The book's title comes from Janka Kupała's poem In the Night Pasture (Belarusian: На папасе, romanized: Na papasie):by forces unknown / New-created, like water, like fire!

It continues with works by Francišak Bahuševič and Janka Łučyna from the mid-19th century and ends with the Soviet Belarusian authors Maksim Tank and Arkadź Kulašoŭ.

Each part begins with a short introduction to the corresponding literary period and ends with the translator's detailed commentaries to the published works.

Janka Zaprudnik, a Belarusian scholar based in the United States, wrote that the Soviet co-funder insisted on populating the anthology with a significant number of authors who "though were not of a great talent, had the impeccable party reputation".

[7] Arnold McMillin welcomed Like Water, Like Fire as "an outstanding piece of work which will serve many English readers as an introduction to an unjustly neglected corner of European literature".

[9] In his opinion, the translator was most successful with the works of the beginning of the 20th century and the Naša Niva period of Belarusian literature, particularly poems by Bujła, Kupała, Kołas and Bahdanovič.

Adamovič admitted that the book had "many apt observations and comments in the introduction and in the numerous notes",[4] however it contained "just as many misunderstandings and factual errors".

[10] In 2012, Svetlana Skomorokhova produced a detailed analysis of the anthology as part of her doctoral thesis on the English translation of Belarusian literature.

Among the named individuals there was Olwen Way, "who supplied some Welsh parallels, and also advised on certain matters connected with horse-riding", and Patricia Waller, "for her technical knowledge and advice concerning the curing of pork both now and in the past".

Alexander Nadson, "for supplying much of the bibliographical detail"; Rich's tutors in Belarusian, Dominik Aniśka and "Leǔ Haroška, whom for so long I drove to distraction with my inability to master the pronunciation of the hard 'ł'".

The only person from the Soviet Belarus mentioned in the Acknowledgements was Jazep Siemiažon [be-tarask; ru], a translator who Rich had never met, "for his suggested list of inclusions".

Both editions — at variance with the established bibliographical practice — carried the same ISBN, which makes finding the copies with the original dustjacket more difficult.