Maksim Bahdanovich

MAKSIM BAHDANOVICH

M aksim Bahdanovich was a popular Belarusian poet, essayist, and translator. His fascination for Belarus and its history motivated him to explore his poetic side, which eventually culminated in making him one of the most famous Belarusian poets of all time. Besides earning a reputation as a distinguished novelist and poet, he became a prominent translator as well, producing Russian and Belarusian works of some highly acclaimed writers and poets, including Alexander Pushkin, Taras Shevchenko, Paul Verlaine, Friedrich Schiller, and Heinrich Heine, from Finnish, Ukrainian, French, German, and other languages. His first novel ‘Muzyka’ (Musician), published in a Belarusian daily ‘Nasha Niva’, was presented in a folk legend style, inspired by his father’s folklore stories and his extensive study of folklore books on Belarus.

This talented poet’s life was cut short by his sudden and untimely death at a young age of 25, due to tuberculosis. As such, ‘Vianok’ (The Garland) became his sole poetry collection published

He is considered to be the first poet to launch new forms of lyrical pieces in Belarusian literature.

Before he introduced his style of artistic expression of love for art, Belarusian poetry was a mere representation of literature and rhymed poems on socialist themes and contemporary settings.

While working at Minsk, he fell ill with tuberculosis. In February 1917, he left for the Black Sea resort city, Yalta, situated in the Crimean peninsula, to receive treatment. After three months of unsuccessful treatment, he died in Yalta on May 25, 1917, at the age of 25.

A complete volume of his entire poems was released in Belarus, during 1991-95.

A number of streets in Russia and Belarus are named in his honor.

Museums in Hrodna, Yaroslavi, and Minsk, including the Maksim Bahdanovich Literary Museum, are named after him