In honor of Belarusan poets, part I:
Анатоль Сыс (Anatol’ Sys), 1959-2005. A native of Haroshkau in Rechytsa district of the Pripet region of southern Belarus, and a devoted voice of the Belarusan language, Sys published three anthologies during the meteoric poetic trajectory of his short life. The first was Агмень (“Ahmjen'”), a rarely-used Belarusan word meaning “hearth” and symbolizing for Sys his Belarusan homeland, in 1988. Next came Пан лес (“Pan Ljes”, or “Lord Forest”, again symbolizing his homeland) in 1989. The third anthology, Сыс (Sys), appeared in 2002.
The poem below, Радзіма пачынаецца з жанчыны (“Homeland beginneth with a woman”), contains images and symbols linking some of the deepest Belarusan pre-Christian points of reference (fire and its warmth; the drifting ice of winter which covers, but never stills, the rivers and lakes beneath) with the quiet, rooted Belarusan points of reference of everyday life. These latter images include chopping firewood, with the attendant connotation for every Belarusan of quiet and determined labor and the neatness of the stacked wood as the sign of a house well cared for; a son’s reverence for his mother; and the light, heat and inspiration that a true fire (of love, of devotion to one’s homeland) gives as it lives on despite the (metaphoric) bitter cold of winter. It is also worth noting that Радзіма (“Radzima”) is feminine in gender and contains the same root as the word for “birth”.
У гонар беларускіх паэтаў, І:
Паклон Анатолю Сысу (1959-2005)
Радзіма пачынаецца з жанчыны.
Я гэта адчуваў, а ўразумець
яшчэ не мог — дзіцём шчапаў лучыну,
каб хворую матулю адагрэць,
і разам з ёй да позняе гадзіны
мы слухалі трывожна крыгалом,
не ведаў я, што грэў тады Радзіму
і не падманным, а жывым агнём.
Анатоль Сыс
Karanjova 2008/Каранёва 2008
Prudniki 2008/Пруднікі 2008
Ljepjel’shchyna 2007/Лепельшчына 2007
Azdamichy 2009/Аздамічы 2009
