"Iš menkų daiktų daugsyk dyvai pasidaro", arba kaip menka tampa didžiu

LTStraipsnyje aptariamas sąmoningas Kristijono Donelaičio apsisprendimas tapti lietuviškos kaimo bendruomenės kunigu, rūpintis parapijiečių tikėjimu ir dora. Švietėjiška poeto laikysena didele dalimi nulėmė ir jo poetinio pašaukimo raišką. Pripažinęs kiekvieno Aukščiausiąja valia sukurto pasaulio elemento svarbą, Donelaitis sąmoningai nukreipė akis į „mažus“ dalykus ar „žemiausias“ substancijas. Sąmoningai pasirinko kūrybą apie labiausiai beteisį, labiausiai atsilikusį; didžiausio Prūsijos užkampio valstietį būrą. Apie jį ir jam. Benykstančia mažumos kalba. Galima kelti klausimą, ar šis kraštutinai konservatyvaus, „mažiausio“ Prūsijos karalystėje adresato pasirinkimas paradoksaliai nelėmė Donelaičio kūrybos modernumo to meto Europos poezijos kontekste? Pažeidęs tuomet galiojusias estetikos normas, Donelaitis staiga įsiveržė į geriausių Europos poetų tarpą ir ne tik tapo vienu iš jų, bet ir toli juos pralenkė. Europos mastu niekam nežinomas, silpno balso, silpnos sveikatos Prūsijos provincijos kaimo kunigas akimirką tapo bene didžiausiu Europos poetu. Akimirką, nes Europa apie jį tąkart taip nieko ir nesužinojo. Bet jis liko didelis mums, mūsų mažos, mažėjančios, išvažinėjančios tautos atstovams. Liko, kad primintų tikrąsias gyvenimo vertes ir vertybes.

ENThe personality of Kristijonas Donelaitis presented a successful symbiosis of a priest and a poet: he experienced both his priesthood and his literary work as his vocation. To date, no doubts are left for literary scientists that, by writing poetry, Donelaitis both realized his innate talent and also, at least sometimes, adorned his sermons by the rhythm of hexameter. It was a conscious choice of Kristijonas Donelaitis to become a priest of a Lithuanian rural community and to take care of the parishers' faith and morals. Having undertaken a noble mission to take care of, and to enlighten, a rather uneducated Lithuanian peasant ofthat time, Donelaitis, in the manner typical of the Enlighteners, did not identify himself with his flock; he lived beside them, heard their worries and joys, but had never become one of them. Poetry became a field of expression of Donelaitis' convictions and the perceived duty. Both in his life and literary work, he deliberately directed his eyes towards the 'small' things. Stimulated by the undertaken mission, Donelaitis consciously chose to write about the most deprived and backward peasant-boor of the remotest periphery of Prussia: about him and for him, in the declining language of the minority. However, as it happened, the choice of the extremely conservative and the 'smallest' addressee in the Kingdom of Prussia had paradoxically predetermined the modernity of Donelaitis' poetry in the context of European poetry of the time.By having violated the prevailing aesthetical norms of the time and portrayed the everyday life of Lithuanian peasants without any embellishments, Donelaitis, due to the great power of his talent, forced his way into the ranks of the best poets of Europe and not only became one of them, but far surpassed them. A rural priest of a Prussian province with his weak voice and poor health, unknown to Europe, for a wink of an eye became perhaps the greatest European poet, however, could not be heard by it at the time: The poetry of Donelaitis in Lithuanian and German was only published in 1818.