美国国家公共电台 NPR--Ukrainian civilian killed by Russia was a celebrated children's author

Ukrainian civilian¹ killed by Russia was a celebrated² children's author

Transcript³

The killing⁴ of children's author Volodymyr Vakylenko has become a symbol of Russia's war on Ukrainian culture. His last work was a diary of life under Russian occupation.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The human cost of Russia's war in Ukraine includes a celebrated children's author who has become a symbol of Russia's war on Ukrainian culture and identity. NPR's Joanna Kakissis reports.

JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE⁵: Volodymyr Vakulenko wrote 13 books. And through them, he tried to help children understand the world. He especially loved reading his poems aloud in classrooms.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

VOLODYMYR VAKULENKO: (Non-English language spoken).

(LAUGHTER)

KAKISSIS: His characters include a hardworking elephant tending a rainbow-colored garden, a jealous star causing wars in the universe...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

VAKULENKO: (Non-English language spoken).

KAKISSIS: ...And in this 2016 reading, a sad teapot with a broken spout⁶. His most popular collection, called "Daddy's Book," is dedicated⁷ to his 14-year-old son, Vitalik, who has autism.

(SOUNDBITE OF KNOCKING ON DOOR)

KAKISSIS: Vakulenko lived with Vitalik in a modest house in the village of Kapytolivka. His father, who is also called Volodymyr Vakulenko, now lives there alone.

This was his room.

He shows us his son's room. The bed is made, and the shelves are lined with his books and literary awards.

VOLODYMYR VAKULENKO SR: (Through interpreter) We have been living this way for months, knowing that he is not here and that he will never be here. But as they say, hope dies last.

KAKISSIS: Russian troops invaded the village early last March and occupied it until September.

VAKULENKO SR: (Through interpreter) He expected the soldiers to come here. That's why we hid whatever we could, including our Ukrainian flags.

KAKISSIS: After Russian soldiers showed up at the house on March 22, he also decided⁸ to hide a diary he had been keeping during the occupation. The poet wrapped the diary in plastic bags and buried it under a cherry tree in the yard. On March 24, the father says armed men in black arrived in a bus marked with a Z, Russia's symbol for the invasion of Ukraine. He says a villager was with them.

VAKULENKO SR: (Through interpreter) And he said that Volodymyr was a fascist⁹. He asked me, how could you raise a fascist?

KAKISSIS: After the armed men drove away with his son, Vakulenko's father ran to the home of his ex-wife, Olena Ihnatenko, the poet's mother.

OLENA IHNATENKO: (Through interpreter) We don't know what was said about our son. Maybe people identified him as a nationalist to save themselves.

KAKISSIS: Vakulenko did not hide his disdain¹⁰ for Russia.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

VAKULENKO: (Non-English language spoken).

KAKISSIS: In this 2018 interview, he called for Ukrainians to break free of Russian influence.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

VAKULENKO: (Through interpreter) I lived through the Soviet¹¹ Union, and I hated it with all my heart. We don't need them or their matryoshka dolls. We have to rebuild our own culture, our true culture.

KAKISSIS: His mother says that after her son disappeared, she tried to find out where he was. Days passed, then weeks.

IHNATENKO: (Through interpreter) It was torture. Some of my neighbors said they had heard rumors¹² he was taken to Russia to be tried in court there. I hung onto that hope because I thought if he's in jail, maybe we can still help him.

KAKISSIS: The Ukraine chapter of PEN International, an advocacy group for writers, spread the word of his disappearance¹³. Novelist Victoria Amelina is a member of that group. She says Russian forces have abducted¹⁴ or killed many Ukrainian artists, writers and historians.

VICTORIA AMELINA: Our Russian occupiers, their goal is to exterminate¹⁵ Ukrainian identity. They want to kill those who cannot be converted into Russians.

KAKISSIS: Amelina now helps Ukrainian authorities research war crimes. She arrived in Vakulenko's village in September, not long after Ukrainian forces liberated¹⁶ it and the surrounding area after seven months of Russian occupation. She went straight to his parents to get their testimony¹⁷. They told her that their son was still missing.

AMELINA: And while we're talking about that, Volodymyr's father remembered that Volodymyr hid the diary, buried it under the cherry tree in the garden. So we decided that we should go and get the diary.

KAKISSIS: She found the diary buried under the tree. The pages were damp after being in the ground for months. With his family's permission, Amelina took it to Tetiana Pylypchuk, the head of Kharkiv's literary museum.

TETIANA PYLYPCHUK: (Through interpreter) Our conservators did what we could to preserve its pages, to repack it and document what was in it. We hoped to keep it safe for him until he returned to publish it.

KAKISSIS: A few weeks later, Ukrainian authorities discovered a mass grave in the woods near his village. A ledger¹⁸ listing the dead indicated that Vakulenko was buried there. His mother said that Ukrainian authorities asked for DNA¹⁹ tests to verify.

IHNATENKO: (Through interpreter) His father went to Kharkiv for this test. And when the results came back that this was my son, in a mass grave, it was the most terrible day. Before then, I had hope. And that day is when my hope died.

KAKISSIS: In November, the Kharkiv region's chief police investigator²⁰ said that the poet had been shot to death not long after his arrest. He was 49 years old.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).

KAKISSIS: His funeral was held in early December, in Kharkiv, where he's now buried. Many Ukrainian writers, including Victoria Amelina, attended.

AMELINA: (Non-English language spoken).

KAKISSIS: His diary is still in the Kharkiv Literary Museum. On a recent visit, a museum administrator²¹ peels back layers of protective tissue and shows us a slim notebook of graph paper. Vakulenko's handwriting is small and curly. In one of the entries, read here by a translator, the poet tries to find hope in his circumstances.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Reading) I have pulled myself together and even worked in the garden a little, bringing potatoes into the house. The birds chirp²² only in the morning. Today, a small flock of cranes congratulated me from the sky, as if to say I believe in victory.

KAKISSIS: There are no plans yet to publish this diary, Volodymyr Vakulenko's unexpected last work, but a publishing house is reissuing his books with the proceeds going to support his family.

Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, Kapytolivka, Ukraine.

1 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

2 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 spout   

v.喷出，涌出；滔滔不绝地讲；n.喷管；水柱

参考例句：

• Implication in folk wealth creativity and undertaking vigor spout.蕴藏于民间的财富创造力和创业活力喷涌而出。
• This acts as a spout to drain off water during a rainstorm.在暴风雨季，这东西被用作喷管来排水。

7 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 fascist   

adj.法西斯主义的；法西斯党的；n.法西斯主义者，法西斯分子

参考例句：

• The strikers were roughed up by the fascist cops.罢工工人遭到法西斯警察的殴打。
• They succeeded in overthrowing the fascist dictatorship.他们成功推翻了法西斯独裁统治。

10 disdain   

n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑

参考例句：

• Some people disdain labour.有些人轻视劳动。
• A great man should disdain flatterers.伟大的人物应鄙视献媚者。

11 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

12 rumors   

n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷

参考例句：

• Rumors have it that the school was burned down. 有谣言说学校给烧掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rumors of a revolt were afloat. 叛变的谣言四起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。

14 abducted   

劫持，诱拐( abduct的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（肢体等）外展

参考例句：

• Detectives have not ruled out the possibility that she was abducted. 侦探尚未排除她被绑架的可能性。
• The kid was abducted at the gate of kindergarten. 那小孩在幼儿园大门口被绑架走了。

15 exterminate   

v.扑灭，消灭，根绝

参考例句：

• Some people exterminate garden insects by spraying poison on the plants.有些人在植物上喷撒毒剂以杀死花园内的昆虫。
• Woodpeckers can exterminate insect pests hiding in trees.啄木鸟能消灭躲在树里的害虫。

16 liberated   

a.无拘束的，放纵的

参考例句：

• The city was liberated by the advancing army. 军队向前挺进，解放了那座城市。
• The heat brings about a chemical reaction, and oxygen is liberated. 热量引起化学反应，释放出氧气。

17 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

18 ledger   

n.总帐，分类帐；帐簿

参考例句：

• The young man bowed his head and bent over his ledger again.那个年轻人点头应诺，然后又埋头写起分类帐。
• She is a real accountant who even keeps a detailed household ledger.她不愧是搞财务的，家庭分类账记得清楚详细。

19 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

20 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

21 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

22 chirp   

v.(尤指鸟)唧唧喳喳的叫

参考例句：

• The birds chirp merrily at the top of tree.鸟儿在枝头欢快地啾啾鸣唱。
• The sparrows chirp outside the window every morning.麻雀每天清晨在窗外嘁嘁喳喳地叫。