The easiest thing to do in wartime is to hate the others. The hardest is to achieve understanding. Even with your own. But we must try; otherwise, the war will never end. And to understand, we need to talk. With anyone, however you want, and about anything. The main thing is not to lose humanity — meaning love and attention. In the poetic collection «The Life of Maria,» Serhiy Zhadan talks about the dearest letters and burned bridges, lost places, and destroyed cities. He converses through rhymed poems and free verse, using both his own words and translations. He talks with his own and others, with the sacred and not-so-sacred, with the killed and the living refugees, with Rilke, Milosz, and of course, with us. To save — if not us, at least our children.
