Karlos Grigorievich Sherman (Шэрман Карлас Рыгоравіч) Poet and Translator; October 25, 1934 -- March 4, 2005

Photo Credit: Накірункі Свету (The Cardinal Points). A book-length poem in four translations, Беларускі кнігазбор, Mensk (2000); frontispiece.

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Book review from the Belarusians in Great Britain & Ireland Web site (November, 2000)

Los Puntos Cardinales, Накірункі Свету, The Cardinal Points, Storony Sveta by Carlos Sherman

Bielaruski Knihazbor, Minsk, 2000, 96pp. ISBN 985-6318-78-5

The author of this work, Carlos Sherman, is well-known in Belarusian literary minieux as the Secretary of the Belarusian PEN-Club. However, on his mother's side, he is of Amerindian descent, and the poetic sequence Los Puntos Cardinales, is inspired by the legends, traditions and folk-lore of his mother's people. Written by Sherman in Spanish, it appears here in a four-language edition - the Spanish original, and translations into Belarusian (Ryhor Baradulin), English (Vera Rich) and Russian (I. Bursau).

The "Cardinal points" which give their name to both the whole cycle and the opening sequence - are the seven recognized by the Amerindians - the familiar North, South, East and West, plus "Uvierkh", "Uniz", and "Unitry Siabie Samoha" - the last being the dinension of spiritual courage which allows them

Z tvaram kammenym
Stayac motsna,
Ne prynizhatstsa,
Vykazvayuchy emotsyi.

As Sherman tells us, the

Blednatvary tsyviolizavanets,
Shto pryduymau rezervatsyyu
Dlya indzeysasy

mocks this seventh 'cardinal point'

Yak zavuluk bez vidavochnaha
Vyjstsya...

This cycle of poems, however, explores the modes of spiritual and philosophical perception of the Amerindians and reveals treasures of thought that, in spite of four centuries of contact, are still largely unknown to European thought.

Sherman introduces the reader to evocative images and symbols as the "sem belykh shlyakhu Mayya", the creation "da taho, yak naradziusya ahon" of the light "svietlahou nahornykh", the Amerindian version of the Fall - where the the ancestral Indians are tempted down from their sky-swellings to Earth "smachnym Myasam dzichyny", the Manitou (alter ego), the Winged Serpent Ketsalkoatl, the tiny kalibry , bold "Yak arol-kondar", bringing the colours of the rainbow to earth, which

Pra volyu mroits
Za yakuyu zhytstsy addayuts
Kab umyvatstsa zaroyu

the Five Suns which, in the course of aeons,

Vyspa na vozery
Zabytaha u Andakh

these are just some of the hauntingly beautiful images of a primitive but profoundly spiritual culture all-but-destroyed by the European "Prykhadni", who

Pryvezli Bibliyu i strelbu,
Raspustu i rastlenne,
Dy zhmenyu
Prymiyunykh slovau
Z portu, taverny
Albo bardellyu.

But, even while presenting us with these images, Sherman is aware that the bonds which bind him to them - although bonds of blood (kreunasc) are, have inevitably become attentuated. Here, there is no sentimental and self-deceiving identification with his maternal ancestors:

"Ya nie napisau nivodnay
Paemy vechnaye
Na movu kechua
Albo nauatl
Yak hublyu mizhvoli,
Yak piasok praz paltsy
Aposhniya suvyazi,
Kab skazats zdolets:

Ya -syn pryrody,
Ya - chastsinka I sens Trpvtsy.

Tak skazats nie mahu
Sabie na ahidu,
Bo zabiusia
Na vialikuyu vinu henacydu..."

Yet, this very denial shows that the poet has not forgotten.

Moreover, his concern for the fate of his mother's people leads him, in his epilogue, to express wider and all-embracing concerns:

Tolki nie daytse very,
Kryy Bozha,
Yamu, shto byttsam
Bez bery
Pakutuyu adno za los
Inzeytsau....

Sionnia
Kiptsyuri yahuara
Pachvarna
Razdurayuts dushu
Za talerantnast rabstva
Hetulkikh rodnykh dushau...

A sensitive and moving collection, which will surely appeal not only to lovers of poetry, but also to all who are concerned with the the fundamental rights of all peoples to their own culture and their own freedom.