Бажанов, А. Стихи и поэмы о саамском крае = Verses & poems on the Saami land / Аскольд Бажанов ; English translation by Naomi Caffee ; with an essay by Johanna Domokos. - Berlin : Nordeuropa-Institut der Humboldt-Universitat, 2009.

187 lar themes, there is considerable variance among the literary and political canons they want or need to fit into (compare e.g. with the poems o f Paulus Utsi or Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa). The East Saami literary tradition of less than 2000 people, written nowadays in the Cyrillic alphabet in several East Saami languages and Russian as well, shows strong stylistic and meta narrative patterns with con temporary Russian poetry, whereas other Saami literary traditions are more connected to the Scandinavian and Indigenous traditions (which w ill be discussed in Section 2 of this essay). Askold Bazhanov was born on Ju ly 21, 1934, in the village of Notozero, Ko l’skii district, Murmansk region. Like many Saami at that time, his fam ily was forced to leave their homeland un der the state’s centralization policy. Since Bazhanov’s home was flooded for the construction of a lake dam, a return to this place re mained possible only in memories. This major experience enriched his poetry, leading him to emphasize the importance of memory in encapsulating the essential moments of an individual’s formation. For instance, the displacement described in the poem «Where is the Saami parish of Restikent. . . « (p. 131) expresses the absence of an identifying relationship. In Bazhanov’s poetry, this kind of trau matic event dislocated, alienated, and generally interfered w ith East Saami identities, but it also gave birth to a stronger sense of place and valuing of the past. Where is the Saami parish o f Restikent, the rocky Notozero lake? I know it is long gone, but I truly cannot believe it. And there’s no way I can just show up to look at something that’s no longer there. To travel back to childhood, in fact, is not a cinch, it’s far away, like the light o f the stars. But it hasn’t been extinguished in me, not by the autumn rain, nor by the years. Except I can never visit there, not even as a guest.