Salomėja Neris – a Controversial Poet

Salomėja Nėris (real name Salomėja Bačinskaitė-Bučienė, 1904–1945) is one of the most popular and admired, but also one of the most condemned, and sometimes even despised, Lithuanian poets. Nobody questions the artistic value and importance of her poems, for which Nėris is worshiped, or their place in Lithuanian literature. She is condemned, because in 1940 she went to Moscow together with other Lithuanian intellectuals to “bring Stalin’s sun” to Lithuania – to ask for Soviet-occupied Lithuania to be officially accepted into the Soviet Union. In addition, she interacted with left-wing intellectuals before the occupation, publicly declared her socialist views, and, in 1940, wrote poems that glorified the occupation regime, such as Poema Apie Staliną (‘Poem About Stalin’). So passionate discussions about Nėris are still ongoing: she is known both as the most talented Lithuanian poet of the twentieth century, and as a traitor to the nation.

When discussing Nėris, it is important to remember that the interwar period, the years of World War II, and the postwar period were very difficult years. During the interwar period, many Lithuanian intellectuals admired leftist socialist ideas. Some were attracted by the ideas of equality, others, such as the avant-garde group Trečiasis Frontas (The Third Front), admired the aesthetic revolution – they sought an artistic renewal and a new, simpler poetic language that was closer to the real world. At the beginning of the 1930s, Nėris also joined the team of the left-wing magazine Trečiasis Frontas (‘The Third Front’). The poet’s biographers believe that her interest in socialist ideas may have been inspired by her rebellious character, disappointment with the Church (she was a Catholic in adolescence and early youth), and public condemnation when she began a romantic relationship with Juozas Eretas, her professor and a married man. Whatever the reasons, Nėris realised that she had made a mistake at the end of her life – she had brought darkness to Lithuania, not the sun, and had contributed to the occupation of the country. This is shown in the writer’s diaries and her last collection of poetry Prie Didelio Kelio (‘By the Big Road’) – unlike her previous books, this one expresses the deep feelings of guilt and regret.

The story of Nėris’ death is also mysterious – the writer suddenly fell ill and died when she was still very young, only forty-one years old. There is a rumour that she was poisoned for deciding to turn away from communism. The official cause of death was liver cancer. Nėris was buried in the garden of the Vytautas the Great War Museum, and reburied in Petrašiūnai cemetery in 1992.

However, like every talented poet, Nėris is immortalised by her work. Her first collection of poetry Anksti Rytą (‘In the Early Morning’, (1927)) received recognition, and Diemedžiu Žydėsiu (‘I Will Turn Into the Absinthe Flower’), published in 1938, is seen as her most mature work. Nėris belongs to the generation of neo-romanticists: they appreciated depth and intensity of feeling, combined symbolic images and everyday details, and often looked for inspiration in folklore. Her poems stand out for their light, concise form and melodic sound – they are easy to remember and pleasant to recite. She often wrote about unhappy and unattainable love. Her best poems do not talk about feelings directly, but through images of nature: for example, loneliness is conveyed by depicting a lone, wind-torn flower blooming in autumn fields. Nėris’ poems are autobiographical, they focus on many personal experiences.