The bad news just doesn’t seem to let up. The other day my publisher friend Mariia emailed from Kharkiv in Ukraine. When I visited Kharkiv two years ago, it was poor, corrupt, dominated by a humungous statue of Lenin, and yet green, charming and peaceful. At least wars were over in Europe’s historic bloodlands, I thought then. Now, writes Mariia, refugees and orphans are streaming in from Donetsk and Lugansk down the road. Maimed soldiers fill Kharkiv’s military hospital. Mariia says: “We will have a lost generation. The time of Hemingway and Remarque returns.” Other former Soviet republics watch in terror.
似乎没个尽头。前几天我的出版商朋友玛利亚(Mariia)从乌克兰哈尔科夫发来一封电子邮件。两年前我去哈尔科夫时，那里民生凋敝、官僚腐败，一尊巨大的列宁雕像俯临城区，然而，这又是一座郁郁葱葱、宁静、迷人的城市。我当时想，至少战争已远离了这片欧洲历史上著名的血色之地。而现在，玛利亚在邮件中写道，顿涅茨克和卢甘斯克的难民和孤儿正源源不断地涌向这里。哈尔科夫市的部队医院里挤满了伤残士兵。玛利亚说：“我们将迎来迷失的一代。海明威(Hemingway)和雷马克(Remarque)的时代又回来了。”其他前苏联加盟共和国正惊恐地目睹着这一切。