Danuta about Belarusian language
A well-known Belarusian poetess Danuta Bichel (Данута Бічэль) from Western Belarus writes in her diary:
“In the morning I listened to Radio Liberty. Our writer Svetlana Alexievitch declares her love for Belarus in Russian. That must be some love, to have become a writer and not learn the language. There is no Belarus without Belarusian language… And the language can not be counted in usage percentages, because it ain’t harvested wheat or earned money. It’s the soul, and the soul is very small.”
The key statement here is that “there is no Belarus without Belarusian language.” In other words, she believes that a Russian-speaking Belarus has no future, or, it will be something that can not be called Belarus, it’ll be something else. I subscribe to that. And I also like Danuta’s way of expressing her thoughts, she has a way with words.
