What Is Nostalgia?

Homesickness, or nostalgia, is a longing not so much for people as for the natural landscape of one's homeland: its forests, mountains and hills, rivers, lakes, the blue of its skies, its sunsets—in short, for the whole environment with which a person has grown together, and on leaving which he feels that he has left behind a part of himself.
(Antanas Maceina)

Below is a poem by Salomėja Nėris, one of Lithuania's most celebrated poets, who suffered more than perhaps any other Lithuanian intellectual from being separated from her homeland and, above all, from being accused of treason (rightly or wrongly, that is not for us to judge).

Bloodied and plundered,
You stand before my eyes...
I would walk a hundred miles on foot
Until I saw you living once again.

Whether orchards there are blossoming,
Or fruit hangs heavy on the bough,
Or yellow leaves are falling,
I shall return to you on my knees
Through rain, hard frost, and winter's cold...

Like the grass that grows in open fields,
I was nourished by the sap of my native soil...
I have kept my heart for you alone—
Glowing, living still.

I never sold you,
Nor did I betray you, my beloved!
The storm may rage, yet the forest remains...
And the heart does not lie.

(Salomėja Nėris "To My Homeland)

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Sukruvinta ir apiplėšta
Ji stovi man akyse…
Šimtus aš mylių eisiu pėsčia,
Kol gyvą pamatysiu.

Žydės ten sodai, svyros vaisiai,
Ar lapai kris pageltę,
Aš keliais į tave pareisiu
Per lietų, gruodą, šaltį…

Mane – kaip lauko žolę – girdė
Gimtosios žemės syvai…
Aš saugojau tau savo širdį –
Žėruojančią ir gyvą.

Nepardaviau tavęs aš niekad,
Neišdaviau, mieloji!
Audra praūžia, miškas lieka…
Širdis gi nemeluoja.

(Salomėja Nėris „Tėvynei“)

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Fabrizio Ulivieri - TrendSetter

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