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The music video “Няма Беларусі / Njama Belarusi” (engl. “There is no Belarus”) by the band “Рэха / Recha” (engl. “Echo”; the “ch” is an “Ach”-sound, so please don’t pronounce it “Retscha”) was shot in a district close to Pastawy, a rural region in the northwest of Belarus close to the Lithuanian border. In this area, the everyday use of Belarusian is at a much higher level than compared to other parts of the country, where the Russian language dominates.
Both, the Belarussian text and the video scenes portray the ordinary life and the sociability as lived by the people in this area. The entirety of the composition reflects the complex relationship of the citizens to their linguistic identification, which oscillates between fascination and rejection and which often interlaces these two extremes in a strange way. Bandleader and singer Andrej Takindang (son of a Belarusian mother and Chadian father) confronts two rivaling slogans and proposes an individual and simple solution for the dilemma: “There is no Belarus! Long live Belarus! You choose your own way!”
Introduction Konrad Hierasimowicz
There is no Belarus
There is no Belarus, only people,
Names and eyes, the red patterns
Crosses on towels, towns and villages
There is no Belarus
Saints and rascals eat bread together
In parks and on squares
The green tanks wait for commands
There is no Belarus
There is a child crying, it gets solaced
Father and mother: „aj-luli-luli“.
A child cries, there is no Belarus.
There is no Belarus (3 x)
Chorus:
There is no Belarus – long lives Belarus!
Stubbern kids cry for the spring
There is no Belarus – long lives Belarus!
The guy who doesn’t believe anymore, smiles and cries
There is no Belarus – long lives Belarus!
You choose your own way
There is no Belarus – long lives Belarus!
Long lives Belarus! (9 x)
A housewife is wistful and heartsick
Parades and marches on radio waves
You excuse and forgive that your enemy will cry
On the other hand you get friends
The hairy tongue is dirty due to the curse
The poor guy gets on the wrong side by grumbling
Unhappy people celebrate and cry
A beggar extorts no bread but money
The power beats you with a whip
But you divert the diesel oil at work
On the fields you go along with the last tractor
And your wife shows you her real character
Saints and rascals eat bread together
At home with a grey roof
Wake up from dreaming, you Belarusian people
That’s how the poet snivels, but it’s senseless
There is no Belarus (2 x)
Chorus:
There is no Belarus – long lives Belarus!
Stubbern kids cry for the spring
There is no Belarus – long lives Belarus!
The guy who doesn’t believe anymore, smiles and cries
There is no Belarus – long lives Belarus!
You choose your own way
There is no Belarus – long lives Belarus!
Long lives Belarus! 7 x)