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Belarus
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Protest poems by Dmitry Strotsev

Dmitry Strotsev's poetry moves in its very own border country in between political themes, issues of power abuse, religiosity, and spirituality.
He illustrates the government’s abusive violence and the resistance towards it as a uniting force of the people.

Each day he wrote one poem in opposition to the regime which was widely shared on social media and translated to a dozen languages. We publish two of his poems.

Credits Poems: Dmitry Strotsev Illustration: Kajsa Nilsson November 15 2021

The Belarusians
for three days have taken off

from their hips
their breast
their cheeks

fragments of Czech grenades
Polish bullets

Europeans

that is all
we can expect
from you

29.08.2020

Translated by Tatiana Bonch-Osmolovskaya

***

Bees think
Tolstoy says
that all they do is gather honey

in practice
they are pollinating a garden

Belarusians think
Christ says
that all they do is gather a country

in practice
they are healing the world

13.11.2020

Translated bt Valzhina Mort

***

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