Nacionaliniai paukščiai

O sakiau, juk sakiau, ir kartojau, kad lietuvių šventasis

yra visai kitas, ir ne joks tenai gandras ar vieversys, o

šiaurinė aukso, sidabro esencija, suragėjęs mamutas

žiemiuos, iš Norvegijos (o dramblys tai jau visai

žemutinėje zonoje),

Lietuvos gyvulys turi būti

mamutas, šerno,

ežio, elnio ir stirnino protoplastas, –

o melskitės dabar, kad neklaũsėt, kad nedaug jūsų liko,

kad visai nevaisingi, be kankalų, be snapų, su juodais

čeverykais ant vyžų

(parašyta Ricieliuose, žiūrint su

Balčium į vaikus,

kurie kažin kokios strazdų, štarelių, skruzdžių,

driežų ir lašišų veislės, –

ne lietuviai...)

Baltas yra regintis amžinybę, o ir laikrašty buvo

rašyta – 1981 metais, kai Antakalny

ekskavatorius išrausė seną, baltakartį mamutą.

National Birds
Translated by Kerry Shawn Keys

And I was telling you, told you that a Lithuanian
Saint is totally different, not any stork
or a skylark, but a northern golden, silvery essence,
a fossilized mammoth in winterlands, from Norway(and
an elephant is absolutely from a lower division)
        the Lithuanian animal must be a mammoth
        which is a protoplast
of a boar, a hedgehog, a deer, and a roebuck---
now pray, because you didn’t listen, because not too many
of you survived, all of you barren, without balls, without
beaks, with black boots on your bast-shoes
        (written in Ricieliai, looking with
         Balcius at the children,
who were some breed of thrush, squirrel, ant,
lizard and salmon---
        not Lithuanian...)
a Balt is able to see eternity, it was written
in the newspaper---in 1981, when a escavator dug up
in Antakalnas an ancient, white-maned mammoth.

Nacionālie putni
Translated by Knuts Skujenieks

 

Un es teicu, es teicu un atkārtoju, ka leišu svētais

ir gluži cits, ka ne jau kāds tur stārķis vai cīrulis, bet

ziemeļu zelta, sidraba esence, pārkaulojies mamuts

ziemeļos, no Norvēģijas (bet zilonis, tas jau pavisam

apakšas zonā),

Lietuvas dzīvniekam jābūt

mamutam, mežkuiļa,

eža, brieža un stirnāža protoplastam, -

bet lūdzieties tagad, ka neklausījāt, ka palicis jūsu tik maz,

ka visi neauglīgi, bez pautiem, bez snīpjiem, ar

melniem stulmzābakiem virs vīzēm.

(rakstīts Ricieļos, mums ar Balču

lūkojot bērnus,

kas ir sazin no kādas strazdu, čurkstu, skudru, lašu un

ķirzaku vaislas, -

tikai ne leiši...)

Balts ir pieredzējis mūžību, un arī laikrakstā bija

rakstīts - 1981. gadā, kad Antakalnī

ekskavators izraka senu baltkrēpju mamutu.

Nationsfåglar
Translated by Ulf Eriksson, Anna Harrison, Mikael Nydahl, Carina Nynäs, Liana Ruokyte, Casper Udmark

Och jag sade, jag sade ju gång på gång,
ett litauiskt helgon är något helt annat, ingen stork eller lärka, utan
en nordisk gyllene, silverne essens, en förstenad
mammut i ett vinterlandskap, från Norge (elefanten
däremot kommer ju från lägre breddgrader),

    Litauens djur måste alltså vara
    en mammut, vildsvinets

igelkottens, älgens, hjortens protoplast, –
och be nu, eftersom ni inte hörde på och så få av er
blev kvar, och ofruktsamma är ni, utan pung, utan
näbbar, med svarta stövlar utanpå bastskorna,

    (skrivet i Ricieliai, medan jag och
    Balcius betraktade barnen,

som var ett slags trastar, vintersvalor, myror,
ödlor och laxar, –

    inte litauer. . .)

balt är den som ser evigheten, det stod också i
tidningen – 1981, när en grävskopa i Antakalnis
grävde upp en urgammal mammut med vit man.


1995.viii


  • Country in which the text is set
    Lithuania
  • Featured locations
    Palanga (Palanga)
    Ricieliai (Ricieliai)
  • Impact

    The poem was written in Ricieliai, the countryside of Dzukija, in south Lithuania. The poem contains a few parallels – although the national bird of Lithuania is stork, the poet puts mammoth that is the saint and the animal from Norway in its place. The bones of mammoth were find in excavation site in the region of Antakalnis in Vilnius. White bones of the mammoth, as white as its mane, as white as north, as Balts, who see the eternity, appearing as the bones of mammoth from the ground. It seems that by this poem Geda links all the nations and tribes from the north – Balts and Scandinavians.

    Sigitas Geda is considered to be one of the most important figures of Lithuanian literature. His creative work is a great Lithuanian national cultural value. His voice stood out in front of others, his exceptional relation with Lithuanian culture, ethno genesis, language and religion provoked and gave birth to a cultural field that stood up under the years of Soviet occupation. The poets merit is breaking many stereotypes about poetry and its forms. You can call him one of reformers of poetry led by the generation of Vytautas P. Bložė,Marcelijus Martinaitis and others. Very often it is nearly impossible to translate the poems of S. Geda, for their many contexts and his own multicultural myths. For this reason authors comments on his poetry become another important part of his creative work.

  • Balticness

    Sigitas Geda was a unique poet. He was in constant search for answers to his questions, such as the identity of nation, genesis of language, relations between nations and their cultures, linguistic ties, parallels of man and nature, origins of religion, etc. Lithuanian language is not marinistic. Sigitas Geda gave a lot of his attention to the sea, which he saw as a primordial element, a link between northern tribes, a place, from which many things came or were originated in it (in various manners). Following the Indo-European prehistory he unified the great myths of various nations, archetypes, symbols, manipulated etymology, saw the ancient and the modern history, one and many tribes at the same time, thus making his individual myth. His poetry is multi-plane and polyphonic, significant to whole region of Baltic.

    Erika Drungyte

  • Bibliographic information
    From the collection "Jotvingių mišios", Vilnius: Andrena 1997
    All poems by Sigitas Geda are included in the selection “Angelas krintantis Palangoj”, Vilnius 2001.
  • Translations
    Language Year Translator
    English 2002 Kerry Shawn Keys
    Latvian 2004 Knuts Skujenieks
    Russian 1998 Vitalijus Asovskis
    Swedish 2001 Ulf Eriksson, Anna Harrison, Mikael Nydahl, Carina Nynäs, Liana Ruokytė, Casper Udmark
         
         
         
  • Year of first publication
    1997
  • Place of first publication
    Vilnius