«Brothers! The land here is something else!» Fifteen exclusively Belarusian aphorisms gifted by our writers.

"Knocked off the village, but didn't get into the palace"

This expression is from Yanka Kupala's poem "Like a Fairy Tale" from 1908.

"Where this Yanka lived, the manor was nearby,
Our Yanka sometimes liked to go there,
But – not for work, but just like that, – to know,
To be with the gentlemen, to know their life.
And he got to know their life well,
Because his own became hateful to him.
But no matter how Yanka twisted himself,
He could not get over the gentlemen's threshold;
He became neither a greyhound nor a vizsla now,
He knocked off the village, but didn't get into the palace.
He's scary to everyone in the village, he looks like a gentleman,
But when he comes to the manor, he's the same boor."

"Brothers! The earth is like this here!"

This expression is from Maksim Tank's work "Tales about Music" from 1938.

"The Tsar's servants went day and night:
Both in the sun,
And in the high moon;
Through the forest,
Through the field,
Through the mountain,
Through the deep dry valley.
Until they heard someone playing somewhere,
But where and who –
They don't see,
Although they go
To the wonderful voice along the edge
Night and the whole hot day.
One says:
— Maybe it's a ghost?
The other:
— Maybe the grass is singing?
Only the third,
Pressing his ear,
Says:
— Brothers! The earth is like this here!.."

Павялічыць

Aphorism "Swintus grandiosus." Illustration created by artificial intelligence

"If there was talent, a position would be found"

This is a quote from Alexei Rusetsky's poem "The Second Beginning" from 1958. Rusetsky was born in the Mogilev region at the beginning of the 20th century. He participated in World War II on several fronts, and took part in the defeat of Japan. After the war, he connected his career with literature.

"Truth must be obtained with a fight"

These words are spoken by the revolutionary Golubovich, the hero of Yakub Kolas's novel "At the Crossroads."

"Alexander touched on the very question that had long occupied Andrei. Labanovich thought, shook his head.

- Oh, my friend! - he said. - If we had such scales where we could weigh good and evil! Then they would put up pillars on the roads with the inscriptions: to the left - truth, to the right - lies. And it would be so easy to walk around the world, but it would probably be boring and uninteresting.

- Did you want a ready-made truth? - Golubovich said. - No, brother, truth must be obtained with a fight. And this is not as simple as the babblers-anarchists paint it: shah-makh - they overthrew the tsar, and everyone is their own strength and right. Maybe you like that?"

"A great thing is to put a person in their place"

This is a slightly paraphrased expression from Kondrat Krapiva's article "What I care about" from 1933.

"Our newspapers give us examples and names of fools of various kinds almost every day, who accidentally found themselves in the wrong place, and the higher this place is, the funnier the fool looks, the further he is visible. It's a great thing to put a person or thing in its place. To illustrate my thoughts, I will give here a small analogy. A shaft, for example, when a horse is harnessed to it, does not cause us any special emotions, but a shaft in the hands of a critic already gives a significant emotional effect. I believe that we will soon learn perfectly how to take into account a person's abilities and preparedness for one or another job."

"The wedding day was appointed, but they didn't see the wedding..."

This expression is from Yakub Kolas's story in verse "The Farmhand" from 1910.

"And so secretly, quietly
They discussed everything,
They hid all the ends smoothly,
The matter was up to the priest.
At the same time, Gul Kondrati
Drinks with the matchmakers in their house,
Twirling his red mustache, -
What, they say, am I! Where am I!
Banadysia sits secretly
At those drinking bouts,
Far from Kondrat
And from home and from the matchmaker.
The wedding day was appointed,
But they didn't see the wedding..."

"You can't shackle thoughts with chains"

This is also a paraphrased line, which is known to many, given by Yanka Kupala in the poem "Kurgan" in 1910.

"You see, prince, the pastures, forests, hayfields, -
I am only obedient to them with the gusli,
You are strong, prince, to punish, you are strong to take off your head, -
You can't shackle thoughts with chains."

Павялічыць

Aphorism "Frog in the rut." Illustration created by artificial intelligence

"Frog in the rut"

This is the title of Kondrat Krapiva's fable from 1927. A frog in a rut is the personification of the selfish and vile that gets in the way of the strong and progressive.

"The frog sees a huge cart driving along the road, and
The frog was seized with anger,
And the frog's mind suggested to her:
"Aha, well, well!
You live for another minute, -
I'll just sit in the rut,
I'll rub my shoulder against the wheel
And turn the cart to hell.
Then - kaput, and you won't catch me,
Because you'll probably break your head."
And - hop! - the frog boldly
And sat in the rut.
Here the wheel - crash!..
And blood and mud..."

"A year for a line"

This is a phrase by Valentin Tavlay in his work "About My Poems" from 1941. This is how he wrote about Belarusian writers who worked in Western Belarus under Polish rule.

"The prosecutor through the code article
looked into every line of mine,
even cautiously poked with his finger
and assessed: a year for a line."

"To be called people"

Expression from Yanka Kupala's famous poem "And Who Goes There?".

"And who goes there, and who goes there
In such a huge crowd?
— Belarusians.
And what, what did they want,
Despised for centuries, them, blind, deaf?
— To be called people."

"Zahibelka is better than Paris for me"

This is the last line from Yakub Kolas's poem "Zahibelka" from 1935. In general, how this phrase was formed is a whole story. It all started with the fact that in 1935 Yakub Kolas visited Paris at the World Congress of Culture. After the congress, he shared his impressions of Paris, the Bois de Boulogne, and the Seine.

Kondrat Krapiva knew that Kolas liked to rest in the village of Zagibelka in the Pukhovichi district and collect mushrooms there. Krapiva wrote the epigram "Yakub Kolas's Interview" in the newspaper "Literature and Art."

"I was in Paris at the congress, -
But in Zagibelka, brother, it's better:
There are no mushrooms in the Bois de Boulogne,
And in the Seine - even one bream."

Kolas quickly reacted to what Krapiva wrote. And also with a poem.

"Maybe I'm a bit of a weirdo,
But I love Zagibelka:
There every pine forest is my relative,
There on a clear day the riverside hook
Promises me a clear bed.
Sometimes in a philosophical way
You tune your thoughts in solitude.
No matter what you say, our land is rich!
We'll checkmate the swamp,
And there will be fields in the swamp.
If you look at the pine forests
And get to know this corner closer,
Collecting boletus mushrooms, -
Then I make such a conclusion:
Zahibelka is better than Paris for me."

Павялічыць

Aphorism "A year for a line." Illustration created by artificial intelligence

"My native corner, how dear you are to me!"

Probably, all Belarusians know this phrase. Its author is Yakub Kolas, who wrote it at the beginning of "New Land."

"My native corner, how dear you are to me!..
I have no strength to forget you!
More than once, tired of the road,
Of the poor life of my spring,
I fly to you in my thoughts
And there my soul rests."

By the way, Petrus Brovka took this well-known line to Belarusians as an epigraph to the poem "Belarus." And also, this is the name of Yanka Bryl's essay from 1958. The expression "My native corner, how dear you are to me" was also used by Maksim Tank and Ilya Gursky.

"Professor of large letters"

This is Yadvigya's ironic expression towards the teacher Labanovich in Yakub Kolas's novel "At the Crossroads." Not only Yadvigya called Labanovich that, but also other characters in the work.

"The landowner greeted his neighbor cheerfully, took him by the hand and led him to Miss Lyudmila.

- Please be acquainted: Mr. Labanovich, professor of large letters."

"Swintus grandiosus"

This expression is from Kondrat Krapiva's comedy "He Who Laughs Last." The expression denotes the essence of the hero Gorlokhvatsky - an arrogant and rude ignoramus.

Gorlokhvatsky forces his subordinate Tulyaga to write a scientific work on paleontology in order to pass it off as his own scientific product. Tulyaga, with the help of the team, figured out that Gorlokhvatsky was an ignoramus and a swindler, and wrote a report on a bone found on the street about an animal that lived several millennia ago, described it, even determined its size, and called it a mammoth, or giant, pig. Gorlokhvatsky gives a report on his "scientific successes" and "discoveries." He is asked to name the "mammoth pig" in Latin. Gorlokhvatsky, turning over a page of the report, reads:

- Swintus grandiosus.

The expression sounded like an assessment of Gorlokhvatsky himself.

"You can wait calmly when there is nothing to wait for"

These words end Ales Zvonak's poem "Under the Sky of the Distant North."

Read also:

Guests in the hut - pigs are happy. What do Belarusian proverbs mean?

What is the Lyubetsk lament?

"Bastard, nephew, offspring." How Belarusians call family members in different corners of the country

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