Salomėja Nėris

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

Biography

Nėris was born in Kiršai, in the current district of Vilkaviškis. She graduated from the University of Lithuania where she studied Lithuanian and German language and literature.

After that she was a teacher in Lazdijai, Kaunas, and Panevėžys. Her first collection of poems, titled "Anksti rytą" (In the 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 Roman 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 in order to court him. [ [http://ml.lms.lt/ML/200502/20050210.htm MOKSLO LIETUVA Nr 2 (314) 2005 m. sausio 20 - vasario 20 d. ] at ml.lms.lt]

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", there is evidence of the onset of a profound spiritual crisis. In the same year, verses containing revolutionary motifs were published in the pro-communist literary journal "Trečias frontas" (The Third Front).

A promise to work for communism was also published. However, it was not written by her but by the chief ideological editor 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 [ [http://www.rasyk.lt/index.php/fuseaction,articlesView.view;id,707 Rasyk.lt: Apie S. Nėries gyvenimo vingius ir jos gyvenimo meiles ] at www.rasyk.lt] ).

Salomėja Nėris was awarded the State Literature Prize in 1938.

Activities during the Soviet occupation

Controversy surrounds her involvement with the Soviet occupation. She was appointed as a deputy to the Soviet-backed "People's Parliament" and was a member of the delegation to the Soviet Union's Supreme Soviet to request Lithuania be accepted into the Soviet Union.

Nėris was requested to write a poem in honour of Stalin and was subsequently awarded the Stalin Prize. After that, she wrote more verses on the theme, as encouraged by the USSR Communist Party officials. She spent World War II in the Russian SFSR.

Salomėja Nėris returned to Kaunas but fell ill and died of liver cancer in 1945. Her last poems show deep affection for Lithuania itself. She was buried in Kaunas, in a square of the Museum of Culture, and later re-interred in the Cemetery of Petrašiūnai.

Pseudonym

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 to her homeland and asking her not to use the name of the River Neris. She added a diacritic on "e" and used only the pen name "Nėris", which until then had no particular meaning. [ [http://www.rasyk.lt/index.php/fuseaction,articlesView.view;id,707 Rasyk.lt: Apie S. Nėries gyvenimo vingius ir jos gyvenimo meiles ] at www.rasyk.lt]

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.
* Biała ścieżka. - Warszawa: Państ. 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.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.booksfromlithuania.lt/index.php?page_id=22&action=info&WriterID=116 A short biography with list of her published works]
* [http://anthology.lms.lt/texts/48/autor.html Lithuanian Classic Literature Anthology: Salomėja Nėris]