"An antidepressant that specialists should prescribe." What new can be gleaned from Kolas's "New Land"

Illustrative photo. Photo: Nasha Niva

This is by no means a work about peasants. It is a universal text about "the search for the Grail." Let's read it as a work about freelancers, hired workers, office drones, employees burned out by corporate work, people experiencing a mid-life crisis:

"For people say: 'The bread of a servant
Is not very good bread – it's dog's bread!'"

The people in the poem live, dreaming of changing many things, perhaps starting their own business, working for themselves, just like people now dream of a mortgage, quick repayment, and then, they say, they'll live well. But they don't succeed.

"New Land" is about those who seek peace and idyll in life but cannot find it. The absolute majority of us.

Different peoples invent entire philosophies: the Danes have Hygge and Lykke, the Finns Sisu, the Swedes Lagom, the Japanese 侘び寂び (Wabi-sabi). But the Belarusian one, in my opinion, is recorded in "New Land." I listened to almost 8 hours of the audiobook.

Kolas's text is therapeutic. It is an antidepressant that specialists should prescribe.

It's wonderful that this time I perceived the work completely differently than in school or having read it once about 15 years ago. My Belarusian language teacher called "New Land" an encyclopedia of Belarusian life. He himself was from Mikalaeŭščyna and was a distant relative of Kolas.

All this is true, "New Land" is a brilliant national epic. But not only that. The work is ostensibly autobiographical, about Kolas's family, his father, a forester, who worked for the Radziwill family and dreamed of his own land. He died, never realizing his dream. Before his death, Mikhal (Kolas's father) says to his brother:

"— Antoska!.. My dearest! I am fading...
Burned out, left behind, I vanish...
So you must lead, lead... alone...
God did not grant me to see freedom
And to sow seeds in my own fields...
Land... land... there, there, brother,
Build it... give it its form..."

Kolas's heroes cherish this dream of their own land, for it is a guarantee of freedom from the lord, so as not to bow down to anyone. But the HR of that time, the forestry's personnel department, moves Mikhal's family from place to place. And he dreams of his own piece of land, not endless growth up the career ladder or new positions. He wants his work to be right by his house, as soon as he steps onto the porch. He wants a river behind the small forest, everything to be his own, and for no one to bother him.

The heroes dream of organic produce, their own cabbage, cucumbers, to grow everything themselves. Like those IT specialists who dream of moving from cities to villages. In the city, the poem's heroes feel uncomfortable; they want to be closer to nature, in their own refuge. For Kolas, nature is the key to idyll. Life alongside it gives his heroes happiness.

Nature gives the heroes the greatest peace. That's why Kolas writes about it so vividly. The Japanese formulated an entire philosophy of observing branches, the feeling of wind on the skin. My dear people, Kolas described all this a hundred years ago.

"It used to be, in summer, during working hours,
More than once a joyful cry was heard there:
— Hey, father! Uncle! The bees have swarmed!
They've settled on the cherry tree by the fence! —
The men would drop their work,
The mowing by the river behind the bushes,
And ran quickly, lest sometimes
The little bees would fly off into the forest,
So they carefully watched them there."

This is pure meditation. The men would drop their scythes and run to listen to the bees, not scroll on a smartphone. For Kolas, nature is the key to idyll. Life alongside it gives his heroes happiness.

But also daily rituals (joint breakfasts, lunches), food (its description is simply fantastic), close people (family, friends), hobbies (fishing), travels (uncle in Vilnius) and religion (a very personal attitude towards God). In the city, the heroes feel uncomfortable; they want to be closer to nature, in their own refuge. For them, Hygge is a small forest, a fence with pots, small tubs under the eaves, trees in the yard, a spring behind the house. This gives them a sense of meaning.

And what especially struck me is how people in the poem treat each other with respect. "New Land" is a paradise for empaths. Children sit with parents at the table, Uncle Antos talks to them as if they were adults. Everyone cares for each other. There is no indifference. Practically zero toxicity.

In school, we were taught that the main message of the poem is in these lines:

"To buy land, acquire one's own corner,
To free oneself from the lord's shackles,
And there to live anew:
One's own land — that is the foundation!"

In reality, this is a universal work about every generation of Belarusians. It means more than just a piece of land. This is a work about finding a place where you feel good.

"Lord's shackles" are not just bureaucracy. I would say these are any limitations that prevent one from living life as one wishes. With one's own people. With nature that gives you a feeling of Zen. With activities that captivate you. This is not only about a place but also a state of mind, when you feel that this is exactly where you want to take your last breath.

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