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TANGO OF DEATH
Translated from Ukrainian
by Michael M. Naydan
edited by Olha Tytarenko
Dedicated
to
Yevhen
Nakonechny (1931-2006), the
author of the books A Stolen
Name and Shoah in Lviv,
the good spirit of the Vasyl
Stefanyk Academic Library,
who many times persistently
but considerately inclined
me toward this subject,
suggesting a variety of
literature to me and sharing
his personal memories with
me.
H
igh above snow is
falling,
crows
are
crowing, the trees are
cracking from the cold, and
somewhere far away snow is
crunching beneath the boots
of the killers. You can sense
their approach in everything
– somewhere off in the
distance you can hear the
threatening barking of dogs,
which is different from the
barking of village dogs; the
barking increases in intensity,
at the same time, crows,
cawing loudly, dart into the
air and fly off. Four young
men are sitting in a hideout,
listening to the barking; then,
glancing at each other, they
burn some kind of papers;
smoke crawls out of the vent.
Then they change into clean
shirts and pray. They don’t
pray together, but each one
separately, and their prayers
are in different languages.
The three of them sit down
around a small plank table;
a bundle of grenades is lying
on the dark smooth surface;
the hands of all three of
them are lying nearby. They
wait silently. There is no fear
in their eyes. Each one is
thinking his own thoughts.