Yanka Kupala

Yanka Kupala, the pen name of Ivan Lutsevich, was a major Belarusian poet and one of the founders of modern Belarusian literature. His early poetry addressed social and national oppression, while works such as *The Flute* (1908), *The Gusli Player* (1910), and *The Path of Life* (1913) helped establish Belarusian as a language of literary expression. He also translated the medieval epic *The Tale of Ihor’s Campaign* and poetry by Taras Shevchenko into Belarusian.