Salomėja Nėris
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Salomėja Nėris (Salomėja Neris) (real name: Salomėja Bačinskaitė - Bučienė; November 17, 1904 – July 7, 1945) is one of the best known Lithuanian female poets.
[edit] Biography
She was born in what is now Vilkaviškis district municipality. Nėris graduated from University of Lithuania where she studied Lithuanian and German languages and literature. After that she was a teacher in Lazdijai, Kaunas, and Panevėžys. The first collection of poems, titled Anksti rytą (In Early Morning), was published in 1927. In 1928 Nėris graduated from the University and was appointed to teach German language at the Seinų Žiburys gymnasium in Lazdijai.
Until 1931 Nėris was writing to nationalist and catholic publications. While studying German in Vienna in 1929 Nėris met Lithuanian medical student Bronius Zubrickas and became attracted to him. Zubrickas had socialist views and Nėris engaged in socialist activities to make impression on him [1].
In 1931 Nėris moved to live in Kaunas, where she gave lessons and edited Lithuanian folk tales. In the second collection of Nėris's poetry, The Footprints in the Sand, one can already spot the verses that assert the oncoming spiritual crisis. In the same year the verses containing revolutionary motives were published in the procommunist literary journal Trečias frontas (The Third Front). There was also published her promise to work for bolsheviks, only it was written not by Nėris herself but by chief ideologist of Trečias frontas Kostas Korsakas and communist activist Valys Drazdauskas as Nėris was more interested in writing poetry than in declarations, politics and theories about art [2].
In 1938 she received the State Literature Prize.
Controversies surround her involvement with the Soviet occupation. She was appointed as representative in the so-called People's Parliament and was a member of the delegation that went to the Soviet Union's Supreme Soviet to ask that occupied Lithuania be accepted into the Soviet Union. Nėris was asked to write a poem to honor Joseph Stalin. The poetess did write such a poem and received Stalin Prize. After that, she wrote more verses on the themes dictated by the communist party. The second World War she spent in Russia. In 1944 Salomėja Nėris returned to Kaunas but fell ill and died in 1945. Her last poems show deep affection to Lithuania. She was buried in Kaunas, in a square of the Museum of Culture, and later buried in the cemetery of Petrašiūnai.
Her original pen name was Neris, the name of the second biggest Lithuanian river. In 1940 she received a letter from her students calling her a traitor of homeland and asking her not to use the name of a Lithuanian river. From that time on she added the diacritic sign and only used the pen name Nėris, having no particular meaning [3].
Although declaring free thinking views in her poetry she was religious and a regular visitor to church [4].
[edit] Books
- Anksti rytą. - Kaunas, 1927. - 77p.
- Pėdos smėly. - Kaunas: Sakalas, 1931. - 61p.
- Per lūžtantį ledą. - Kaunas: Sakalas, 1931. - 48p.
- Mūsų pasakos / sp. paruošė S.Nėris. - Kaunas: Spindulys, 1934. - 160p.
- Per lūžtantį ledą. - [Kaunas]: Sakalas, [1935]. - 48p.
- Diemedžiu žydėsiu. - Kaunas: Sakalas, 1938. - 69p.
- Eglė žalčių karalienė. - Kaunas: Valst. l-kla, 1940. - 107p.
- Poema apie Staliną. - Kaunas: Spaudos fondas,1940. - 16p.
- Rinktinė. - Kaunas: Valst. l-kla, 1941. - 192p.
- Dainuok, širdie gyvenimą: eilėraščiai ir poemos. - Kaunas: Valst. l-kla, 1943. - 39p.
- Lakštingala negali nečiulbėti. - Kaunas: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1945. - 109p.
- Eglė žalčių karalienė. - [Kaunas]: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1946. - 96p.
- Poezija: [2t.]. - Kaunas: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1946.
- Našlaitė. - Kaunas: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1947. - 48p.
- Žalčio pasaka. - Chicago, 1947. - 112p.
- Rinktinė. - Vilnius: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1950. - 276p.
- Eilėraščiai. - Vilnius: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1951. - 84p.
- Poema apie Staliną. - Vilnius: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1951. - 36p.
- Pavasario daina. - Vilnius: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1953. - 38p.
- Poezija. - Vilnius: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1954. - 500p.
- Baltais takeliais bėga saulytė. - Vilnius: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1956. - 164p.
- Raštai : trys tomai. - [Vilnius]: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1957.
- Rinktinė. - Kaunas: Valstybinė pedagoginės literatūros leidykla, 1958. - 112p. - (Mokinio biblioteka).
- Širdis mana - audrų daina. - Vilnius: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1959. - 474p.
- Eglė žalčių karalienė: poema pasaka. - Vilnius: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1961. - 51p.
- Pavasaris per kalnus eina: eilėraščiai. - Vilnius: Valstybinė grožinės literatūros leidykla, 1961. - 511p.
- Biala sciezka. - Warszawa: Panst. inst. wydawniczy, 1963. - 34p. - in Polish
- Kur baltas miestas: rinktinė. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1964. - 143p.
- Rinktinė. - Kaunas: Šviesa, 1965. - 90p. - (Mokinio biblioteka).
- Laumės dovanos. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1966. - 25 p.
- Poezija: 2t. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1966
- Keturi: poem. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1967.
- U rodnika. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1967. - in Russian
- Lirika. - Moskva: Chudožestvennaja literatura, 1971. - 230p. - in Russian
- Poezija. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1972. - 2 volumes
- Negesk žiburėli. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1973. - 151p.
- Egle - zalkšu karaliene: poēma, translation by Daina Avotiņa. - Rīga: Liesma, 1974. - 58p. - in Latvian
- Širdis mana - audrų daina. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1974. - 477p.
- Kaip žydėjimas vyšnios: poezijos rinktinė. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1978. - 469p.
- Poezija: rinktinė. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1979. - 827p.
- Veter novych dnej: stichotvorenija. - Moskva: Chudožestvennaja literatura, 1979. - 334p. - in Russian
- Mama! Kur tu?: poem. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1980. - 38p.
- Nemunėliai plauks. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1980. - 201p.
- Negesk, žiburėli: eilėraščiai ir poemos. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1983. - 103p.
- Nedziesti, gaismehlit. - Ryga: Liesma, 1984. - 129p. - in Latvian
- Raštai: 3 volumes - Vilnius : Vaga , 1984.
- Blue sister, river Vilija = sesuo Žydrioji - Vilija = Sestra Golubaja - Vilija. - Moskva: Raduga, 1987. - 261p. - in English and Russian
- Solovej ne petj ne možet: stichi. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1988. - 160p. - (Litovskaja poezija). - in Russian
- Egle, koroleva užei: poem, translation by M. Petrov. - Vilnius: Vyturys, 1989. - 62p. - in Russian
- Wiersze wybrane, translation by M. Stempkowska. - Kaunas: Šviesa, 1989. - 221p. - in Polish
- Prie didelio kelio: eilėraščiai. - Vilnius: Lietuvos rašytojų s-gos l-kla, 1994. - 96p.
- Tik ateini ir nueini: rinktinė. - Vilnius: Alma littera, 1995. - 220p.
- Eglė žalčių karalienė. - Vilnius: Lietus, 1998. - 126p.
