Lyuba Yakymchuk reads her poem at the Grammy Awards 

At the 64th Grammy Awards ceremony, singer John Legend sang his song Free, together with Ukrainian singer Mika Newton and poet Lyubov Yakymchuk. The artist posted about the performance on Facebook and Twitter. 

Yakymchuk read the poem Prayer from her collection Apricots of Donbas, which was translated by Oksana Maksymchuk and Max Rosochynsky

our Father, who art in heaven

of the full moon

and the hollow sun

shield from death my parents

whose house stands in the line of fire

and who won’t abandon it

like a tomb

our daily bread give to the hungry

and let them stop devouring one another

and forgive us our destroyed cities

even though we do not forgive for them our enemies

shield and protect

my husband, my parents

my child and my Motherland

отче наш, що є на небі

у повному місяці

та в порожньому сонці

захисти від смерті моїх батьків

чия хата стоїть на лінії вогню

і вони не хочуть її покидати

як домовину

хліб наш насущний віддай голодним

і нехай вони перестануть їсти одне одного

і прости нам зруйновані міста наші

хоч і ми не прощаємо цього ворогам нашим

захисти і вбережи

моїх батьків

мого чоловіка

моє дитя

і мою Батьківщину

John Legend played the song Free on the piano, while Siuzanna Ihlidan from Odesa accompanied him on the bandura. 

It was an honor to perform FREE tonight along with Lyuba Yakimchuk, Siuzanna Iglidan, Mika Newton, and our incredible choir. pic.twitter.com/7zYHep1mJG

— John Legend (@johnlegend) April 4, 2022

John Legend said that he was honored to perform along with Yakymchuk, Ihlidan, Newton and the choir. 

Lyuba Yakimchuk is a poet, screenwriter, playwright, born 1985 in Pervomaisk Luhanska oblast, and currently living in Kyiv, Ukraine.

She is the author of several full-length poetry collections, including Apricots of Donbas, which is about people surviving a war. Apricots of the Donbas received the International Poetic Award of the Kovalev Foundation (NYC, USA). This book was listed in the Top 10 books about the war — Forbes magazine’s rating in Ukraine. Kyiv’s New Time magazine (Novoye Vremia) listed Yakimchuk among the one hundred most influential people in the arts in Ukraine.

Her poems have been translating into twenty languages, including English, German, French, Chinese, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Greek, Estonian, Bulgarian, Slovenian, Slovak, Belarusian, Romanian, Hungarian, Georgian, Azerbaijani and Serbian.

Lyubov Yakymchuk announced on Facebook on April 1 that she would be reading a poem at the Grammys. In October 2021, Apricots of Donbas was published by Lost Horse Press in English and Ukrainian. The collection has also been translated into Polish and Estonian.   

Read also: Yakymchuk: This is me and my metal storm-shutters

Photo: vogue.ua