Dream with fish – Oksana Sobol

A few years ago I dreamed that a fish swam into my room through the window. When I woke up, I wrote a little poetry about it.

On the 6th of June this year, the Kakhovska HPP was destroyed by the Russian occupiers. Tons of water washed away everything in its path, trees, pets, cars and even houses flowed downstream. People had to climb onto the roofs of their houses, which were flooded, to save themselves. And when the water receded within a week, thousands of fish remained on the dry banks. And then I remembered the dream about the fish that swam into my room through the window.

The film presents documentary materials from the Dnipro River in the Kherson and Zaporizhya regions in Ukraine after the outbreak of the Russian occupiers Kakhovka dam on June 6, 2023

poetry, voice, film – Oksana Sobol
music – Ding LP
documentary – Euromaidan Press, Ukrinform, S.Zinkevych

video, mp4, 2’2”, 2023

Fish
with the purple scales
simply floats to your hands
and remains there
to just fall asleep
You put it on the pillow
on its right side
So the heart wouldn’t hurt
You whisper
that it will inevitably pale
and your cheeks rest on tears
Those eternally wet eyes,
drift into dreams
as if they are in boiling water
In faint italics,
the spine can be seen
Do you hear
the storm on approach
You open all windows
to give fish a chance
to escape
flee away
and not turn pale
yet it floats
into your hands
and remains fish