belarusians.co.uk | Беларусы ў Вялікабрытаніі

Originally appeared:
The Taking of Polack — 1579. An Elizabethan Newssheet. The Journal of Byelorussian Studies, 1965, 1(1), 16-22.

That the taking of the fortress of Polack by Stefan Batory was considered to be a famous victory in its day is evident from the publication of this rare English newssheet in the year of the battle itself — 1579. The interest which this event aroused in England may be explained in part by economic and in part by political factors. In Elizabethan days the growing power of England’s fleet in the face of the threat of the Hapsburg Empire caused the merchants in London and the furnishers of the Queen’s navy to look to their sources of supply of “all necessaries for their shipping as Masts, ropes, pitch and tar, hemp and flax… from Pruceland, Leueland and Roussyay.” [1] Political quarrels with the German Emperor, and constant disputes with the once all-powerful Hanseatic League were having a detrimental effect on England’s Baltic trade, and forcing the London merchants to seek new sources of raw material by the northern route to Archangel and Muscovy. [2] This process was hastened by the uncertainty caused by the outcome of the Livonian Wars. Read more…

by Robert Patry-Tamushanski

Originally appeared:
Robert Patry-Tamushanski, Byelorussian Renaissance Verse. The Journal of Byelorussian Studies, 1965, 1(1), 23-29.

The earliest examples of verse composition in Middle Belarusian are connected with the name of Francis Skaryna, the first Belarusian printer and universal genius. In literary history he is known as the author of the Prefaces or introductions to the various books of the Bible which he printed in Prague in 1517. In several of these he placed short rhymes or verses in which he explained the significance of each book, and added a few of his own reflections. Thus in the Preface to the Book of Esther, the content of the verse is related to that of the book:

Не копай под другом своим ямы,
Сам ввалишся в ню.
Не став амане, мордохею шибенице
Сам повиснеш на не.

Dig not a pit before thy friend —
thou shalt fall therein.
Set not up, O Ammon, a gallows for
Morduch — from it thou shalt hang.

Elsewhere, in his Preface to the Book of Exodus, the Doctor of Polack gives a version of the Ten Commandments done into naive rhyme which may have been devised to instruct children or simple folk in the essential tenets of the Faith.

Веруи в Бога единаго
А не бери надармо имени его
Помни дни светые святыти
Отца и матку чтити
Не забивай ни едина
И не делай греху блудна
Не вкради что дружнего
А не давай свиденцтва лжива
Не пожедай жены юлижнего
Ни имения или речи его.

Believe in One God, but take not his name in vain etc. [2]

However, Skaryna’s verse fragments are hardly poetry and were not sufficiently substantial to make any impression in Belarusian literature. Another sixty years were to pass before any significant new verse was to appear, but from this time the development was more fruitful. Read more…

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