Dmitri Strotsev – Рoetická reportáž (Рoetic Reportage)
Illustration: Śviatłana Sofja Dziemidovič
Translation: Max Beliavski, Marzia Paton, Helena Vostrý, Max Ščur
hochroth Minsk
Berlin, 2024
ISBN 978-3-949850-47-9
Language: Czech
Dmitri Strotsev (born 1963) is a Belarusian poet writing in Russian. Author of 22 books of poetry translated into different languages, laureate of a number of European literary awards, including the prize of the Václav Havel Library “Disturbing the Peace Award for a Courageous Writer at Risk” (2021). Currently lives in Berlin.
“Poetic Reportage” is Strotsev’s first book in the Czech language. The collection was issued by the Berlin publishing house hochroth Minsk, which specializes in publishing Belarusian poetry in various languages. Poetic reportage is Strotsev’s own genre, which the poet has been developing for more than 20 years.
The book contains poems written between 2008 and 2022. 2008 was the beginning of open Russian military expansion with the invasion of the troops of the Russian Federation into Georgia. In 2022, the full-scale invasion of the Russian army into Ukraine began. For Strotsev as a poet, the need to testify about the tragedy, sometimes from the very place of events, is central. This is an important confirmation of a person’s dignity and responsibility in the face of a military and political catastrophe.
In his new collection, the author addresses the Czech audience. Strotsеv has good relations with the Czech Republic, maintains friendship with the Václav Havel and Arnošt Lustig foundations and with the Czech translators. The book “Poetic Reportage” is the result of this friendship. The author hopes that this book will help the Czech readers to feel more closely the events taking place in Eastern Europe and to understand more fully the scale of this humanitarian catastrophe.