Poet Syarhei Famin was born on April 29, 1906, in the village of Pepelyovka, Mstsislaw district of Mogilev province (now Monastery region of Smolensk oblast) into the family of a village teacher. After completing Mstsislaw seven-year school and Mogilev pedagogical technical school (1925), he worked as a teacher for two years, then entered the literary-linguistic department of the pedagogical faculty of Belarusian State University, which he successfully graduated from in 1930. He taught Belarusian language and literature at the Horadnya Agricultural Academy.
Even during his school years, he began writing poems and small notes in Russian, publishing them in district newspapers. His first poetry publications appeared in 1924. S. Famin was most active in publishing from 1926 to 1930 in magazines such as “Maladnyak,” “Maladnyak Barysawshchyna,” “Malyadyy Araty,” “Shlyakh Studenstva,” “Pratsounik Asvety,” “Paljauchny Belarusі,” “Chyrvony Seybit,” and in newspapers “Savetskaya Belarus,” “Chyrvonaya Zmena,” “Zvyazda,” “Mahiliouski Selyanin.”
S. Famin’s work was positively received by readers and critics, and he became a member of “Maladnyak.” The moods of the young generation of poets, as well as the peculiarities of their style and language, were clearly manifested in his work, which was life-affirming in its pathos.
All of this was characteristic of both his poems and the poems “For New Days” and “Native Distance.” In the poem “Swamp” (1927), dedicated to the Belarusian village, the author sought to compare the old and the new, to show the changes in the life of the peasantry brought about by revolutionary transformations. The poem was written in both thematic and genre terms in the best traditions of that time.
S. Famin’s talent was noted by M. Haretzki, who emphasized the technical perfection of the poems, the precise instrumentation, and the artistic-aesthetic taste of the author. Many of the poet’s works were translated into Russian and Ukrainian. Already as a member of the literary community “Proletarian-Peasant Commune” (“Problisk”), he prepared a collection of poems “Smoky Rye” for publication. However, in the threatening 1930s, S. Famin, like many other Belarusian writers, “stepped on the throat of his own song” (V. Mayakovsky), focusing on translations (his excellent translations of V. Sasyura’s poems from Ukrainian are well-known).
On January 4, 1935, the poet was arrested. He was sentenced to the highest penalty, but later his sentence was commuted to 10 years of imprisonment. He served his sentence for a non-existent crime in the Komi ASSR, in the concentration camp UHTPECHLAG. As much as possible, he wrote poems, some of which reached his homeland through letters to relatives. S. Famin was arrested again in 1941 in the concentration camp and as a participant in a “diversion group” was shot on December 4, 1941, at the age of 35.
* * *
I saw you long ago. And much has flown by
Since those times of fiery butterflies.
You were then a shy little girl.
It has passed…
You have forgotten me.
You cannot recognize me… And I am not surprised.
In vain I catch your glance.
And do you remember,
When in the silence of the night
Did you quietly say to me “I love you”?
We have not seen each other for a long time. You did not recognize me.
You touched me with laughter…
Today your low-cut dress sparkled
With the last farewell tear.
1926
* * *
The blue of the month swayed.
The autumn wind is in the yard.
In autumn, one wants to dream,
In autumn, the stars shine.
The wind whispers love…
— come in, my dear, boldly!
With kisses, I weave “I love you”
On the canvas of your sunburned cheeks.
Tonight I will not sleep.
You come in, let down your braids!
I love to sprinkle
Golden millet of your words in my heart.
Today autumn plays in the garden.
Dear! Do not be afraid! Look!
Come to me, my joy,
Ignite fires in my heart!
1926
* * *
Outside the window, the wind is gasping,
The moon brought dreams into the room…
…There is much joy in the world,
There are many absurd tears.
There were days —
I was in joyful work
Something bright in the valleys whistled.
There were days —
I experienced sadness and bitterness
Through the thin thread on my heart,
And in the fragrant bell of the reeds
I went to work in the fields,
And I pulled my golden tobacco
As if I sang — endlessly…
And now… Whether yesterday or today
I cannot recognize myself —
Bright joy in my heart — a bottomless pit,
In life, a storm of spring…
I have forgotten how to whimper —
I myself drove the thorn into my eyes…
And now with a soaring cry
I greet a second life.
Behind the wall, the wind with a harmonica
Brought unheard strength…
There is much joy in the world
And childish,
And funny tears.
1927
* * *
On a blue night in a moonlit blizzard,
Where wolf fires burn, —
The lonely oak waved its arms,
Looking at the cut stumps.
And it groaned, and lamented from grief…
And after the blizzard had faded, —
There was no one in the felled forest,
And the saw cried mournfully.
The crescent bent like a lilac flower,
Looked, became dim, and disappeared…
And under the oak, the iron cried,
And the cut stumps were silent…
And when from the creaking sleds
The old horse bent down with a sad muzzle,
The giant oak fell into the snow
Solemnly, tumultuously, and proudly…
The echo in the stumps — did not last long:
And the awakened space fell silent.
It resembled a distant cemetery
The resounding, cut forest…
1928
Source: Executed Literature: Works of Belarusian Writers Lost to the Repressive Organs of Bolshevik Power / Ed. L. Savik, M. Skobla, K. Tsvirka, Intro. A. Sidarevich, Com. M. Skobla, K. Tsvirka. – Minsk: Knihazbor, 2008. – 696 p.