Natallia Arsiennieva

Natallia Arsiennieva (also spelled as Arsenneva or Arsieńjeva; Belarusian: Наталля Аляксееўна Арсеньева; ; 1903–1997) was a Belarusian playwright, poet and translator who authored the lyrics to the hymn "Mahutny Boža” (Almighty God). She was married to Francišak Kušal.
Origin and early life
Arsiennieva was born on 20 September 1903 into a middle-class family in Baku, a major oil-producing centre of the Russian Empire (today the capital of Azerbaijan).
In 1905 Arsiennieva's family moved first to Volhynia (Volyn) and then to Wilno (Vilnius) where she spent her childhood and graduated from the Belarusian gymnasium of Wilno in 1921. She later studied at the Arts Department of the University of Wilno.
In 1922 Arsiennieva married Francišak Kušal, a prominent figure of the Belarusian independence movement and Nazi collaborator.
During World War 2
Following the Soviet invasion of Poland, her husband, who was at the time an officer of the Polish army, was taken as a prisoner of war and spent a year in Soviet incarceration before being sent to Minsk in 1941. After Minsk was captured by the German army in 1941, he became a Nazi collaborator, rising to become a commander in the Byelorussian Home Defence.
Arsiennieva worked for a regional Soviet newspaper but was soon arrested and deported as a "bourgeois nationalist intellectual" to Kazakhstan with her two sons. However, in early 1941 she was released after a petition by the Belarusian Union of Writers and moved to Minsk, where during the German occupation she also collaborated with the Nazis, working for the pro-Nazi Belaruskaya Gazeta. She wrote several librettos for operas and was engaged in translations.
After World War 2
In 1944 Arsiennieva moved to Germany and in 1950 to the United States. She was involved in the establishment, and was a long-term secretary, of the Belarusan-American Association. She was also the editor of the newspaper Biełarus and worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the .
Works
Poems
Люблю я сонца залатое. Вечар неба фарбуе (Вершы) // Родныя гоні : месячнік літаратуры й культуры Заходняе Беларусі,1927, сакавік [I love the golden sun. The evening paints the sky (Poems) // Native lands: monthly magazine of literature and culture of Western Belarus, 1927, March], No. 1, p. 3, 4 (in Belarusian)
Сьміялася ў вочы вясна. Вячорная часіна (Вершы) // Родныя гоні : месячнік літаратуры й культуры Заходняе Беларусі, 1927, красавік [Spring laughed in my eyes. Evening time (Poems) // Native lands: monthly magazine of literature and culture of Western Belarus, 1927, April], No. 2, p. 1, 2 (in Belarusian)
Паралель (Верш) // Родныя гоні : месячнік літаратуры й культуры Заходняе Беларусі, 1927, май [Parallel (Poem) // Native lands: monthly magazine of literature and culture of Western Belarus,1927, May], No. 3, p. 4. (in Belarusian)
Веснавая калыханка. Ішла вясна. *** (Вершы) // Родныя гоні : месячнік літаратуры й культуры Заходняе Беларусі, 1927, чэрвень [Spring lullaby. It was spring. *** (Poems) // Native lands: monthly magazine of literature and culture of Western Belarus, 1927, June], No. 4, p. 2-5 (in Belarusian)
Маячэньні... Калі... Вясёлка. (Вершы) // Родныя гоні : месячнік літаратуры й культуры Заходняе Беларусі, 1927, ліпень—жнівень [Looming ... When ... Rainbow (Poems) // Native lands: monthly magazine of literature and culture of Western Belarus, 1927, July–August], No. 5, p. 1, 2 (in Belarusian)
Пад сінім небам: Вершы, 1921—1925 [Under the Blue Sky: Poems, 1921—1925], Vilnius, 1927 (in Belarusian)
«Жоўтая восень» (не надрукаваны) ["Yellow Autumn" (not printed)] (in Belarusian)
Сягоньня: Вершы, 1941—1943 [Today: Poems, 1941-1943], Minsk, 1944 (in Belarusian)
Між берагамі: Выбар паэзіі, 1920—1970 [Between the Shores: A Selection of Poetry, 1920-1970], New York, Toronto, 1979 (in Belarusian)
Натальля Арсеньнева. Пад сінім небам. Вершы (1920—1925). — Факсімільнае выданьне. — Менск: Мастацкая літаратура , 1992 («Бацькаўшчына»), Natallia Arsiennieva. Under the blue sky. Poems (1920-1925). - Facsimile edition. - Minsk: Mastackaja litaratura, 1992 ("Baćkaŭščyna"), (in Belarusian)
Натальля Арсеньнева. Пад сінім небам (1920—1925). Жоўтая восень (1927—1937). Сягоньня (1941—1943). Не астыць нам (1944—1949). На ростанях. // Укладаньне, прадмова й біяграфічныя даведкі Барыса Сачанкі. Туга па радзіме: паэзія беларускай эміграцыі. — Мінск: Мастацкая літаратура, 1992, с. 10–169, Natallia Arsiennieva. Under the blue sky (1920-1925). Yellow Autumn (1927-1937). Today (1941-1943). We do not come down (1944-1949). At the crossroads. // Layout, introduction and biographical information by Barys Sačanka. Longing for homeland: poetry of the Belarusian emigration. Minsk: Маstackaja litaratura, 1992, p. 10-169, (in Belarusian)
Яшчэ адна вясна: Выбраныя вершы [Another Spring: Selected Poems], Minsk, 1996 (in Belarusian)
Выбраныя творы [Selected works], Minsk, 2002 (in Belarusian)
Plays
Сваты [Matchmakers], 1955 (in Belarusian)
Libretto
to Ščahloŭ's operas "The Forest Lake" («Лясное возера»), "Usiaslaŭ the Sorcerer" («Усяслаў Чарадзей»), in Belarusian
to the operettas "From the Magic Land" («З выраю») and "Kupalle", in Belarusian
words to the cantata "March" («Сакавік»), in Belarusian
Lyrics for hymns
«Магутны Божа» ["Mahutny Boža (Almighty God)"], in Belarusian
Translations
Hauptman's drama "The Sunken Bell"
"Evangelical Christian Songbook"
"Broken Jug" by Kleist
libretto of the operas "The Marriage of Figaro" and "The Magic Flute" by Mozart, "The Freeshooter" by Weber, "Carmen" by Bizet and "The Gypsy Baron" by Strauss
the text of the aria "Eugene Onegin" by Tchaikovsky
introduction to Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"
chapters from "Dziady" (Forefathers’ Eve) and "Pan Tadeusz" by Mickiewicz
"Song about the Bison" by Hussowczyk
individual poems by Goethe
Christmas carol “Silent Night”
Death and memory
Arsiennieva died on July 25, 1997, in Rochester, New York, and is buried in a local cemetery.
Arsiennieva's works were banned in Soviet Belarus, however she lived to see their return to her homeland. Since Gorbachev's Perestroika her poems have gained popularity, especially "Prayer", which, set to music by composer Mikola Ravienski, has become the hymn "Mahutny Boža” (Almighty God). In 1991 the publishing house "Mastackaja litaratura" published her facsimile "Under the Blue Sky"(“Пад сінім небам”), in 1996 in the series "Voices of the Belarusians Abroad" a collection of selected poems "Another Spring" (“Яшчэ адна вясна”) was published, and in 2002 a compilation of her selected poems was published.
However, since 1998 her works have been excluded from the school curriculum by the government of Lukashenka.
In 2003, a monument was erected in her memory in the town of Staryja Darohi, Minsk Region, on the territory of a museum.
References
1903 births
1997 deaths
Writers from Vilnius
People from Baku Governorate
Belarusian nationalists
20th-century Polish dramatists and playwrights
Polish women poets
Polish translators
20th-century translators
20th-century Belarusian poets
Polish women dramatists and playwrights
20th-century Polish women writers
Soviet emigrants to Germany
Journalists from Minsk