Tatiana Sapach, "Mistress of the Autumn House";

"Spring", Prague 2022. Contribution and comments by

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- In fact, the artistic basis of the publication "Mistress of the Autumn House" is Tatsiana Sapach's single collection "Autumn", which was published 30 years ago and had a rather modest volume.

I will not ask you, as a companion of the poet's life, why she published only one collection, why she did not write or print more.

And I will ask as a literary critic: in your opinion, what makes the collection "Autumn" so special that it is almost unanimously considered a masterpiece of Belarusian poetry?

- That first "Autumn" was also contributed by me, Tatsiana did not deal with it and did not imitate where she wrote and printed.

She read, loved and knew how to read poems.

Poetry for her and her poetry for us is an ephemeral phenomenon or, as Valery Brusau, a Russian friend of Belarusian poets, said, "unreasonable".

When Vera Rich was translating "Autumn" into English, she might have wondered your question too.

That's why they did it like this: Tanya read, and Vera listened to intonations, prosody, music and wrote it down.

Not words, meanings, semicolons.

With this, I can explain why it is a masterpiece, by comparing it with music, with what I love most in literature.

And music... You can create volumes of musicology, but you cannot explain why a work takes the heart.

This can also be compared to dreams.

You fall asleep and fall from the real world into the world of the collective unconscious.

Your dreams are intertwined with other people's dreams, and other people's dreams are intertwined with yours, after which you discuss all this for a long time, compile dream books, and this is interesting in its own way, but, by and large, it has nothing to do with the dreams themselves.

Tatyana Sapach

- In the collection you enclosed there is a chapter "Early poems", which have not been published anywhere before.

Did you know about these poems when the poetess was still alive?

Where were they found?

- I didn't know.

And no one knew, except, of course, the author.

A general notebook, written in a neat handwriting, the finished collection was found in the parents' house when Tatiana was no longer there.

Apparently, by making such a handwritten book, she finally satisfied her desire to print, to record, to consolidate that trembling of the soul, which is poetry itself.

Fixation—the formal side of things, not poetry in itself—she was no longer interested in.

Tatyana Sapach

- The book "Mistress of the Autumn House" was published by the "Viasna" publishing house in Prague.

Could you tell us a little bit about the history of this publication and the problems associated with the publication?

- Thanks to good people, I personally did not experience any problems.

When I finished sorting through the archives and periodicals, when the image of a classic volume of poetry formed in my head and I finally "saw" the book, then I composed the text and turned to the Yanushkevich publishing house.

There, the idea was understood and picked up with half a word.

And when the layout was almost ready, there was a pogrom at "Yanushkevich", "Knigavka", and Andrei was arrested.

And then the Prague partners of "Janushkevich", the publishing house "Vyasna", immediately appeared and quickly completed the matter.

The book took a dramatic path, but I didn't feel it.

I felt only a certain correspondence of the demi-season - "Autumn" came out in "Spring".

I am sincerely grateful to Andrei Yanushkevich, Vesna Vashko, Syarhey Shup and everyone who contributed to this wonderful life episode.

Tatyana Sapach

— How do you generally see the situation with independent Belarusian book publishing now, after 2020?

Will it withstand this test, if it was pushed out of the borders of Belarus?

- So far I don't see what could prevent it.

The book nation can only survive in this way: even if abroad, even at war, even if in a concentration camp.

Tatyana Sapach

- Some Belarusian writers and, more broadly, creators of culture, have gone abroad, where they can express themselves quite freely, although in radically different circumstances than in Belarus.

Some of them remained in Belarus, where they were actually forced to remain silent or write in a drawer in order not to be persecuted and imprisoned for "extremism".

Or make deals with the regime, as was practically the case with writers and creators of culture in the Soviet era.

What does this situation mean for Belarusian culture now?

Are the times of the "iron curtain" and the situation of "two Belarusian cultures" returning?

Will modern communication capabilities prevent such a scenario?

- I somehow looked around and saw that all my life I wrote and published something, if not underground, then definitely non-state.

And in the drawer, and behind the "iron curtain".

And that's what I saw.

There was no hope for change.

Well, absolutely.

He did and did.

But then the Soviet Union collapsed, Belarus became independent, Kalinovsky found himself... In a word, I did my job all my life without hope for change.

And then miracles began to happen.

And when they started to happen, hope appeared.

That Luka is not for long, that all this savagery is not for long, the terror is not for long.

And as soon as hope appeared, history seemed to turn back, anti-miracles began.

Hope, if it does not come true, begins to prevent you from doing your job.

Now I'm back to my old self and just going about my business with no hope of change.

Absolutely.

After all, if you believe in what you're doing, that's all the hope you need.

Perhaps all of us, people on the bright side, have fallen into this trap of hope.

Tatyana Sapach

- What are you busy with now?

Are you writing a book?

Are you editing something?

- I write, but I am not a "system writer".

I can write something for years, and then sit down and write a book in a week or two, unexpected even for myself.

The opposite is the case with editing: it is a daily planning job.

The other day, Zmytr Bartosik and I finished working on his new travel book.

It's called Kill Upalminzag.

Weird name, right?

Upalminzag is the authorized Ministry of Billets in post-war Belarus.

Bolshevik, in a word.

This is the type of Red Army officer in Syarhei Piasetsky.

A thief who recognizes only brute strength, everything else is weakness for him.

And the weak need to be suppressed, pressed, killed.

Now, few people know about the war after the war, when, I believe, national resistance to the Bolsheviks, Russification, and collective farms developed in our country.

Upalminzag calls this resistance "banditry".

Everything is the opposite, in a word.

And when the Belarusians forgot about this resistance, about the death, suffering and servitude that the new government brought to our people, then upalminzag returned.

Today's terror in the country is him, otherwise he, seizing power with weapons,

does not know how to manage.

This is his revenge.

And Bartosik's book will tell about it.

Among other things, I am writing the third book "Votes of Belarus - 2022".

Starting from 2020, I am preparing such books of evidence of what is happening in the country.

This is oral history, people's stories about what happened to them.

Prisons, torture, escapes - that's all.

It seems that two years have passed, and many people do not believe that it was and that it is still going on.

But you need to know, you need to be vigilant.

Tatyana Sapach

- How do you live in Vilnius now?

With nostalgia for the early 1990s?

- I haven't lived in Vilnius for 12 years.

Then it was decided to move to Minsk forever.

After several years I worked in Prague and in 2014 I settled down in Belarus.

During this time, I closed all Vilnius business with Gestalts, accounts and duties.

In other words, he consciously and spontaneously decided to live and work in Minsk.

He settled down, established connections-communications.

And here once!

It was as if some invisible hand took me by the skin and carried me back to Vilnius.

Without any desire of mine, without any of my plans, in general without my participation.

It was fate that counted me among the "participants of the extremist formation", which cannot be canceled or explained in any way.

I won't be surprised if the miracles continue.

On August 26, we held Tatyana Sapach's party at the Center for Belarusian Culture and Community.

For 20 years, she was the creator of "Vilnius Notebook" on Lithuanian television.

And we watched her shows, in which she read poems.

And you could watch and listen to it endlessly.

At the memory party of Tatyana Sapach at the Center of Belarusian Culture and Community in Vilnius.

August 26, 2022

At the party in memory of Tatyana Sapach at the Center of Belarusian Culture and Community.

August 26, 2022

At the memory party of Tatyana Sapach at the Center of Belarusian Culture and Community in Vilnius.

August 26, 2022

* * *

Tatyana Sapach.

Three poems from the book "Mistress of the Autumn House"

From the section "Early poems"

I'm tired of waiting.

And the light will go out,

the window will be crossed with maple branches.

I will lose my oar in the middle of the river,

I will freeze in the snow on the steps of the stairs.

I'm tired of waiting.

In the mirror,

Rabin's eyes flash an indifferent shadow.

Winter will sew a sheet of snowflakes,

Bury the ages in a fearful moment.

I'm tired of waiting.

I will leave the door.

Loneliness will melt like an icicle in the house...

I'm waiting for now.

The fire did not go out.

I'm afraid: one day I'll get tired of waiting.

From the chapter "Autumn"

Between the walls and the ceiling here -

wind and snow, between the

Christmas candles -

wolf's eyes...

My God, if you are in the world -

then where?

And why do you not want to see this despair?

Who is the intruder

who has tipped the direction of

this easy

but treacherous irt of mine?

Only wind and snow...

And the only salvation

is the eyes of a wolf

with an insatiable shine.

From the section "Poems of different years"

All around is silence, do not drive, dust and hunger.

The ringing of unnecessary sounds is tamed.

I, the mistress of the autumn house, am the only

authority and law here.

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• Jan Maksimyuk

  Radio Svaboda journalist

  Editor of the community "Only about literature" on Facebook 

  maksymiukj@rferl.org

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