News
11/12/2015. The Golden Words of the Vepsian Poets
December 7, 2015:
The National Library of the Republic of Karelia held a presentation of the book Kuldaižed sanad (The Golden Words). The poetry collection contains selected poems in Vepsian by poet Nikolai Abramov and the epic poem Virantanaz by poet Nina Zaytseva.
The book Kuldaižed sanad (Eng. The Golden Words) completes the release of a series Karjalan kirjallisuuden klassikot (Eng. The Classics of the Karelian Literature), which has been issued since 2002 by the publishing house Periodika with the support of the Juminkeko Foundation.
The presentation was attended by the Finnish writer, public figure and the Chairman of the Foundadtion Markku Nieminen. In his speech he noted that in spite of the fact that the series is completed, the Juminkeko Foundation will continue cooperation with Vepsians, Karelians and Finns who leave in Karelia.
Welcoming speeches to the authors of the book and the admirers of their poetic talent were made by the heads of the publishing house Periodika, the Deputy Minister of the National Policy Elizaveta Kharitonova and the Head of the Department for the Cultural Policy of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Karelia Pavel Gokkoev.
A researcher of the Sector of Literature and Folklore of the Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences Natalya Chikina told about the literature in the Vepsian language, which is a language having recently acquired a written form.
The audience in a conference room of the library liked the performances by a young band Sima nevynosima and Vepsian folk ensemble Randaine. This evening there was a lot of poetry. The poems were read by the authors of the book and also children from Petrozavodsk Finno-Ugric School named after Elias Lönnrot, the poet Oleg Moshnikov and the master of the evening and an actress of the Montes Theatre Galina Baburova.
At the end of the presentation the guests got books autographed by Nikolai Abramov and Nina Zaytseva as a present.
Nikolai Abramov writes poems and prose in two languages – Russian and Vepsian, also he is a translator. He is an author of seven poetry collections in Vepsian, Russian, Hungarian, Estonian and French languages, his books were published in Petrozavodsk, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Budapest and Paris. The poems by Vepsian poet were translated into more than 20 European languages and languages of the peoples of Russia. In 1998 he was admitted to the Writers' Union of Russia, now he is a member of the Karelian Writers' Union. Nikolai Abramov is the Honored Worker of Culture of the Republic of Karelia and the leading bibliographer of the National Library of Karelia.
The member of the Writers' Union of Russia and the poet Nina Zaytseva writes in Vepsian and translates. She is the author of two poetry collections and the Vepsian epic poem Virantanaz, which is also a part of the book Kuldaižed sanad. Nina Zaytseva is the author of textbooks of the Vepsian language for schools and universities and the editor of all literature in Vepsian. She has translated the Bible for Children (Stokgolm-Helsinki, 1996), The Gospels (published) and the letters of the New Testament. She has also translated the epic poem Kalevala into Vepsian. Nina Zaytseva is the Doctor of Philology and the Head of the Sector of Linguistics of the Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
