This book is a poetic self-portrait of the author, who lives in exile, wandering through various European cities. The protagonist engages in conversations with the living and the dead, with relatives and strangers, with plants and animals, with streets and cities. Most importantly, she converses with herself – a girl from a Polesia village familiar with the poison and sweetness of wolfberries, born during times of change. As a student, she discovers the world in an oppressed country. Eventually, as an adult woman, she chooses poetry as a way to communicate with the world, with her voice now resonating in various languages. This voice is full of fear, sometimes sad, sometimes contemplative, but always clear, inquisitive, and audible. “It is I” – quietly but surely, says the pit of an exotic fruit from this rich image full of colors and nuances, affirming life and its endless, triumphant diversity. – Alhierd Bacharevič

“A necessary and devastatingly beautiful read” – Pierce Alquist

“Images of wordlessness, thwarted regeneration, and ecological catastrophe—give the book its depth, and announce Julia Cimafiejeva as a poet that readers will want to follow in the future.”– Jessica Johnson

Participants: Julija Cimafiejeva – author, Bohdan Zadura – translator, moderated by Monika Ostrowska, interpreter: Irina Lappo

Julia Cimafiejeva (born 1982 near Brahin) – Belarusian writer and translator. She is the author of four poetry collections in Belarusian and the documentary book “Minsk Diary” written in English. Her work has been translated into many languages and published in various projects, anthologies, and magazines, including “Poetry International” (USA), “Literatūra ir menas” (Lithuania), and “Financial Times” (UK). Her poetry collection “Cyrk I inne wiersze”/ “Circus and Other Poems” was published in 2018 by Workshops of Culture in Lublin, translated by Bohdan Zadura. She has been a resident at the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators (2013, 2017) and the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin (2018). Since late 2020, she has been living in exile with her husband, writer Alhierd Bacharevič.