread and think on in this collection. I would recommend it for anyone interested in poetry and how it both faces and repudiates war. 

You can read quite a bit of her poetry online; there are a few shared at LitHub, and there is a nice sampling from this book at the Griffin Poetry Prize site, where she was a nominee in 2024, both poems and video.

You can hear both Kruk and her translators read one of the poems, thanks the to Griffin Poetry Prize (this was a nominee) 

 

 And you can also listen to a lengthy interview with Halyna Kruk if you want to find out more about her writing and her poetic response to war, in this video from Razom.