SLAVONIC POETRY IN MALTESE (translated from the original languages)

According to the encyclopaedia, the Slavic peoples are the group of peoples who speak Slavonic languages and are divided into East Slavs (Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian, and Rusyn people), West Slavs (Polish, Czech, Slovak, Serbian, and Lucian people) and South Slavs (Bulgarian, Serbian, Montenegrin, Slovenian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Macedonian people). The Slavs are the largest ethno-linguistic group in Europe whose peoples boast a great literary heritage across a variety of genres and trends, including a wealth of poetic culture. I would like to present to Maltese readers some works by the national poets of three Slavonic countries.

I want to point out that while I was working on translating Dun Karm Psaila’s poetry collection from Maltese into Russian and while it was being formatted as an academic publication, I used as a basic methodological source the works of Professor Oliver Friggieri on Malta’s National Poet. His classification of Dun Karm’s poetic works under five thematic directions deserves particular attention. In this way Prof. Friggieri clearly showed that the directions the National Poet’s work took cover all the main aspects of human existence and of Maltese society, and broadly reflect various aspects of the country’s lifestyle.

As a researcher, I wanted to find out how present this reflection of life from different perspectives is in the works of poets from other countries who are recognised as great poets by their community. The positive answer to this question gives, for example, Russian poetry as made manifest by Alexander Pushkin, Sergey Yesenin, and the other poets that Maltese readers can familiarise themselves with in my book Antoloġija tal-Poeżija Russa (Anthology of Russian Poetry) that came out in Malta in 2019. But is one example enough? It was for this reason that I decided to analyse the works of the great poets of other countries. Of course, this work was to involve translations into Maltese from the original languages of poems from the selected countries. I chose poets from Ukraine, Poland, and Belarus. This choice was based on the fact that my own ethnic roots include Ukrainian and Polish components; as for the translations of the original poetic texts from Belarusian into Maltese, I had done these in the past.

Based on Professor Friggieri’s approach, the works of each poet can be classified according to themes, although the contents of the classifiers do not fully coincide. It should also be noted that every poet has a particular theme at heart, one which occupies a central place in their works. But at the same time, it is evident that these differences in the classification of themes do not detract from the obvious conclusion that the complex reflection of their society’s lifestyle is present in the works of all the great poets of each country. This is why they are accorded due recognition, and why the poets themselves are widely known and loved by their people.

As a result of my work, translations from the originals into Maltese of the poems of great poets such as Taras Shevchenko from Ukraine, Adam Mickiewicz from Poland and Yakub Kolas from Belarus were made. Three themes stand out in these works: reflections on the fatherland, the natural beauty of the native country, and the enduring theme of love.

Below is a short bio-note of each poet followed by their poems in their national language and in Maltese appearing in the two columns. On the left are the Ukrainian, Polish and Belarusian texts, respectively.

Taras Shevchenko (1814 – 1861) – Ukrainian poet, prose writer, thinker, painter, graphic artist, ethnographer, and public figure. Poetry plays a central role in his literary heritage. Taras Shevchenko’s works are considered to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and its literary language.

Adam Mickiewicz (1798 – 1855) – Polish writer, poet, translator, playwright, teacher, and public figure. He had a strong impact on the formation of 19th-century Polish, Lithuanian, and Belarusian literature. In Poland he is recognised as one of the most prominent Polish poets of the Romantic era.

Yakub Kolas (1882 – 1956) – Belarusian writer, playwright, poet, translator, and public figure. One of the classics and founders of modern Belarusian literature. National Poet of Belarus.

Yana Psaila (née Kirienko). She is a linguist, translator, poet, and member of the L-Akkademja tal-Malti. This article forms part of the national campaign ‘l-ilsien Malti għal qalbi’, organised by the Office of the President and the Maltese language organisations.