The
Journal of Byelorussian Studies
Vol. V, No. 2
KUPALA AND KOLAS THROUGH THE EYES OF AN ARTIST
by B. Zaborau
...I would include Janka Kupala amongst the number of
those poets whom it is possible to illustrate. His poetry is
characterised
by the concreteness of its imagery. His lyric hero is as real as life
itself.
He does not dissolve in a multitude of half-tones and shades. The poet
fashions powerful realistic forms like a sculptor hewing his work from
a block of granite. Janka Kupalaís granite is the land and life
of Byelorussia;
it is real material, the joys and sorrows of which were well known to
him.
Being himself an integral part of this life and a great national bard,
he responds to it with particular acuteness and pain, and precisely
because,
in my opinion, his poetry is as concrete as pain itself...
...There exist works of literature which, regardless of
when they were written and of their national and geographical
provenance,
carry thoughts which are always actual and alive, emotive and dear to
people
of all periods. It is to this category of works that in my opinion
Kolas's Symon-muzyka
belongs...
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