Топик: YANKA KUPALA

Beginning in the 1900's, his name appeared in the, Ukrainian reading circles. A prominent Ukrainian Slavist, Ilarion Sventsitsky, included Kupala's Why Do You Sleep? and There, in the language of the original, into his book The Renaissance of Byelorussian Literature (1908). He kept in touch with the poet who supplied him with his books and manuscripts. Much was also done to popularize Yanka Kupala by Tsiotka (lit.. Auntie, pen name of Aloiza Pashkevich, a prominent Byelorussian revolutionary poetess) who spent some time in Lviv.

Maxim Gorky sent Mikhailo Kotsyubynsky his translation of Kupala's And Who Goes There together with the notes, pointing out that "this Byelorussian hymn" had excited him tremendously. In 1916, this poem was recited, in Byelorussian, at a poetry evening in Poltava. According to those present, it made a great impression.

Many of Kupala's books were printed dozens of times in the Ukraine. A number of leading Ukrainian men of letters contributed their translations of the poet and dedicated to him their own verse. The unforgettable Maxym Rylsky perhaps most eloquently presented the image of his Byelorussian counterpart. He wrote a poetic triptych, entitled To Yanka Kupala, For Yanka Kupata and Yanka Kupala. The last of the three has the following lines:

... Those in acquaintance with him

Shall never forget

The human warmth in his eyes;

He was the knight of a lofty dream And fought what was false and sly. He cut a precious stone

of the Byelorussian tongue, Working on it with so much loving care. He was a wonder himself. Held in esteem by the nations of kin, Just like Shevchenko was held. He taught us to respect A pair of able hands the best. Down in history our Yanka went, As ever alive as the image, with wings, Of his Byelorussian land."

The first rays of the hot July sun illuminate a sizable spot of land not far from a log house in the village of Vyazintsi where a child, christened Yanka, was bom almost one hundred years ago. It is here that the traditional Kupala festivals of poetry are held, attracting people from neighboring towns and villages and from the Byelorussian capital. Yanka Kupala created an imposing poetic image of his people, revealing for all to see the wealth of their soul in his verse , epic, publicistic and epistle writings and plays.

By tradition, the General Assemblies of the UN are attended by celebrated Byelorussian men of letters as members of delegations of the Byelorussian SSR. All of these have, at one time or another, been able to visit Arrow Park to place flowers at the foot of the monument to their famous countryman which proudly stands beside the monuments to Taras Shevchenko, Alexander Pushkin and Walt Whitman. The song of the Byelorussian lyre is heard amidst the swishing of the ocean surf, the rustling of copper-red maples. In the poet's staring eyes, one can discern the glimmering reflection of an ever-flaming torch. That torch gives the eerie light of the Kupala night, the light recaptured from the sinister darkness of the night. That torch is being raised high over the bearer's head, so it can be seen by all who are determined to be "called human."