Yakub Kolas

Yakub Kolas
Якуб Колас
BornKanstantsin Mihaylavich Mitskievich
November 3 [O.S. October 22] 1882
Akinchytsy, Minsk Governorate, Russian Empire
DiedAugust 13, 1956 (aged 73)
Minsk, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union
OccupationWriter, dramatist, poet, translator
NationalityBelarusian
Period1906–1956

Yakub Kolas (also Jakub Kołas, Belarusian: Яку́б Ко́лас, November 3 [O.S. October 22] 1882 – August 13, 1956), real name Kanstantsin Mikhailovich Mitskievich (Канстанці́н Міха́йлавіч Міцке́віч, Russian: Константи́н Миха́йлович Мицке́вич, Polish: Konstanty Mickiewicz) was a Belarusian writer, dramatist, poet and translator. People's Poet of the Byelorussian SSR (1926), member (1928) and vice-president (from 1929) of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences.[1]

In his works, Yakub Kolas was known for his sympathy towards the ordinary Belarusian peasantry. This was evident in his pen name 'Kolas', meaning 'ear of grain' in Belarusian. He wrote collections of poems Songs of Captivity (Russian: Песни неволи, 1908) and Songs of Grief (Belarusian: Песьні-жальбы, 1910), poems A New Land (Belarusian: Новая зямля, 1923) and Simon the Musician (Belarusian: Сымон-музыка, 1925), stories, and plays. His poem The Fisherman's Hut (Belarusian: Рыбакова хата, 1947) is about the fight after unification of Belarus with the Soviet state. His trilogy At a Crossroads (Russian: На перепутье, 1925) is about the pre-Revolutionary life of the Belarusian peasantry and the democratic intelligentsia. He was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1946 and 1949.[1]

  1. ^ a b Мушынскі, М. І. (2012). Летапіс жыцця і творчасці Якуба Коласа. Мінск: Беларуская навука. ISBN 978-985-08-1460-9.