КНІГІ ОНЛАЙН
24 One moment more —
And my soul will start to wail...
(Барадулін, Рыгор. Лісты ў Хельсінкі. Мінск: Беларускі кнігазбор, 2000. С. 9).
Although each poem stands independently, some themes and images inevitably recur. For instance, Bykau is directly and indirectly compared to a prodigal son (something that requires considerable poetic license in view of the writer’s involuntary exile); memory and forgetfulness are also recurrent themes to which Baradulin brings vivid imagination and characteristically rich imagery. Religious feelings are to the fore in some of the letters (see, for example, M26 (3 December 1999)), but even more frequent are poems placing nostalgia for the joys of Belarusian rural life alongside the far more negative reality of life for the poet. M9 (11 February 1999), for example ends with a heartrending paradox:
Ha радзіме чужыя — свае, Ha чужыне свае — чужыя..25
Another poem, М24 (27 November 1999), after some expressions of optimism for a distant future, ends: „А пакуль усё наадварот“ („For the time being everything is the other way round")26.
In V7 (23 August 1998), asserting the need for everyone to have a guardian angel, Baradulin seems to refer indirectly to Bykau as a prodigal son, and in M12 (12 March 1999) the prodigal son is sought by the stars, but the last lines indicate that, wherever he is physically, he will live in his own country for ever:27
Ha зямлі, дзе продкі спачываюць, Дзе б ні быў,
Жывеш да скону дзён2й.
Baradulin appears to oscillate between impatience and resignation: V8 (11 November 1998), for instance, ends with the word napa... („it is time"...), whilst the end of Mil (17 February 1999) gains pathos by repetition:
25 In one’s Fatherland alien people are one’s own
In foreign places one’s own are alien.
(Барадулін, Рыгор. Лісты ў Хельсінкі... С. 36.
26 Барадулін, Рыгор. Лісты ўХельсінкі... С. 50.
27 This idea relates directly to the earlier reference to „Аратай" where Baradulin suggests that Bykau bears his Fatherland within him.
28 In the land where your ancestors rest,
Wherever you may be,
You live to the end of your days.
(Барадулін, Рыгор. Лісты ўХельсінкі... С. 38).
Паціху самота Да змоўклай тугі Звыкае, Звыкае, Звыкае...29
Baradulin seems tired and depressed. M15 (12 April 1999) ends with four lines of the simplest pathos:
Голас жыве —
I жыве спадзяваньне.
Голасжыве —
I трывога жыве...30
In М25 (1 December 1999) Baradulin’s imagery is very characteristic, as in the last five lines of the poem:
I тоіцца
Журба ў жывой красе.
Журбою пахнуць Словы нашы ўсе, Наш хлеб надзённы3'.
29 Gradually loneliness
Will get used,
Get used,
Get used, to silenced grief... (Барадулін, Рыгор. Лісты ўХельсінкі... С. 37).
30 The voice lives —
And hope lives.
The voice lives —
And anxiety lives...
(Барадулін, Рыгор. Лісты ў Хельсінкі... С. 41).
31 And there is hidden
Sadness in living beauty.
All our words,
Our daily bread
Smell of sadness
(Барадулін, Рыгор. ЛістыўХельсінкі... C. 51).
Memory takes many forms in these verse epistles. In Vn (23 July 1999) there is a danger of silence away from native places32:
Гаворыць забыцьцё.
A ты нямееш...33
Memory can also be a prison, and this theme34 dominates in M9 (11 January 1999) which begins thus:
Памяць —
Цямніца суровая —
Вязьняў не адпускае, У хмары іх замуроўвае, Як у жывыя скалы35.
Not everyone, however is imprisoned by memory: in M13 (27 March 1999), for example, memory is portrayed as a fierce wild beast which, as Baradulin bitterly observes in the last three lines, spares tame animals; it is not difficult to decode the latter as conformist writers, a characteristic feature of intolerant societies:
32 This is a recurrent theme. See, for instance, V15 (12 August 1999) where a wall grows suddenly between early memories and reality: this barrier from the Fatherland is „willingly” overgrown with grass [of oblivion]: Барадулін, Рыгор. Лісты ў Хельсінкі... С. 23.
33 Oblivion speaks.
But you are becoming dumb...
(Барадулін, Рыгор. Лісты ў Хельсінкі... С. 19.
34 Perhaps not surprisingly in a country with such an unhappy history, prisons play a considerable part in the language and imagery of literature. For a very recent example, see: Быкаў, Васіль. Вязніца траўм (прыпавесьць) [The Traum Prison (a Parable)] // New Zealand Slavonic Journal. 2002. P. 5—8. This version of the parable is accompanied by a translation into English. It was republished with slight modifications in: Барадулін, Рыгор, Быкаў, Васіль. Калі рукаюцца душы. Мінск: Кніга, 2003. С. 224—226.
35 Memory is
A stern prison
It does not release its prisoners,
It walls them up in clouds,
As in living rock faces.
(Барадулін, Рыгор. Лісты ўХельсінкі... С. 35).
Памяць — дзікі зьвер,
Відаць, таму
Ён усіх прыручаных шкадуе...зЬ
This brief review of „Лісты ў Хельсінкі" may be concluded by a letter, M22 (5 October 1999, from Hospital No. 10)37 where the clouds bear a message to Baradulin’s dearest friend, however unhelpful they may have been earlier38:
Нахмурыліся хмары на мяне, Што даўнавата не сачыў за імі. Плывуць сабе ў нябеснай старане Дарогамі бясьследнымі сваімі.
Я імі перадаць хачу паклон
Найдарагому сябру на чужыне.
Сум асланіўшы, дагарае клён, Аддаўшы долу золатам даніну.
Пастух нябесны, вецер, не гані Такхутка хмары, Дай ім запыніцца.
Дай падзівіцца зь ціхай сьветлыні,
Якая ў даўганоч выгнанцу сьніцца...39
36 Memory is a wild beast, Apparently that is why It spares all tame animals... (Барадулін, Рыгор. Лісты ўХельсінкі... С. 39).
37 Apart from the general points of despatch, this is the only one of the epistles to have a specific address.
38 See, for instance, V10 (18 July 1999) where after two years the clouds will still not give a response.
39 The dark clouds frowned at me, Because I had not watched them some time. They sail along in their heavenly realm Along their traceless paths.
I wish through them to greet My dearest friend, who is abroad. Screening my longing, the maple bums its last, Handing down its tribute in gold.
The final joint venture between Bykau and Baradulin, „Калі рукаюцца душы...“, appeared in 2003, the year of the former’s death. Subtitled simply „Poetry and Prose“, it takes as its title an evocative line from one of Baradulin’s poems. This unique book comprises verse epistles by Baradulin and three sets of prose miniatures, described as parables, by Bykau. The poems, also in three sections, were written as follows: twenty-six to Germany from the Vusaca region (from underneath the eves of mother’s house); eighty-three to Germany from Miensk (from beneath a glassy sky); and eighteen to Golden Prague from Miensk (covered by a gloomy blizzard). The prose sections, which are philosophical rather than epistolary in form, are entitled „Байкі жыцьця “ („Fairytales of Life")40, „Абязбожаны люд“ (, A People Who Have Lost Their God“), and „Хутаранцы"(„Farming Folk"). There are also a few graphic sketches by Bykau, recalling the illustrations in ,/Іісты ў Хельсінкі", as well as some reflections on the phenomenon of verse correspondence: having first explained the immense importance of the correspondence for him during his exile, and having explained that this ‘duet’ is not intended to be more powerful than a solo voice, he turns, ironically, to a theme, memorably raised by Janka Kupala a century earlier in his poem, „А xmo там ідзе?“ („And, Say, Who Goes There?", 1905—1907):
Шкада, алемы, беларусы, насуперак усяму (часам ісабе)усё яшчэ імкнемся даказаць сьвету, што маем неадчэпны намер людзьмі звацца. Прынамсі, ня горшыміза іншых"
The book concludes with a stirring prose reflection by Baradulin, „Дарасьці!“ („Grow Up To [Him]!"), in which he reflects on the genre of parable as employed by Bykau, pointing out the futility of trying to retell or explain a parable, and underlining his friend’s unique role, not only as the nation’s conscience but as the apostle entrusted with the thankless task of
=> Wind, O heavenly shepherd, do not drive
The clouds so quickly,
Let them stop.
Let me guess from their quiet brightness,
What dream the exile is dreaming during the long night...
(Барадулін, Рыгор. ЛістыўХельсінкі... C. 48).
40 The title, of course, recalls Jakub Kolas’s „Казкі жыцьця“ (1921).
41 It is a pity, but we Belarusians, despite everything (at times ourselves too), still try hard to prove to the world that we have an unshakeable desire to call ourselves people. At least, not worse than other people (Барадулін, Рыгор, Быкаў, Васіль. Калі рукаюцца дупіы... С. 5).
keeping the people’s memory awake and not letting them sleep, however strong the desire to shut their eyes to what is going on. In „Сыноптык“ („The Weatherman") Bykau remarks with melancholy irony, „Усё добра, калі ёсьць надзея, тады й сьпіцца лепей“ („Everything’s alright when you have hope; then you sleep better too")42. The temptation to quote Baradulin endlessly is not reduced by the melancholy nature of many of the poems in this volume, and the difficulty of quoting Bykau’s concise, precise prose is as difficult in his last book as it was in the stories with which he made his name in the 1960s. What follows is an attempt to convey something of the flavour of this unusual and very touching volume.
Of Bykau’s written contributions, half of the parables had already appeared in print: mostly in his 1999 collection, „Пахаджане" („Wanderers")43 and one in „New Zealand Slavonic Papers"44. The new ones published for the first time in „Калі рукаюцца душы...“ are in the same deeply pessimistic vein, and readers of „Пахаджане“ will know what to expect, and be delighted to find more reflections in the same genre. Earlier in his career Bykau was plagued by ignorant critics who accused him of self-repetition45, but these philosophical miniatures with a strong political undercurrent cover a wide range of themes within the same genre. Despite Baradulin’s warnings quoted above, that one should read and not retell or interpret parables, some idea of their content may be given here by a few brief outlines. The first of the new tales in „Пахаджане“, „Насарогі ідуць“ („The Rhinoceros are Coming"), concerns a tribe led by Ko who are attacked by rhinoceros-people and forced to surrender their crops and valuables, then their womenfolk. Ko is opposed by Dzo, who disappears before a major, ultimately victorious, battle against the rhinoceros-people in which Ko is amongst the slain. When he returns no one invites him to take Ko’s place as leader, and he does not ask for that: he knew howto deal with rhinoceros46. In „Вязьніца траўм" {„The Traum Pri