One of the biggest issues of moving to England as a person who is Ukrainian AND neurodivergent is not knowing how to answer the small talk question of “how are you”, but today I was reminded that Ukrainian blessed me with the phrase that roughly translates as “living is hard but dying would be a pity” and can we please naturalise it so I can use it all day every day
Okay so this post breached containment I think so I feel the need to clarify, because the vibes in the notes seem to suggest that people see this as an inspirational quote bestowed onto someone to help them soldier on. That’s not how Ukrainians do it. Rather, imagine a person that looks like they haven’t slept in three days and also hiked up a mountain. They are asked “Hey how you doing buddy”, and in response they let out the deepest, most done with this shit sigh you can imagine, mutter their favourite curse word and THEN they say the phrase (which, by the way, is four words in Ukrainian – тяжко жити, шкода вмерти/tyazhko zhyty, shkoda vmerty). It’s said as if they’re trying to convince themselves that dying would, indeed, he a pity. The other person looks at them, their eyes full of understanding, sigh also and then say “well at least we’re not russians”.
And THAT is what helps a Ukrainian soldier on.
Okay so uh this double breached containment and I’m really really scared because this was my second post on Tumblr dot com out of the two I made in total and now it has like 650 notes so I hope it’ll make you guys happy to see my flatmate’s mug that has The Phrase on it.
Bonus: the other side that says “what did I do to deserve this”.
amhrancas 