Poet, translator, researcher, writer

now lives and studies in London.

The idea for the book "We will return" appeared in the winter of 2021, when the girl was in Belarus and was going to leave only under one of two conditions: either she would be prosecuted in a criminal case, or she would receive a scholarship to study in Britain.

"Then many close people left, and this experience was not easy, I watched it all.

On Facebook, I often had such thoughts, comments towards people who went: "So you went and are enjoying life, you guys are like that."

And I think: so it's not like that!

This is not true!

I knew that it was emotionally difficult for these people.

And that's how the idea came to write about this experience," shares the poet Anna Komar.

Since at that time Anna was not alone in emigration, she decided to turn to her friends and write one collective poem.

"I put out a call on Facebook for people to share their stories.

These were like written interviews.

Some 5-8 stories were collected, in the summer of 2021 I started work, opened the document with the story of the girl Tanya and just intuitively began to highlight what seemed important to me.

I devoted almost a page, I was so emotionally affected by the story, with what sincerity she told the story, shared the details.

And I realized that each of these stories is worth a separate poem, because they are very different, but they are all very important."

Excerpt from the poem

:

cried

with a friend

with my former flowers

in my former room

in my former city

cried

my former life

the first

ten days

chopped wood

horror, longing, pain

hugged the dog

horror, longing, pain

collected in the forest

horror, longing, pain

cooked food

horror, longing, pain

I like to rescue from the garbage

loneliness

horror, longing,

pain

there is no strength

there are dreams

come back

"It can be therapeutic for the person themselves"

Anna says that for her this is a poetic experiment that can help other people.

"I showed the poems and told about the idea to my acquaintance Vladimir Karkunov, a Russian poet and translator who, together with his colleagues, translated our Belarusian poems into Russian in 2020.

Vladimir told me that this is documentary poetry.

That is, I did not invent anything, but simply intuitively did what was already done to me."

Vladimir offered the poet to publish a book.

Then Anna collected another interview, and finished her work when she moved to London.

Everything took more than a year.

"Tenderness, love for Belarus permeates all poems"

At that time, Anna was also collecting an interview for her prose about 9 days in Akrestin and Zhodzin.

"I already had such an experience - listening, letting this experience pass through me, but with poems it turned out to be more difficult, because I was left alone with each of these stories, passing it through me in great detail.

And at a certain moment I had to take a break.

In the fall of 2021, I came to London, where I developed post-traumatic stress disorder, and I struggled with it.

But in two months of autumn, I finished the book, because I was still a little bit pushed by the guilt of "the one who survived": that this is now my mission, I have to do it, because no one will do it."

Anna admits that she did not have the strength or words to describe her experience of emigration, but working on other people's stories became therapeutic.

From the common images and feelings in all the stories, there was a feeling that you are in a new place, but supposedly still in Belarus, says the poetess.

"It's as if you're not in Belarus, but you're restless, you have dreams, you're constantly following the news and it's as if you continue to live in Belarus remotely.

I tried to show that some people left because there was real danger.

Someone left because they could no longer live like this, did not want to support the regime.

Someone is waiting for your return.

But such tenderness, love for Belarus, the feeling of connection with Belarus and the fact that what is happening in this country is important to you, it also permeates all the poems."

"The task is to tell stories accurately, emotionally, without betraying people"

Among the questions Anna asked during the interview with the characters were: "What did you take with you from Belarus when you left?", "How did you say goodbye to people?", "What do you remember?

What are your first memories of a new place?

What were the smells and sounds?

What was the weather like?".

"Through this, you can see how people meet a new life and learn to live in a new way: how you just read a book, just go for a walk, look out the window, wait for something.

We have to live, because wherever we are, we are still a part of Belarus.

And we also need to be alive, healthy, we need to be in order.

We didn't disappear anywhere, we didn't die."

The poetess sent each hero a poem with his story.

Anna says it's like a journalistic job.

"I sent and asked: "Is this your story?

I didn't say anything?

Or is it you?

Do you recognize yourself?" They answered: "Yes, I recognize myself;

yes, this is my story."

Many people cried.

While I was creating these stories, I didn't think about how the book would be perceived, who would read it, but the initial task was to tell the stories accurately, emotionally, without betraying these people and their stories."

It is important for the author that the book is written in Belarusian and Russian, although Anna herself writes her own poems in Belarusian and now in English.

"But this book is in two languages, because people told me their stories in them.

I thought that since it was important to convey people's voices, it was important to preserve the language of the hero here."

"You need to talk, admit to yourself that you feel this way, that you are sad, that you are in pain"

In the book "We will return", Anna calls herself a co-author.

Even on the cover, the name of Anna Komar is placed in the center, and the names of the heroes around it.

"When there was a presentation of the book in London, you could cut the air with a knife, it was so dense.

When you read a book, everything inside is compressed, it was difficult.

The book became possible to buy thanks to the Belarusian publishing house "Skorina Press" in London, we republished it.

After all, it was originally printed in Moscow, but it remained locked up there, "invisible".

Anna says that it is important to read this book now in order to let go of her experience of emigration, to work through her feelings.

"It seems that even if you left and they didn't chase you, it's still hard, because you're severing ties with a place, experience, people, memories, things that are important to you.

And if this experience is not worked out, it will not go away by itself, it will hide deeper and will make itself known from time to time, like stagnant water that will rot.

You need to talk, admit to yourself that you feel this way, that you are sad, that you are in pain.

So you can let go - and the strength will appear for something different and new, to build your life."

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