Taciana Niadbai – There, behind the wall (Там, за сцяной)
Illustration: Iryna Kozikava
Editing: Marta Cisievič
Proofreading: Alesia Miarežka
hochroth Minsk
Berlin, 2024
ISBN 978-3-949850-54-7
“There, behind the wall”, the second book of poetry by Taciana Niadbaj, is published precisely ten years after her first book, “Sirens Sing Jazz”, awarded the “Debut” Maxim Bahdanovič prize. The Belarusian events of 2020 divide this decade into “before” and “after”, like a caesura. This division overturned both the life of Belarus as a whole and the fate of the author herself, who spent the time between these two books as a human rights defender. Nevertheless, in the new poems we hear the same lyrical voice. It is uncertain and gentle, but still strong, despite the fact that the events “after” have visibly stunned the narrator.
The first part of this book called “Personal File” includes the latest poems. They reflect on the brutal suppression of Belarusian protests and the forced emigration of hundreds of thousands of Belarusians. But the civic drama is marked by the intimacy of the author’s intonation. It gives the title of the cycle an additional meaning – “Personal File” becomes “Private Affair”. For Niadbaj, the Belarusian crackdown moves from the merely political sphere into private life. Here, the only possible healing remedy is love. “Words will not turn hell / into a ringing paradise”, but it is still important to whisper “magic mantras” into each other’s ears.
The second part of the book, “Kompromat from the Past,” includes earlier poems. These are intimate texts that continue the mood of the “Sirens Sing Jazz”, but in a calmer tone.
The new book by Niadbaj is about the absence (or impossibility) of choice between the current moment and eternity, about the eternal abyss “between choice and paradise”. Other than Maksim Znak and other Belarusian political prisoners “over there, behind the wall”, the book addresses another important prisoner, Połack. The author doesn’t lose mental and emotional ties with her hometown. This makes her an important participant in the Połack literary assembly and the Belarusian literary process in general.
Taciana Niadbaj was born on October 3, 1983, in Połack, Belarus. She is a writer, translator, human rights defender, and manager of cultural and media projects. The author of the poetry book “Sirens Sing Jazz” (“Сірэны спяваюць джаз”, 2014), awarded the “Debut” Maxim Bahdanovič prize in 2015 and the “Golden Letter” prize in 2019.
She studied Philology in Minsk (2000–2006), Vilnius and Lublin (2006–2011), and defended the thesis on the history of Belarusian literature.
After the politically motivated administrative arrest in 2006, Niadbaj moved to Poland. In 2015, she returned to Belarus, where her work dealed with independent media (Press Club Belarus, until 2017), Belarusian literature, culture, and human rights (Belarusian PEN, since 2017). She also coordinated other cultural, publishing, and media projects. For safety reasons, she had to leave Belarus in July 2021 with the Belarusian PEN office. Niadbaj is the chairwoman of the Belarusian PEN in Warsaw and deputy chairwoman of the Open Culture Foundation in Lublin (since 2012). She also cooperates with the Belarusian Human Rights House in Vilnius.
Niadbaj translated Eva Thompson’s book “Imperial Knowledge: Russian Literature and Colonialism” to Belarusian (2009). She is the co-author of the translations of “Our Joyful Apocalypse” by Leszek Kołakowski (2012), “Theories of Literature of the 20th Century” by Anna Burzyńska and Michał Paweł Markowski (2017), etc. Niadbaj founded the “Polackija labyrinty” publishing house.