News
23/11/2020. Nina Zaitseva and Nikolai Abramov: poets of the Vepsian people
November 16 – 22, 2020:
The Republic of Karelia held the Vepsian Language Week. The organizer of the action is the Resource Language Media Center of Karelians, Vepsians and Finns of Karelia. The event is supported by the Ministry of National and Regional Policy of the Republic of Karelia.
Nikolai Abramov (24.01.1961 – 23.01.2016)
Poet, journalist, literary translator. He wrote poetry and prose in Vepsian and Russian languages. The author of the first poetic book in the Vepsian language. Member of the Union of Writers since 1998 and the Union of Journalists of Russia since 2003, member of the Board of the International Association of Finno-Ugric Writers since 2010, Honored Worker of Culture of the Republic of Karelia. Nikolai Abramov's poems have been translated from Vepsian into Russian, Finnish, Estonian, Swedish, French, Norwegian, Hungarian and into the languages of the Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia. He also made translations into the Vepsian language of the classics of the world and Russian literature.
During the last years of his life the writer worked at the National Library of the Republic of Karelia, but the cooperation between the library and the author had begun long before that. It may seem, that Abramov's heritage is only his books and poems, but this is not so. The collaboration between the writer and the library in the field of Internet projects began, when the National Library was preparing an electronic collection of translations of Vladimir Vysotsky's poems into Finno-Ugric languages on the portal Finno-Ugric Libraries of Russia. Who made translations into Vepsian? Of course, Nikolai Abramov. V. Vysotsky was his idol, his translations of Vysotsky's poems into Vepsian are kept today in the V. Vysotsky Museum in Moscow.
The Internet project Indigenous Peoples of Karelia began with Nikolai Abramov. The first material in the Record library of the projects is titled Nikolay Abramov Reads. We can also say that, while working in the library, Nikolai Abramov was the library's “own correspondent”. Abramov was the author of many publications for the project Indigenous Peoples of Karelia and Finno-Ugric Libraries of Russia. The writer was interested in such topics as literary activity, folk festivals, and, of course, like many men, fishing. Nikolai Abramov loved to photograph, and therefore his reports were always accompanied by good photographs.
Of course, Nikolai Abramov entered into history as a Vepsian poet and author of the first collection of poetry in the Vepsian language. The literary heritage of the author is widely represented in the Internet project Electronic Library of Authors of Karelia. Electronic publications are presented as follows. A selection of the author's poems from the collection Pagiškam, vel’l’ (Eng. Let's Talk, Brother) in Vepsian and Russian languages is freely available for the reader. On the author's page, you can also watch a 20-minute video, where the author himself reads his poems. The video was made by the National Library in 2014.
In 2016, the author's page was replenished with the publication Les chants des forêts (Songs of the Forests). This is a collection of poems in Vepsian and French languages, which was published in the series Poems of the Ural Peoples.
In 2019, the collection Between the Forces of Evil and Good, prepared with the support of the Ministry of National and Regional Policy, was added to the page. The book includes the best poems by Nikolai Abramov, created by him throughout his life and translated into Russian by various translators, as well as author's texts in Russian.
Pages of Nikolai Abramov in the Internet projects of the National Library: Names in the history of Karelia, Electronic library of authors of Karelia.
Nina Zaitseva
Poet, linguist, doctor of philological sciences, head of the Sector of Linguistics, the Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Karelian Research Centre of RAS. Member of the Karelian regional branch of the Writers' Union of Russia since 2002. Laureate of 2019 of the Republic of Karelia.
It is no coincidence that Nina Zaitseva is called the “mother” of the literary Vepsian language. Together with M. I. Mullonen, she developed the foundations of Vepsian writing (approved in 1989). Nina Zaitseva is a foreign member of the Society of Finnish Literature; Kalevala Society; Finno-Ugric Society. Translator into Vepsian language Children's Bible (Stokgolm-Helsinki, 1996), as well as the Gospels (published) and letters of the New Testament, author of the first Vepsian epic poem Virantanaz. Deputy Chairman of the Vepsian Culture Society, member of the editorial board of the magazines Carelia and Kipinä, curator and stylistic editor of the Vepsian-language newspaper Kodima; author of textbooks of the Vepsian language for schools and universities; developer and lecturer of university courses “History of the Vepsian language” and “Vepsian dialectology”; editor of all literature in Vepsian language.
Honored Scientist of Karelia (1995), Laureate of 2009 of the Republic of Karelia, she was awarded the Order of Friendship (2007).
On the author's page in the Electronic Library of Authors of Karelia electronic versions of the poetic epic Virantanaz and other publications of the author are presented:
-a fragment of the Vepsian epic Virantanaz, written in 2012 by poet and linguist Nina Zaitseva. The translation into Russian was made in 2015 by the poet and translator Vyacheslav Agapitov;
-epic poem Virantanaz in Vepsian, Finnish, Estonian and Russian;
-audio version of the epic poem in Vepsian, created in the framework of the project Pagin kulub, sana lendab.
We invite you to get acquainted with the works by Nikolai Abramov and Nina Zaitseva!