Vera Rich (1936–2009)

This was the first book of Belarusian poems translated into a Western European language. Vera Rich's work and the publication were sponsored by UNESCO and the Byelorussian Soviet authorities, who appear to have had some editorial control over the content. That control resulted in Vera Rich's later 1982 companion volume The Images Swarm Free including works by Maksim Bahdanovich, Zmitrok Biadulia, and Ales Harun, that were absent from this volume. Even with editorial control, the Byelorussian show more Soviet authorities seem to have insisted on the withdrawal of the first edition of Like Water, Like Fire book because they disapproved of the nationalist implications of the heraldic imagery on the original cover, hence the current plain typographic cover. Both books can be difficult to find now, although Like Water, Like Fire is more likely to have found a home in libraries. It seems appropriate, bearing in mind all these circumstances, that I read partial samizdat copies of both works - both good copies but with some updating of, for example, the transliteration of authors' names into the latin alphabet. Obviously I can only review what I read. show less

The Images Swarm Free includes works by Maksim Bahdanovich, Zmitrok Biadulia, and Ales Harun, that were absent from Vera Rich's groundbreaking 1971 volume of translated Belarusian poetry, Like Water, Like Fire, probably because of editorial control by the Byelorussian Soviet authorities. Both books can be difficult to find now, although Like Water, Like Fire is more likely to have found a home in libraries. It seems appropriate, bearing in mind the circumstances surrounding these show more publications, that I read partial samizdat copies of both works - both good copies but with some updating of, for example, the transliteration of authors' names into the latin alphabet. Obviously I can only review what I read. show less