Salomėja Nėris

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Salomėja Nėris (born Salomėja Bačinskaitė - Bučienė November 17, 1904 – d. July 7, 1945) is one of the best known Lithuanian female poets.

Portrait of Nėris

[edit] Biography

She was born in what is now Vilkaviškis district municipality. Nėris graduated from University of Lithuania where she studied Lithuanian and German languages and literature.

After that she was a teacher in Lazdijai, Kaunas, and Panevėžys. The first collection of poems, titled Anksti rytą (In Early Morning), was published in 1927.

In 1928 Nėris graduated from the University and was appointed to teach German language at the Seinų Žiburys gymnasium in Lazdijai. Until 1931 Nėris contributed to nationalist and Catholic publications. While studying German in Vienna in 1929 Nėris met Lithuanian medical student Bronius Zubrickas and became attracted to him. Zubrickas had socialist views and Nėris engaged in socialist activities to make impression on him ([1]).

In 1931 Nėris moved to live in Kaunas, where she gave lessons and edited Lithuanian folk tales. In the second collection of Nėris's poetry, The Footprints in the Sand, one can already spot the verses that assert the oncoming spiritual crisis. In the same year the verses containing revolutionary motives were published in the pro-communist literary journal Trečias frontas (The Third Front).

Her promise to work for Bolshevism was also published, however it was not written by her but by chief ideologist of Trečias frontas Kostas Korsakas and communist activist Valys Drazdauskas (Nėris was more interested in writing poetry than in declarations, politics and theories about art) (see [2]).

In 1938 she received the State Literature Prize. Controversies surround her involvement with the Soviet occupation. She was appointed as representative in the so-called People's Parliament and was a member of the delegation that went to the Soviet Union's Supreme Soviet to ask that occupied Lithuania be accepted into the Soviet Union.

Nėris was asked to write a poem to honor Joseph Stalin. She did write such a poem and received Stalin Prize. After that, she wrote more verses on the themes dictated by the communist party. The second World War she spent in Russia.

Salomėja Nėris returned to Kaunas but fell ill and died in 1945. Her last poems show deep affection to Lithuania. She was buried in Kaunas, in a square of the Museum of Culture, and later buried in the cemetery of Petrašiūnai.

Her original pen name was Neris, the name of the second biggest Lithuanian river. In 1940 she received a letter from her students calling her a traitor of homeland and asking her not to use the name of a Lithuanian river. From that time on she added the diacritic sign and only used the pen name Nėris, having no particular meaning ([3]).

[edit] Books

Anksti rytą. - Kaunas, 1927. - 77p.
Pėdos smėly. - Kaunas: Sakalas, 1931. - 61p.
Per lūžtantį ledą. - Kaunas: Sakalas, 1931. - 48p.
Mūsų pasakos / sp. paruošė S.Nėris. - Kaunas: Spindulys, 1934. - 160p.
Per lūžtantį ledą. - [Kaunas]: Sakalas, [1935]. - 48p.
Diemedžiu žydėsiu. - Kaunas: Sakalas, 1938. - 69p.
Eglė žalčių karalienė. - Kaunas: Valst. l-kla, 1940. - 107p.
Poema apie Staliną. - Kaunas: Spaudos fondas,1940. - 16p.
Rinktinė. - Kaunas: Valst. l-kla, 1941. - 192p.
Dainuok, širdie gyvenimą: eilėraščiai ir poemos. - Kaunas: Valst. l-kla, 1943. - 39p.
Lakštingala negali nečiulbėti. - Kaunas: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1945. - 109p.
Eglė žalčių karalienė. - [Kaunas]: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1946. - 96p.
Poezija: [2t.]. - Kaunas: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1946.
Našlaitė. - Kaunas: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1947. - 48p.
Žalčio pasaka. - Chicago, 1947. - 112p.
Rinktinė. - Vilnius: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1950. - 276p.
Eilėraščiai. - Vilnius: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1951. - 84p.
Poema apie Staliną. - Vilnius: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1951. - 36p.
Pavasario daina. - Vilnius: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1953. - 38p.
Poezija. - Vilnius: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1954. - 500p.
Baltais takeliais bėga saulytė. - Vilnius: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1956. - 164p.
Raštai : trys tomai. - [Vilnius]: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1957.
Rinktinė. - Kaunas: Valstybinė pedagoginės literatūros leidykla, 1958. - 112p. - (Mokinio biblioteka).
Širdis mana - audrų daina. - Vilnius: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1959. - 474p.
Eglė žalčių karalienė: poema pasaka. - Vilnius: Valst. grož. lit. l-kla, 1961. - 51p.
Pavasaris per kalnus eina: eilėraščiai. - Vilnius: Valstybinė grožinės literatūros leidykla, 1961. - 511p.
Biala sciezka. - Warszawa: Panst. inst. wydawniczy, 1963. - 34p. - in Polish
Kur baltas miestas: rinktinė. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1964. - 143p.
Rinktinė. - Kaunas: Šviesa, 1965. - 90p. - (Mokinio biblioteka).
Laumės dovanos. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1966. - 25 p.
Poezija: 2t. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1966
Keturi: poem. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1967.
U rodnika. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1967. - in Russian
Lirika. - Moskva: Chudožestvennaja literatura, 1971. - 230p. - in Russian
Poezija. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1972. - 2 volumes
Negesk žiburėli. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1973. - 151p.
Egle - zalkšu karaliene: poēma, translation by Daina Avotiņa. - Rīga: Liesma, 1974. - 58p. - in Latvian
Širdis mana - audrų daina. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1974. - 477p.
Kaip žydėjimas vyšnios: poezijos rinktinė. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1978. - 469p.
Poezija: rinktinė. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1979. - 827p.
Veter novych dnej: stichotvorenija. - Moskva: Chudožestvennaja literatura, 1979. - 334p. - in Russian
Mama! Kur tu?: poem. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1980. - 38p.
Nemunėliai plauks. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1980. - 201p.
Negesk, žiburėli: eilėraščiai ir poemos. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1983. - 103p.
Nedziesti, gaismehlit. - Ryga: Liesma, 1984. - 129p. - in Latvian
Raštai: 3 volumes - Vilnius : Vaga , 1984.
Blue sister, river Vilija = sesuo Žydrioji - Vilija = Sestra Golubaja - Vilija. - Moskva: Raduga, 1987. - 261p. - in English and Russian
Solovej ne petj ne možet: stichi. - Vilnius: Vaga, 1988. - 160p. - (Litovskaja poezija). - in Russian
Egle, koroleva užei: poem, translation by M. Petrov. - Vilnius: Vyturys, 1989. - 62p. - in Russian
Wiersze wybrane, translation by M. Stempkowska. - Kaunas: Šviesa, 1989. - 221p. - in Polish
Prie didelio kelio: eilėraščiai. - Vilnius: Lietuvos rašytojų s-gos l-kla, 1994. - 96p.
Tik ateini ir nueini: rinktinė. - Vilnius: Alma littera, 1995. - 220p.
Eglė žalčių karalienė. - Vilnius: Lietus, 1998. - 126p.