Freedom – by Alexander Fisher

Who seeks to crush our homes?

Who wants to take our land?

Who hopes to steal our dignity and truth?

No one.

For I will fight till the last thought.

I will fight till my home is a hole.

I will fight till I have only burnt death to offer.

For it is my land and my right.

And if I fall, it will be into a brother’s arms,

Knowing that I have not disgraced. 

Though pouring madness and quacking fear reign

Yet I must stop the invader with his fiery noose.

Since to live a vassal is a death, worse,

Then better the freedom of death than the death of freedom.

 

Friends have left us

And skies are not clear. 

There’s an echo: ‘Alone. Alone. Alone.’

Yes, yes, and all the better.

The lonelier the fighter, the greater the victory.

So I am ready, alone on a frozen street

With guns, dreams and will.

But my greatest weapon is truth,

Which needs no empire,

For it is a universe.

So our eyes speak of starlight

While the enemy's has no course.

I fight for my blood is Cossak,

My heart one with my brothers.

Black fire comes, thick with death,

Yet I shall not leave.

Though about me, fire and dust,

Still I know I hold the centre,

And if it be now, my soil will cover me.

Oh dear land, from ancient times,

How many mothers’ tears have you dried?

Evil men have their dreams

But our reality is ours.

Still Chernobog paints the sky black

With fantasies of olden times,

Bringing clouds of self-slaughtering chaos,

In lightning pain, shock and fear,

A force pitiless to the single innocent,

Trading its power for our childrens’ tears.

But our ancestors are calling us

To stand by our brothers.

So hold! As our grandfathers did

And this too will pass,

For freedom is forever.

Chernobog fears our candle,

Is jealous and wants to destroy.

But we say: ‘Where shall we go?

And how do we put out our light?’

No! 

We are steadfast.

We know who we are.

To take our land,

They will have to kill 

Till the last man standing.

So better the Dniepper flows red

Than Ukrainians grow grey in chains.

Glory to our fighters!

Glory to our children!

Glory to the Cossak heart!

Long live peoples’ will!

Long live our destiny!

Слава Україні!