Ukrainian War Poem Poster Project Supports Language Services for Newcomers

Regina Galasso, director of the Translation Center and associate professor in the Spanish and Portuguese Studies Program, partnered with John Hennessy, senior lecturer in English, to create a poster to promote general awareness of poetry about war. In response to the current war in Ukraine, they collaborated with visual artist and curator Anton Varga, editor and translator Ostap Kin, and poet and scholar Polina Barskova.

The 24" x 36" poster designed by Varga includes, in Ukrainian and English, the second part of the ten-part poem “We’ve Been Talking about War for Three Years” by Serhiy Zhadan, translated by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin, and Polina Barskova on poetry about war. Barskova writes:

“At least since the Iliad and Gilgamesh, one of poetry’s most important functions has been bearing witness to war. Poetry has also helped us to understand and express the trauma of war. By reading and writing poetry about war, we can begin to process the sheer horrors of war, whether we are on the front lines or, as Susan Sontag says, “watching the pain of others” from afar. This is why poetry about war matters: it allows us to be empathetic to the victims of war and gives us a language to speak about something that mainly causes pain and silence. Reading poetry about war in translation has an additional function: it allows us to learn that no war is ever really foreign. Every death, every injury, every explosion, every betrayal is an assault on humanity as a whole.”

To receive a print copy of the poster, contact the Translation Center at translate@umass.edu. In exchange, please consider making a donation, via "GIVE" in the right corner of the Translation Center’s website. Do make sure the donation is designated to the Translation Center. The Translation Center will use the donations to provide language services to newcomers to the United States. In this case, the Translation Center will try to connect with people from Ukraine or organizations, including schools, who are assisting with relocation.