WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.280 align:middle line:90%


00:00:08.280 --> 00:00:11.360 align:middle line:90%
Well, good evening, everyone.

00:00:11.360 --> 00:00:13.360 align:middle line:90%
Volha Hapeyeva writes:

00:00:13.360 --> 00:00:15.040 align:middle line:90%


00:00:15.040 --> 00:00:18.200 align:middle line:84%
To find the right
word you have to go

00:00:18.200 --> 00:00:23.840 align:middle line:84%
into the woods, search for it
like an enthusiastic mushroom

00:00:23.840 --> 00:00:25.960 align:middle line:90%
forager.

00:00:25.960 --> 00:00:29.960 align:middle line:84%
If words were flowers,
it would be easier.

00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:34.240 align:middle line:84%
But words are
probably mushrooms.

00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:38.240 align:middle line:84%
They can be poisonous
as well as delicious,

00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:43.960 align:middle line:84%
and nobody quite knows
just where they came from.

00:00:43.960 --> 00:00:49.440 align:middle line:84%
As a poet, writer, translator,
artist, and linguist,

00:00:49.440 --> 00:00:52.180 align:middle line:84%
who lives between
multiple languages,

00:00:52.180 --> 00:00:57.600 align:middle line:84%
Volha Hapeyeva is always
searching for the right word.

00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:01.680 align:middle line:84%
She is from Minsk, Belarus,
and writes in both Belarusian

00:01:01.680 --> 00:01:04.879 align:middle line:84%
and German, and her
work has been translated

00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:08.600 align:middle line:90%
into more than 15 languages.

00:01:08.600 --> 00:01:12.200 align:middle line:84%
In fact, the excerpt
of the poem I just read

00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:16.600 align:middle line:84%
was originally composed in
entirely different words

00:01:16.600 --> 00:01:20.800 align:middle line:84%
and was translated into English
by Annie Rutherford, who

00:01:20.800 --> 00:01:24.520 align:middle line:90%
is another word forager.

00:01:24.520 --> 00:01:27.760 align:middle line:84%
In her introduction to
Hapeyeva's book, which

00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:32.680 align:middle line:84%
is on sale tonight,
Rutherford writes,

00:01:32.680 --> 00:01:35.240 align:middle line:84%
"Very few contemporary
Belarusian

00:01:35.240 --> 00:01:38.720 align:middle line:84%
works are available
in English, and those

00:01:38.720 --> 00:01:41.160 align:middle line:84%
which have been
translated are mostly

00:01:41.160 --> 00:01:44.720 align:middle line:90%
by Russian language authors.

00:01:44.720 --> 00:01:48.520 align:middle line:84%
The choice to write in
Belarusian in this two-language

00:01:48.520 --> 00:01:53.120 align:middle line:84%
state is very much
a political one."

00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:56.940 align:middle line:84%
Hapeyeva writes about the
horrors of violence, war,

00:01:56.940 --> 00:02:02.980 align:middle line:84%
and authoritarianism, as well as
about the body, nature, memory,

00:02:02.980 --> 00:02:08.800 align:middle line:84%
identity, and language itself
in a spare and haunting style,

00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:11.400 align:middle line:84%
responding obliquely
to such events

00:02:11.400 --> 00:02:15.280 align:middle line:84%
as the crackdown on protests
against rigged elections

00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:20.200 align:middle line:84%
in Belarus, the ongoing
war in neighboring Ukraine,

00:02:20.200 --> 00:02:24.210 align:middle line:84%
and the cruel effect
of the patriarchy.

00:02:24.210 --> 00:02:27.530 align:middle line:84%
Her lines bring surprising
elements together,

00:02:27.530 --> 00:02:32.490 align:middle line:84%
at times creating surreal
image worlds, weapons

00:02:32.490 --> 00:02:37.170 align:middle line:84%
with the beautiful names of
flowers, a garden growing

00:02:37.170 --> 00:02:39.970 align:middle line:90%
with mutant bodies.

00:02:39.970 --> 00:02:43.370 align:middle line:84%
Her minimal use of punctuation
blurs the boundaries

00:02:43.370 --> 00:02:46.690 align:middle line:84%
between the large
scale and the small,

00:02:46.690 --> 00:02:53.250 align:middle line:84%
reminding us that division and
struggle, as well as change,

00:02:53.250 --> 00:02:56.250 align:middle line:84%
happen not only on
a systemic level,

00:02:56.250 --> 00:03:01.690 align:middle line:84%
but also at the level of the
individual heart and mind.

00:03:01.690 --> 00:03:04.050 align:middle line:84%
Hapeyeva participates
in literary festivals

00:03:04.050 --> 00:03:08.330 align:middle line:84%
and residencies around the world
and has received numerous prizes

00:03:08.330 --> 00:03:13.170 align:middle line:84%
and awards for her work,
including the English Pen

00:03:13.170 --> 00:03:17.810 align:middle line:84%
Translates Award and the
Wortmeldungen Literature Prize

00:03:17.810 --> 00:03:20.130 align:middle line:90%
2022.

00:03:20.130 --> 00:03:25.290 align:middle line:84%
Since 2020 she has lived in
exile in Austria and Germany.

00:03:25.290 --> 00:03:28.770 align:middle line:84%
Please help me in welcoming
Volha Hapeyeva to read for us.

00:03:28.770 --> 00:03:33.500 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:03:33.500 --> 00:03:34.000 align:middle line:90%