DONELAITIS, KRISTIJONAS

born Jan. 1, 1714, near Gumbinnen, East Prussia [now Gusev, Russia] died Feb. 18, 1780, Tolmingkehmen [now Chistyye Prudy] also spelled Kristijonas Duonelaitis Lutheran pastor and poet who was one of the greatest Lithuanian poets and one of the first to be appreciated outside his country. Donelaitis studied theology and classical languages at the University of Knigsberg (173640) and in 1743 became pastor of the village of Tolmingkehmen, where he remained until his death. His main work, Metai (1818; The Seasons), 2,997 lines in length, was written in hexameters, which were never before used in Lithuanian verse. It depicts realistically and in their own dialect the life of the serfs and the countryside of 18th-century Prussian Lithuania. The poem was first published in an incomplete edition with a German translation (Das Jahr in vier Gesngen; The Year in Four Cantos) by Ludwig Rhesa in Knigsberg in 1818. It has been translated into several other languages. Donelaitis' other literary works include six fables and a tale in verse, Prickaus pasaka apie lietuvika svodba (1865; Prickus' Tale about a Lithuanian Wedding).