Nobody's Saffron

Yaryna Chornohuz's stunning new book, Nobody's Saffron--hersecond to be translated into English by Amelia Glaser-invites readersto overhear the poet grappling with an almost unbearable challenge: how to stay human under extreme circumstances few of us canimagine. "So here is humanity's paradox: / that some stand still before /another life in another's body, / ready at any moment to give theirlife." Active military since before Russia's full-scale war began, firstas a medic, later as a drone operator, Chornohuz writes for her comrades in arms, dead and living. But she also writes of her daughter in Kyiv, whose future she is defending: "when it comes time to part with my daughter /(the moment of the next return to the front), / I dream of a religion with parables and symbols / to take the pain out of parting." Writing from the front lines, Chornohuz's poetry can be read as missives to those who have not experienced war close up, and to those future generations who, she hopes, will know a sovereign thriving Ukraine: "greetings to you from my time, / to those born after my death, / from a time so / red black, gray, white--that in truth it can no longer describe itself". Featured in both The New Yorker and The New York Times, Yaryna Chornohuz, a poet of indelible strength and insight, has produced a book destined to become a classic.