pray to the empty wells by Iryna Shuvalova review – hope’s last stronghold | Poetry
Translated poetry seldom finds a home in this column – if only because when youhave no knowledge of the original language, the reading can be like trying to see through frosted glass. But the Ukrainian poet Iryna Shuvalova is a revelation. This is her fifth collection, her first to be translated into English, and it is extraordinary to read partly because, even though these poems were written before the war (touching on the 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea), they offer insight into what it is to be Ukrainian at this…