Yulij Taŭbin (present. Yudal Abramavich Taŭbin) is that rare example of a "Belarusian in spirit" when it doesn't matter where you were born and what language you spoke — Belarus will still be in your heart.

"Belarusian Arthur Rimbaud", as Andrej Khadanovich calls Taŭbin, was born on September 2 (15) in the Russian city of Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh Province (now the Voronezh Region). The infancy of the future poet passed there, and at the age of 10 he found himself in Belarus: Taŭbin’s family moved to Mscislau, where Yuli managed to finish the "seven-years" school (1928) and study at a pedagogical college.

Yudal Abramavich published his first poem when he was 15, in the magazine "Maladnyak Kalininschyny" (Klimavichy). In four years, the world will see his first collection.

Back in Mscislau, a poet, a child of city streets, he wrote poems full of love for the city, which would later become one of the brightest examples of urbanism in Belarusian poetry.

In 1931, the poet was welcomed by Minsk, where Taŭbin studied at the literary faculty of the Minsk Pedagogical University, and lived in a room on Rosa Luxemburg street together with friends, to whom over the years of friendship he wrote and dedicated more than one of his poems. Yulka, as Arkadz’ Kulyashou and Zmicier Astapenka affectionately called him, felt these connections between people very subtly and was just as subtly able to choose words for them.

Блізкаму

Мне праз тлум і гоманы сталіцы
За шырокай даллю палявой
Часта зданню прад вачмі мігціцца
Нечакана — блізкі вобраз твой.

Недзе там, дзе шолахі і ветры,
Дзе кастрычнік вольхі абгаліў,
Можа, пішаш гарадскім паэтам
Просты, шчыры і адданы ліст.

Выкладаеш сціслы свой жыццёпіс:
"Быў пастух... Калгаснікам цяпер...
Дасылаю ў вашую часопісь
Свой другі — апрацаваны верш".

...За акном маім шуміць сталіца.
Дружа мой! За даллю палявой
Многа вас, нязведаных, таіцца —
Вось таму так блізкі вобраз твой.

Веру я, што здзейсніцца твой вырак,
Поле песні трэба шмат араць...
Прынясеш калісьці ў вершах шчырасць,
Паслядоўнік, нашчадак і брат.

Ці пачуеш ты мой голас ветлы?
Недзе там, сярод пажатых ніў,
Ходзяць ветры і гуляюць ветры
І кастрычнік вольхі абгаліў.

Yulij Taŭbin's affair with Minsk continued for two years: in 1933, he was arrested for the first time and sent to Tyumen, where he worked in a local theater and wrote poetry in Russian in his spare time. In November 1936, the incessant flywheel of Stalin's repressions reached the poet for the second time, and Taŭbin was re-arrested and transferred to Minsk. He spent the last year of his life behind bars, under interrogation and torture, and on October 29, 1937, the collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced him to death, which was executed on the same day, or rather, on the same night.

The life line of Yulij Taŭbin was forcibly cut off at the age of 26, during which he managed to publish 5 books, write several poems (the poem "Taŭryda" — one of Taŭbin's most tragic texts — was published in a separate edition in 1932), including unfinished ones, as well as translate a dozen foreign authors into Belarusian, among them Vladimir Mayakovsky, Anton Chekhov, Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Heinrich Heine. Yulij Taŭbin published his own books like no other: all five pieces were published in fact in two years, and the last one was called "My second book" (1932) and was planned, respectively, the second in a row after the collection "Lights" (1930), but something went wrong, and between the first and second with a short break appeared "To live, sing and not grow old..." (1931) and "Three Poems" (1932).

The poet's posthumous legacy includes three more collections, two of which were published before the 70s ("Selected poems", 1957 — after two rehabilitations, 1956-1957; "Poems" — 1969), and after — many years of silence. Only in 2017, thanks to the poet and translator Andrej Khadanovich, a volume of the "Selected" by Yulij Taŭbin appeared in the "Poets of the planet" series, which included not only the author's Belarusian poems, but also translations from Russian. And the poem "Ты помніш (You Remember)", dedicated to Zmicier Astapenka, became a song, written and performed by Lyavon Volsky.

Ты помніш

Зм.Астапенку

Ты помніш, помніш, безумоўна,
І тую ноч, і той настрой,
Што панаваў над намі роўна, —
І над табой, і нада мной..

Драты дрыжалі пераборам,
Аб нечым дзіўным месяц сніў,
І рысы даўняга сабора
Так чотка млелі ў вышыні.

Нячутна шамацела лісце,
Саткалі зоры з срэбра ніць...
У тую ноч мы пакляліся
Жыць і любіць...
Любіць і жыць.

І мы жылі... І мы любілі...
І неслі прагу і любоў...
Часы дзяціных сноў-ідылій
Да нас не вернуцца ізноў...

Жыццё далей нас весці стане,
Надорыць новых песень-дум,
І мужнай сталасці жаданні
На нас пячатку пакладуць.

А ўжо не вернецца з гадамі
Ні тая ноч, ні той настрой,
Што панаваў тады над намі —
І над табой, і нада мной.


***
Даверлівы — зусім не скептык —
Ўсяму я веру, ўсё цаню...
Як толькі ноч накіне кепку,
Лаўлю і шум, і цішыню...

Мне ўсё тут люба...
Ўсё знаёма —
Будынка даўняга фасад...
Ў забытым садзе — патаёма
Так хітра сплеценых прысад...

Завулкаў ціш і вуліц шумы,
Недатыкальнай сіні гладзь,
І гэты дом, і сіні нумар
На ім:
16/45.
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