International Poetry Reading Day, on December 4th, saw Belarus Radio making an unusual broadcast with the Yakub Kolas State Literary-Memorial Museum, reading extracts from works in Belarusian, Russia, Ukrainian, Kazakh, English and Spanish.
Journalists from Belarusian Radio joined representatives of the country’s national and cultural communities in reading poetry, including the well-loved Symon the Musician: a golden classic of Belarusian literature for the past 90 years. The poem is studied by all schoolchildren and have been many times published, illustrated by famous artists.
TV, radio performances and art performances of the poem have been staged, and a full score, opera libretto and literary composition for reading created in its honour.
Famous sculptor Zair Azgur included Symon and Ganna — major characters from the poem — in his sculpture, erected in Yakub Kolas Square in Minsk. Symbolically, the work’s jubilee is being celebrated in the Year of Youth, since the great Belarusian writer devoted this poem to Belarusian youth and addressed it to people with sympathetic and kind souls.
By Vladimir Mefodiev
