Just not yours

Ukrainian poet Anastasia Dmitruk wrote “Never ever can we be brothers” after the Russian seizure of Crimea in 2014. She wrote it in Russian, possibly to make sure the message hit home; although apparently it didn’t.

Here it is, translated by Eugene Volokh:

“Never ever can we be brothers”

You and we will never be brothers
Not by our motherlands, nor our mothers
You lack the spirit to be free
We will not be even your stepsiblings.
You have christened yourself "the elder brothers,"
We're fine being the younger, just not yours.
You are a multitude but, sadly, faceless.
You are vast, but we are great.
You press us, you toil,
You will choke yourself on your envy.
Liberty is a word you do not know,
You from childhood are chained in shackles.
At home you say "silence is golden,"
But in our hands burn Molotov cocktails,
In our heart flows burning blood,
What sort of blind "family" are you to us?
We have no fear in our eyes,
Even without weapons we are a menace.
We grew up and became brave
While we are targeted by snipers.
The executioners pushed us to our knees;
We rose up and corrected that.
Pointlessly the rats hide and pray,
They will be washed in their own blood.
You are getting new orders,
But here we burn the fires of revolt.
You have the Czar, we have Democracy,
You and we will never be brothers.