Written by Richard Wiest
On April 26, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Baltic Studies Program in the department, founders, fund-raisers, former and current students and teachers and an array of other supporters joined the festivities for an interesting and stimulating all-day event led by the program head, our own Prof. Guntis Šmidchens. The Muse of Nordic Sagas was fleetingly seen to be hovering over the proceedings. Hence:
Eddas both poetic and prosaic-
Snorri broadened the mosaic.
Down the centuries to follow
Came Metai and Kalevala
Kalevipoeg and Lāčplēsis
Epics all, a Baltic frieze.
To see these sagas newly thrive
We must go back twenty-five
Years to 1994
Tales of now near ancient lore.
Keystone commemorated
Worthy founders duly fêted
Natives, students, teachers, scholars
Donors of the crucial dollars
Kazickas and Bob Wallace
Raišys, Baltic groups and ALA.
Academic statesmen like
Far-seeing Daniel Waugh,
Terje Leiren, later Šmidchens
Brought to us by Tom DuBois.
Language, history, music, culture
Every topic made the rounds
The scope of modern Baltic Studies
Clearly does not notice bounds.
Guard the project as it thrives-
It really does change lives.