Press releases

MINSK, 29 March (BelTA) – A book of Yanka Kupala’s poem And, Say, Who Goes There? in 100 languages has come out in Minsk, BelTA learned from Vladimir Andriyevich, director of the Petrus Brovka Belorusskaya Encyclopedia publishing house.

“The edition can be viewed as an international book as it has united authors, translators, and fans of the Belarusian poetry from different continents,” Vladimir Andriyevich believes.

In his words, Belarusian poet Yanka Kupala was the author who had promoted the sense of national identity by his word and aspired to outline the spiritual priorities of the Belarusian people. “Belarus is an independent state now, and Yanka Kupala’s poem And, Say, Who Goes There? sounds in a different way today. Just like the other works of the Belarusian artist, it touches the reader with its raw truth, expressive humanism, and artistic harmony,” he added.

The poem by Yanka Kupala has caught the attention of translators from difference countries soon after its publication, said professor Vyacheslav Ragoisha, Doctor of Philosophy, honorary chairman of the Yanka Kupala International Foundation. Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Russians, Czechs, and Polish were among the first to translate the poem. “By the early 1970s, the poem has been translated into around 20 languages, including English, Armenian, Georgian, Kazakh, Chinese, Tajik, French, and Estonian. They were followed by versions in Azerbaijani, Arabic, Bulgarian, Greek, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, German, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish, Hindi, Japanese, and some other languages,” Vyacheslav Ragoisha said.

Along with the original version, the book published by Belarusian Encyclopedia features the poem in 100 languages, including Albanian, Basque, Hebrew, Kurdish, Nenets, Persian, Slovak, and Swedish. And, Say, Who Goes There? has been translated into the languages of various ethnic groups.

The book starts with a facsimile of the original poem, which belongs to the Yanka Kupala Grodno State Literary Museum.

The anthology features tens of pictures by Belarusian artists inspired by the life and legacy of the folk poet: Vasily Sharangovich, Alexander Volkov, Mikhail Savitsky, and Ivan Akhremchik.