Trafika Europe 7 - Ukrainian Prayer

TANGO OF DEATH Translated from Ukrainian by Michael M. Naydan edited by Olha Tytarenko Dedicated to Yevhen

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.

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,

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