"Granite Obelisks", by Vasyl Symonenko
Written in 1962 about 1917.
The original poem in Ukrainian:
PS from me, because I feel the translation does not reflect the meaning well in several lines.
1) The first 2 lines about granite obelisks crawling - is meant to describe the visual of how grave obelisks multiply before your eyes, when many people die too fast - as if those obelisks are crawling all over the land
2) I would omit the "But" in the beginning of the 3rd line. It shifts the meaning somewhat, but I can see how it was added for the verse's rhythm.
All in all, without trying to rhyme it, this would be my TL:
"Granite obelisks have been crawling and crawling over the earth - as if giant squids - until they had no more strength and stopped.
There's simply no more room for new graves in the graveyard of the murdered illusions"
3) The 2nd verse - I'd change the line like this:
"A million faiths - all buried in the ground
A million fates - all grinded into dust"
Small, but I feel like it translates better the meaning of many multicultural lives being snuffed out in this land by the people who come to subjurgate us.
