Vaicaitis, Pranas

Born Feb. 10, 1876, in Santakai, in present-day Sakiai Raion, Lithuanian SSR; died there Sept. 21, 1901. Lithuanian poet.

Vaičaitis was born into a peasant’s family. He graduated from the law department of St. Petersburg University and began publishing his works in 1896. Vaicaitis reflected in his verses the peasantry’s opposition to national and social oppression, the natural beauty of his country, and the life of the working people (for example, in “There Is a Country,” “The Ragged Child Looked Through the Fence,” “Evergreens,” “Song of the Ex-Lithuanians,” and “The Warrior Fought Bravely”). He translated A. S. Pushkin’s The Mermaid and The Covetous Knight into Lithuanian.