Jelena Ejchgorn

“There is an oak tree growing in front of our window / There is an oak tree growing in front of our window / my blue-eyed sweetheart dances under it / my blue-eyed sweetheart dances under it / she dances, dances, and will keep dancing / she dances, dances, and will keep dancing / yesterday you were your mommy’s / yesterday you were your mommy’s / and now you are Količkova / and now you are Količkova. Then they take off her wreath and they put a scarf on her head. (So Količkova is that girl’s new name?) Yes, they always fill in her new surname, Količkova or whatever, it was either Czech, like Vinca or Tonda, now there are Russian names, like Kolja, which is not a Czech name.”

“What we remember – well, the village where we grew up was Novogradka, and we speak Czech. My husband is a German national, but he speaks Czech, and we speak Czech at home. (To her husband) Hello! Husband: I’m listening… And the children: they understand us, but they don’t speak. Russian is spoken everywhere, and so they speak Russian. We thus understand Czech and we ourselves speak Czech. Just like your parents? Yes, like our parents. Mother was a pure Czech, and grandmother was Czech, grandparent was Latvian, the second grandmother was Czech and the grandfather was Czech. And so we speak like that.”