“Provided that I die on this struggle will I develop into a basic creator,” Maksym Kryvtsov joked to a buddy on a summer time night final 12 months.
It was meant as black humor, however the junior sergeant’s fatalist quip has begun to come back true.
Kryvtsov, a machine gunner, poet, and photographer, was killed on January 7 aged 33, reportedly because of an artillery strike on his place within the Kharkiv area. His funeral is scheduled to be held on January 11 in Kyiv.
His first and solely guide, Poems From The Battlefield, bought out simply hours after information of his dying broke. Now, a second print run of the publication, which was named by PEN Ukraine as top-of-the-line books of 2023, is because of be launched on January 11. The reprint has already racked up over 6,000 preorders.
Vladyslav Kyrychenko, the proprietor of the publishing home that first launched Kryvtsov’s work, advised RFE/RL that the younger poet “was a really heat and shiny man, like a small solar.”
He added that the clever younger Ukrainian, who frequently volunteered at summer time camps for youngsters, didn’t have the persona of a typical warrior.
“Nobody who met him for the primary time believed that this was a man who held a gun in his hand,” Kyrychenko stated.
Kryvtsov first volunteered for navy obligation quickly after the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea however later returned to civilian life. When the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kryvtsov once more signed as much as combat.
The theme of distinction between navy and civilian life is a frequent motif by means of his work. RFE/RL has been granted permission to breed excerpts from three of his untitled poems under:
He moved to Bucha in mid-March 2021
rented a small condo within the basement and acquired a cat
whose fur was the colour of the fudge on eclairs.
He went to English courses, to the health club and to confession
he liked to look at the snowstorm
and the road disappear within the fog.
He listened to Radiohead, outdated albums of Okean Elzy,
rain, thunder and the beating of a lady’s coronary heart
with whom he fell asleep in a small basement condo
and awakened in a small basement condo
kissed her heat face
snuggled as much as her sticky physique
dived along with his palm into the waves of her hair
and floundered there like a fly on an internet.
She left him within the fall
because the birds go away the forests
because the engineers go away the manufacturing facility on the finish of the shift
and went to Poland
to remain there.
He took the cat that seemed like a pastry
and stated: cat, you must go
with us, because the morning
as your life
as a illness
Occurred, chilly as ice
Conflict
the lesson known as ”Quiet Life” is over.
The road disappears within the fog
It rains,
they do not hearken to him in any respect
the cat ran out into the sector and his title is taken by the wind.
On the cross, as if on an ID card, it’s written:
Right here lies quantity 234, relaxation in peace.
When he falls asleep
slowly stretches his entrance legs
he desires of summer time
desires of an undamaged brick home
desires of chickens
operating across the yard
desires of youngsters
who deal with him to meat pies
my helmet slips out of my fingers
falls on the mud
the cat wakes up
squints his eyes
appears round fastidiously:
sure, they’re his individuals:
and falls asleep once more.
“I’ll flip my life round,
I promise.”
Written with a marker on the wall of a
widespread spot in Kyiv,
There may be espresso, pastries, fashionable garments, music, and balconies with an unimaginable view.
I’ve seen
how the fog embraces the skyscraper
gently and quietly.
“Love doesn’t exist,”
written on one other ground of this spot.
Nor does the ocean,
nor does air,
nor do desires,
nor me,
however the espresso right here is nice.
Somebody added under:
“Sunshine, what made you suppose that approach?”
Pay attention, I’ll inform you what:
the swamp, by means of which reaching the dugout is hard
shells falling close by,
a frozen rope tightly knotted round a neck
components of an individual
scattered
misplaced within the area
whimsically and unkempt
a dream that forces you to scream
rain when you may have a number of days left to attend for change
and the sunshine
that descends into the basement
due to the air alarm
certainly,
who made you suppose that approach, sunshine?
A brief trip,
a number of days on the highway,
I meet pals,
mould clay,
for the primary time in two years, I bake a cheesecake
which turned out simply OK,
with my buddy, we watch
because the winter cat catches a avenue mouse
holding on,
I can breathe
a lady crosses the highway
holding a giant skinny canine on a leash
the final flooring of Khrushchyovka flats emerge someplace
like butterfly swimmers
twinkling with garlands
a bit of extra
and I want to develop into part of
the atypical metropolis once more
stroll a giant canine
fry some eggs
drink espresso in charming bookstores with tall cabinets
it’s harmful
it’s very harmful
a peaceful life is an sickness
throw away these ideas
like worn-out slippers
run away from right here
to your dugout
to your swamp
to your shells
I’ll flip my life round
I’ll flip my life round?
I promise.
Tributes have poured in for Kryvtsov as many Ukrainians level to the now lengthy record of artists whose lives have been reduce brief by the Russian invasion.
“They’re killing the perfect of us,” one commentator wrote.
Income from gross sales of Kryvtsov’s poetry guide will probably be break up between the late soldier’s household and a fund to buy books for the Ukrainian navy.