Andrei Khadanovich
The Belarussian audiobook edition features works of Czesław Miłosz selected, translated and read by poet Andrei Khadanovich. Words are accompanied by music played by Racyanalnaya Diyeta band
The audiobook endeavour forms part of the Cultural Programme of the Polish Presidency of the EU, as well as a special programme commemorating the hundredth year since the Polish poet's birth. The publications engage various actors and writers who lend their voices for recordings of different selections of Czesław Miłosz’s poems in each country of publication. The graphic design and overall concept remains the same: the audio books, produced by the pan-European Polish Institutes, are an opportunity for European readers to acquaint themselves with the works of the Polish laureate of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Andrei Khadanovich was born in 1973 in Minsk. He graduated from the literary sudies department of the University of Belarus in 1995. Khadanovich lectures in history of French literature at the University, and in translation studies at the Belarussian College. He also teaches popular literature at the Kolas High School. He is president of Belarussian Pen-Club.
Khadanovich debuted as a poet in 2003, and has since published a new collection of poetry each year. His works have been translated into English, Czech, Spanish, Lithuanian, German, Slovakian, Slovenian, Russian, Ukrainian and Italian. His own work as translator includes writings in English (Dickinson, Yeats, and Auden), Polish (Gałczyński, Miłosz, Herbert, and Twardowski), Russian (Brodsky, G. Ajgi and Siedokov), Ukrainian (Andrukhovich, Zhadan), and French (Baudelaire, Apollinaire).
For 15 years that I have had the honor of translating Czesław Miłosz, one of the most significant and greatest European poets of the 20th century. Perhaps he is one of the last great poets to treat creativity very seriously, with all due responsibility. True poetry, according to Miłosz has either to save people, or it has no justification. But the poet, living after W.H. Auden, remembers well that no poem is capable of changing life. This gives rise to a wonderful irony, a 'trade mark' of Miłosz, alongside the honesty which allows him to face up the task in places where no poetic tricks can do the job. When it comes to the selection for this particular audiobook, "Człowiek wielopiętrowy" / "Multistoried Man" I wanted to pick out the most distinct poems: pieces that ring in the ear at a first hearing and bear on the memory of an unattentive listener, provoking him to another hearing. I was helped out in this task by the Racyanalnaya Diyeta band, who have composed really good and original music to these poems.
Andrei Khadanovich, 27th of July 2011.
The Racyanalnaya Diyeta music group comprises: Volha Padhaiskaya (piano), Vital Epau (saxophone), Kiryl Kryscia (violin), Nadezdha Kryscia (cello) and Max Velvyietau (guitar).
The audiobook was recently introduced during "Readings on the Border", on the 30th of June, 2011. Between the 15th and 17th of September a special meeting entitled "Great Kingdom of Poets" wil be held in Minsk. Writers from Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus will participate, and the Belarussian audiobook of Miłosz’s poetry is also to be promoted at the event.
The Belarussian edition of Czesław Miłosz's audiobook was made possible thanks to the help and cooperation of the Polish Institute in Minsk.
Poems for the Belarussian edition were selected from the following collections of Czesław Miłosz’s poetry: "Rescue", "The Light of Day", "King Popiel and Other Poems", "Gucio Enchanted", "City Without a Name", "Where the Sun Rises and Where it Sets", "The Poem of the Pearl", "Chronicles", "Farther Surroundings", "It" and "Last Poems"
Date: Distrubuted from the 30th of June, 2011
Location: Nationwide in Belarus, through Pen-Club and special promotional events in Minsk
Organised by: Pen-Club of Belarus, www.tut.by, Polish Institute in Minsk, Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Project cofinanced by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.
Czesław Miłosz is a Flagship Project of the Cultural Programme of the Polish Presidency. For more information on the project, see: Czesław Miłosz
For more information on 2011 Milosz Year, see: www.365milosz.eu
Source: Adam Mickiewicz Institute