The Journal of Byelorussian Studies
Vol. V, No. 1

KUPALA'S TRANSLATIONS FROM SHEVCHENKO 
by A.B. McMillin 

Rarely do two national writers have so much in common as had the Ukrainian Kobzar and Kupala, the Byelorussian Shevchenko: the man who had given lyrical expression to Ukraine's cultural, social and political aspirations evoked a uniquely sympathetic response in the poet-prophet of the Byelorussian early 20th-century renaissance. Uncommon too was Kupala's extensive work as a translator...

...The abundance of translations on the pages of Naša Niva played an important role in the accelerated development of modern Byelorussian literature, just as in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, to which Byelorussians increasingly looked back as to a golden age, translations of medieval ecclesiastical and secular tales... reflected a broadening of national horizons and aspirations. But whilst translations from French and German writers, for instance, might bring added sophistication to early 20th-century poetry, the role of Shevchenko in the development of not only Byelorussian literature but also Byelorussian national awareness was a moreorganic and fundamental one...

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