Poet Alaiza Pashkievich (Tziotka; Ciotka) (also spelled:   Aloiza Pashkevich) (Цётка   Алаіза Сцяпанаўна Пашкевіч) (July 15, 1876 - February 17, 1916) (Julian: July 3, 1876 - February 5, 1916) Note: The Cyrillic Belarusian on this page is in Unicode (UTF-8) font encoding.

Photo Credit: Belaruskaya Mova: Entziklapediya, edited by Mikhevich, A. Ya., et. al. (1994); page 601.

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• Also see Dz'micier Zinowjew's Belarusian Poetry Web site for additional information and poems by other Belarusian poets.

From the "Notes on Authors" section in Like Water, Like Fire (Vera Rich, translator and editor; 1971; pp. 335):

"Ciotka (Alaiza Pashkievich) was born in 1876 in Vilna. She was educated at the Vilna gymnasium and then in St. Petersburg, returning to Vilna in 1904. Owing to her political activities, she was obliged to leave Byelorussia, and she moved to Austrian Galicia, where she was able to continue her university studies and to publish two collections of poetry, A Cross for Freedom (1906) and Byelorussian Violin (1906). She was also the author of a number of prose works and political manifestos. She died in 1916."

From her entry in the Historical Dictionary of Belarus (Zaprudnik, 1998; pp. 170-171):

"Poet, journalist, and cultural and revolutionary activist best known under her pen name, Ciotka ("Auntie"). She studied in Vilnia and St. Petersburg. After the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, Ciotka fled to Austria-Hungary, where she continued her studies in Lviv and Krakow and worked in a clandestine movement in Belarus."

"In 1906, she participated in the publication of the first short-lived legal Belarusan newspaper, Nasha Dola. One of the organizers of the Belarusan Socalist Union, Ciotka engaged in journalism, spreading the ideas of the Rebirth Movement, including political autonomy for Belarus."

"In 1911, she returned to Belarus and toured the country as an actress of the theatrical company of Ihnat Bujnicki. In 1914, she edited a children's magazine, Luchykna ("Flaring")."

"Ciotka's literary works are marked by intensity of feeling, revolutionary phraseology and imagery, and deep Belarusan patriotism."

(Note: In the preceding excerpt, terms in bold refer to other entries in the Historical Dictionary of Belarus. The Historical Dictionary of Belarus is an important summary of the history of Belarus.)

See the following examples of her poetry:

Poem: "The Musician"     ("Грайка" - 1909)
• Belarusian & English Versions     (in Unicode, UTF-8 encoding)

Poem: "The Faith of a Byelorussian"     ("Вера Беларуса" - 1905)
• Belarusian & English Versions     (in Unicode, UTF-8 encoding)