Ethnogenesis
Only now I am learning
that the river Volkhov
is the road that my people
traveled
between the lakes
of Ilman and Lagoda
our dominion flowed
over the waters.
It is unsurprising
that the rivers made the
roads for the Rus’ to flower
mingling the peoples of the
west and east
for the folksgrimʀ
to command in Kiev
and Novgorod.
Even more than I believed
the ethnogenesis of
my people
poured across the north
leaving the marks
of writing and language
on runestones and spindles.
So we see that the strength
of humankind
is not in conquest but
assimilation
over the waters we are
spun together
in our kinship.
Photo from color by МУЗЕЙ СТАРАЖЫТНАБЕЛАРУСКАЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ А Л Ь Б О М Мінск, УП
«Выдавецтва «Беларусь», CC BY-SA 3.0,
