The National Library of Belarus hosted a round table "Belarusian Translations of the Bible" on December 1.
Domestic linguists, historians, teachers, translators, publishers, theologians, representatives of the church and clergy of various denominations, as well as people interested in the translation of the Bible into the Belarusian language took part in the event. The participants discussed the challenges of biblical translation. The round table also included:
- presentation of the facsimile edition of the first translation of the Bible into modern Belarusian ("The Gospel of Luke"), published in 2021 by the National Library of Belarus;
- presentation of the Gospel translation made by Jakub Kolas's brother Mikhail Mickievich (first publication in 2021);
- a ceremony of handing over manuscripts of the Bible translation by Uladzislau Charniauski to the National Library of Belarus.
The event took place in a panel discussion format. Mr Alies Susha, Deputy Director General of the National Library of Belarus, candidate of cultural studies; Mr Andrej Unuchak, Belarusian historian, playwright, candidate of historical sciences; Mr Valier Maroz, Doctor of Theology; Mr Johannes Reimer, professor of the University of South Africa (video recording); priest Frantz Rudz, canon, vice-chairperson of the board of the Bible Society; pastor Antoni Bokun, translator of the Bible into Belarusian; publicist, pedagogue; Ms Maryja Mickievich, granddaughter of Jakub Kolas and Janka Maur; Ms Iryna Dubianieckaja, Doctor of sacral theology, biblical expert; professor Mikalaj Pryhodzich, Head of the Belarusian language history subdepartment at the Philological Department of BSU, doctor of philological sciences.
At the beginning of the event, Ms Aliena Vislauskaja, violinist and violin teacher played several pieces on the violin formerly owned by L. Dziekuc-Maliej.
An exhibition of valuable documents on the history of translations of the Bible into the Belarusian language was presented to the participants of the round table.
Book Research Department
