Author of the work “Fantasy in Belarusian” is not Yan Chachot but Adam Mitskevich. This opinion was expressed by Professor Adam Maldzis in “SB newspaper. Belarus today.”
The poem was published in 1902 in the book by Ukrainian writer Frantsishak Dukhinski in Switzerland. Initially it was thought that the poem was written by the poet Yan Chachot.
The poem is preceded by a brief introduction:
“Since the Little Russian language is more widespread in Poland than Belarusian, we publish the Fantasy written and the language. It appears to be a work by Chachot and is obviously published for the first time.”
However, Adam Maldzis became suspicions, if the poem was written by Yan Chachot. The professor turned to the person working on the books of works by Chahot Kanstantsin Tsvirka, who also expressed the view that in fact this verse-improvisation was written by Adam Mitskevich. As an additional argument, the expert noted the difference in the method of presentation, artistic style and knowledge of the Belarusian language – the poem has a lot of Polonisms and even Russianisms.
Until now, no one could find evidence supporting the Belarusian poems by Mitskevich.
To find out who exactly wrote the “Fantasy”, it is necessary to find an original poem written and conduct archival research in Switzerland. Professor cannot do this for health reasons, so he is looking for those wishing to do the work.
