“ANNOUNCEMENT / I want greatness under all circumstances / I pay with bloody tears / urgently / Motherland”. Dmitri Strotsev alternates such ironic, conceptual, politically explosive “newspaper texts” with poetic and sometimes metaphysical tones. This is also the case in the poem of the title. “my sunlight / i am your dancing / dust”* – the poet describes his reading performances as a “poetic dance”. These poems explore such issues as the difficult legacy of the 20th century, existential questions of faith and criticism of the Orthodox Church, but also love and family ties. Andreas Weihe’s adaptation does wonderful justice to the rhythmic poems with their characteristic warm, colloquial intonation. “Dancing Dust” is the first German publication by the renowned Belarusian poet who writes in Russian. (Translated by Timothy Pogačar and Irina Stakhanova, edited by Ian Probstein).

Dmitri Strotsev is a Belarusian poet writing in Russian. Born in Minsk in 1963. An architect by education. Author of 22 books of poetry. Head of the literary and publishing project “Новые Мехи” (“New Wineskins”), publisher of the almanac and the poetry series “Minsk School”. Member of the Belarusian PEN Center. Laureate of the Russian Prize (2007). Laureate of the Norwegian Authors’ Union’s Freedom of Speech Award (2020). Laureate of the Ciampi Award – Valigie Rosse (Italy, 2020). Grand Prix of the prize for the best poem of the year by “Metajournal” (2020). Laureate of the Václav Havel Library Foundation Disturbing the Peace Award for a Courageous Writer at Risk (2021). Laureate of Swedish PEN’s Tucholsky Award (2021). Laureate of the Belarusian PEN Center Aleś Adamovič Award (2021). The poems have been translated into English, Belarusian, Georgian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, German, Norwegian, Polish, Ukrainian, French, Swedish, Czech, Estonian and other languages.

Andreas Weihe was born in Germany in 1951. Studied biology in Kharkiv and Moscow, and has since then been intensively involved with Russian/Soviet literature and culture. Started translating in the 1980s, among his translations are the letters of Marina Tsvetaeva, the texts on literary studies and journalist essays. After ending his scientific career in 2017, Weihe returned to translating prose and poetry from Russian.

Der Beitrag Dmitri Strotsev – Staub tanzend (Dancing dust) erschien zuerst auf hochroth minsk.

Russian version:
Дмитрий Строцев «Улей»
hochroth Berlin 2022
ISBN 978-3-949850-13-4

German version:
Dmitri Strozew «Das Bienenhaus»
Translated by Andreas Weihe
“This is how we win” (p. 20) translated by Felix Ackermann
hochroth Berlin 2023
ISBN 978-3-949850-22-6

The book includes poems from the cycle “Belarus Overturned”, created in 2020 in the genre that the author himself calls “poetic reportage”. At that moment, these texts resonated deeply with the spirit of the times. They instantly spread on social media, spontaneous translations into many languages appeared. In 2021, “Belarus Overturned” was issued as a book (“Новые Мехи” publishing house, Minsk). Dmitri Strotsev was awarded four prestigious literary prizes for his protest lyrics. Now, as an intermediate result of what Andrej Chadanovič calls Strotsev’s “poetic chronicle” of the events of recent years in Belarus, the poet has also added texts written from 2016 to 2021 to “The Beehive”. Many poems are published for the first time in book format.

“The Beehive” is published in two volumes, in original Russian and in German, translated by Andreas Weihe. The books can be purchased individually or as a double edition in a gift case.

Dmitri Strotsev is a Belarusian poet writing in Russian. Born in Minsk in 1963. An architect by education. Author of 22 books of poetry. Head of the literary and publishing project “Новые Мехи” (“New Wineskins”), publisher of the almanac and the poetry series “Minsk School”. Member of the Belarusian PEN Center. Laureate of the Russian Prize (2007). Laureate of the Norwegian Authors’ Union’s Freedom of Speech Award (2020). Laureate of the Ciampi Award – Valigie Rosse (Italy, 2020). Grand Prix of the prize for the best poem of the year by “Metajournal” (2020). Laureate of the Václav Havel Library Foundation Disturbing the Peace Award for a Courageous Writer at Risk (2021). Laureate of Swedish PEN’s Tucholsky Award (2021). Laureate of the Belarusian PEN Center Aleś Adamovič Award (2021). The poems have been translated into English, Belarusian, Georgian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, German, Norwegian, Polish, Ukrainian, French, Swedish, Czech, Estonian and other languages.

Andreas Weihe was born in Germany in 1951. Studied biology in Kharkiv and Moscow, and has since then been intensively involved with Russian/Soviet literature and culture. Started translating in the 1980s, among his translations are the letters of Marina Tsvetaeva, the texts on literary studies and journalist essays. After ending his scientific career in 2017, Weihe returned to translating prose and poetry from Russian.

Der Beitrag Dmitri Strotsev – Улей/Das Bienenhaus (Hive) erschien zuerst auf hochroth minsk.