By Serhiy Zhadan

Translated from the Ukrainian by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps

 

Take only what is most important. Take the letters.
Take only what you can carry.
Take the icons and the embroidery, take the silver,
Take the wooden crucifix and the golden replicas.

Take some bread, the vegetables from the garden, then leave.
We will never return again.
We will never see our city again.
Take the letters, all of them, every last piece of bad news.

We will never see our corner store again.
We will never drink from that dry well again.
We will never see familiar faces again.
We are refugees. We’ll run all night.


haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story
Source: https://www.wordsforwar.com/take-only-what-is-most-important