Uku Masing - 100th anniversary

Uku Masing (1909-1985) spent his childhood in the Russian Empire, and after the age of thirty was again confined to the prison-house of the Soviet Union. His 100th anniversary is in August of this year, so he deserves a mention.

I was reminded of his existence when reading today's Eesti Päevaleht (one of the two leading Estonian dailies), when the paper's cultural correspondent Andres Laasik wrote an article about him and a new DVD documentary called Uku Masingu maastikud (Uku Masing's Landscapes; 2009; director Enn Säde). Three films have been made about him previously.

The article accentuates the fact that Masing lived in internal exile for years. He was a theologist, polyglot and poet, and his poetry was metaphysical, so the Soviet authorities frowned on it. During Estonian independence in the late 1930s he had become part of the poetry movement Arbujad (Soothsayers), who were brought together by Anglophile poet and translator Ants Oras, who was greatly influenced by T.S. Eliot. Other poets of this group included some that would become major Estonian poets such as Betti Alver, Bernard Kangro and Kerti Merilaas. During the 1930s, Masing studied Arabic and Ethiopian, as well as theology, at Tartu University and wrote an Estonian grammar of Hebrew during that decade.

During WWII, Masing and his wife helped a Jew avoid capture and supplied him with necessities, thus earning them the Vad Yashem title of Righteous Among Nations. Later on, he helped investigate war crimes committed at the Klooga Nazi concentration camp.

After WWII, and after contracting tuberculosis, Masing worked quietly to avoid drawing the attention of the Soviet authorities to himself. He nevertheless managed to translate the New Testament and other parts of the Bible into Estonian between 1974 and 1983 and wrote several theological books, one of which on Buddhism.

Swedish exile Estonian author and translator Peeter Puide, mentioned earlier on this blog, wrote a novel about Masing called Till Bajkal, inte längre (To Baikal, No Further - a quote from one of his poems; 1983).

I shall be translating some of Uku Masing's poems in due course. Many were first published in Estonian in exile publications in Canada and elsewhere, although Masing never went into exile himself.

There are English articles about Uku Masing in the context of Bible translation, plus Lauri Sommer's translations of two of his poems in the Spring 2009 issue of the Estonian Literary Magazine, but this is not yet available online. However, there are translations of two of Masing's other poems by Ivar Ivask and Küllike Saks here. And there is an article entitled Religious vision in modern poetry: Uku Masing by Vincent B. Leich here.

Lyrikvännen - Tema: Estland

In 2007, the Swedish poetry magazine Lyrikvännen published an issue devoted to Estonian writing. This issue contains poems by a large number of contemporary and older Estonian authors translated into Swedish. It was produced in conjunction with the Göteborg Book Fair Guest of Honour that year: Estonia.

Poets represented include: Betti Alver, Hella Wuolijoki, Jaan Kaplinski, Doris Kareva, Elo Viiding, Hasso Krull, Jürgen Rooste, Asko Künnap, Kalju Kruusa, fs, Kristiina Ehin, Ilmar Laaban, Aare Pilv, Karl Martin Sinijärv, Andres Ehin, Ly Seppel-Ehin, plus other non-theme-issue poetry and articles. One author whose poetry is published here sits on the cusp between Estonia and Sweden: Mare Kandre. Although she was born and bred in Sweden (and lived in Canada as a small child) she is a Swedish author. But her mother is Estonian. Another important author and translator is the Swede of Latvian parentage, Juris Kronbergs, who has almost single-handedly been responsible for introducing Latvian poetry and prose to Sweden over the past 30 years, and is a poet in his own right.

Two Estonian-born translators who have lived for decades in Sweden were responsible for the bulk of the translations: Enel Melberg and Peeter Puide. And Ilmar Laaban, an Estonian exile, translated his own poem included here, years ago. Kalli Klement and Jaan Seim dealt with poetry by some of the Ehin family, represented here by mother, father and daughter.

Peeter Puide

I have mentioned Peeter Puide on a couple of occasions as the Swedish translator of poetry by Elo Viiding. But he deserves his own entry.

Puide was born in Pärnu, on the west coast of Estonia in 1938. Like so many thousands of other Estonians, he fled the country with his parents to in 1944, when people still had the chance to leave, after the Germans had retreated and the Russians were coming. He spent some time in a Displaced Persons' Camp in Germany, a fate fairly common among Balts at the time, and arrived in Sweden the next year.

Although, he has been living in Sweden ever since, he is still on that most curious list of authors that Sweden maintains, the Immigrantinstitutet's list of "invandrarförfattare". (Ludicrously, even the Swedish novelist Mare Kandre [1962-2005] is on that same list, although she was born in Söderala, Sweden. Only one of her parents is foreign-born. But the Swedish authorities appear to like compiling lists of people with foreign connections.) Here is Peeter Puide's entry.

Here we read that Puide published one collection of poems and a thriller. But it is two middle books, both novels, that are most interesting.

"Till Bajkal, inte längre" (1983) is a complex novel involving, among other things, national mythologies and the lives and poetry of two Estonian poets, Betti Alver (1906-1989) and Uku Masing (1909-1985). The latter was also a theologian, living out his days under modest circumstances in the atheism of Soviet Estonia.

"Samuil Braschinskys försvunna vrede" (1997) has a title that puns the Swedish title of Heinrich Böll's "Katharina Blums försvunna heder". This documentary novel deals with the lives of Jews in Estonia during WWII and caused some controversy as it pointed the finger at Estonians for some of the atrocities. Nowadays, whilst the commission by the Finn Max Jakobson and the former Estonian President Lennart Meri arrived at somewhat different conclusions, it was still very brave for Puide to raise this subject back in the 1980s, when things regarding the Soviet and German occupations of Estonia were still seen in somewhat black-and-white terms.

Along with his father Edgar Puide, Peeter Puide translated Estonian author Mati Unt's first major novel, "Sügisball" (Höstbalen / Autumn Ball) into Swedish. That translation appeared in 1982. Peeter Puide has also translated Estonian poetry into Swedish by Viivi Luik, Tõnu Õnnepalu, Aare Pilv, Kristiina Ehin and, as mentioned on other threads here, Elo Viiding.

Read more about Peeter Puide on the Swedish blog of Enn Kokk (born 1937), another exile Estonian living in Sweden.

As Kokk explains, most curiously, Kokk and Puide, although both having lived for decades in Sweden, had never actually met one another until 2005. That same website also gives an insight into the life of Enn Kokk himself, how he was born in Estonia and ended up in Sweden.

Elo Viiding

One of the most interesting contemporary Estonian poets is Elo Viiding (born 1974). Viiding comes from a literary dynasty. Her grandfather Paul Viiding (1904-1962) was a short-story writer. Her grandmother Linda Viiding (1906-2003) was a translator of Finnish literature. Her father was the major Estonian poet Juhan Viiding (1948-1995).

But despite all this, Elo Viiding stands out as an important poet in her own right.

Elo Viiding's poetry is often zany with strange jumps of associations, as you can even see from the titles of her collections below. Nevertheless, the subject matter of her poetry is commitment to society and its changes. She is often tongue-in-cheek, introducing a healthy dose of humour into her poetry. And, indeed, into her stories. She is not living in the ivory tower of æstheticism. She is pro-women's rights, but has a complex relationship with feminism. Indeed one of the articles on her blog from October 2008 is entitled "Conservative Feminism", where she discusses her attitudes to that phenomenon. One of her most amusing poems, which I myself have translated into English, is entitled "Mothers' Day". In it, Viiding mocks the rather patronising attitude of the Prime Minister who comes to open some Mothers' Day event. She also mocks the expectations of people who expect mothers to fit into a number of neat, rather twee, categories, plus being biologically programmed for the charms of motherhood.

Elo Viiding published her first collections under the pseudonym "Elo Vee". On her father's death, she took back the family name. Her first publication was the chapbook "Telg" (Axis; 1990) which formed part of what are known as "cassettes", i.e. groups of four or five chapbooks by different poets in a cardboard wrapper. After that, she published "Laeka lähedus (roughly: Proximity to Treasure; 1993), "Võlavalgel" (roughly: "In the Light of Debt"; 1995); "V" (idem; 1998, now as Elo Viiding); "Esimene tahe" (roughly: First Volition; 2002); "Teatud erandid" (Certain Exceptions; 2003) and "Selge jälg" (A Clear Trace; 2005). She has also published two collections of short-stories.

Those of you who read Estonian can consult her blog.

Elo Viiding has been translated into several languages, perhaps most of all by the exile Estonian Peeter Puide who, for instance, published translations of Elo Viiding's poetry in two recent issues of the Finland-Swedish cultural weekly "Ny Tid", a periodical which is examined in two other threads of this blog. Puide also translated a selection of her poems into Swedish. This is entitled "För en stämma" and appeared with the Ariel publishing house in 2004, a press that also produces the literary periodical "Ariel".

I myself published the English translation of the poem "Mothers' Day" in an English-language issue of the Swedish literary magazine 00TAL, and a few more of her poems in the Canadian Nordic and Baltic poetry anthology "The Baltic Quintet". I have also sent a short-story of hers to the Dalkey Archive Press in Illinois, for one of their occasional publications. This story mocks how patronising, well-off women used to come over from Sweden and used to lecture their Estonian "sisters" during Soviet times on how to be liberated from their husbands, while not understanding a thing about the material circumstances that governed the role of women in Soviet society - especially those married to poets. Elo Viiding saw this all at first hand as a teenager, when women translators and others visited her poet father, no doubt to name-drop back in Sweden, in the same way that exile Estonians from Sweden used to boast about having met poet Jaan Kaplinski.

Suffice it to say that for all their complexity, and occasional obscurity, most of Elo Viiding's works, with their zany commitment, are eminently translatable.

Ny Tid & Kontur revisited

Issue 12-13 of the Finland-Swedish cultural weekly "Ny Tid" is a double one, plus 1/09 of the occasional insert or supplement "Kontur". There is an exceptional amount of literary material this time round.

Ny Tid

- Two items about the Swedish Nordic Council nominee Johan Jönson and his mammoth 800-page mixed genre work entitled Efter arbetsschema. Article by Lorna Bertram; review by poet Heidi von Wright.

- A review by Otso Harju of the first volume of Hjalmar Bergman's letters.

- An excerpt from Finland-Swede Kira Nalin's first novel Bultar som ett bläckfiskhjärta.

- An article by Claes Andersson entitled 'Navelskådning à la Norén', in effect a review of Lars Norén's En dramatikers dagbok.

- A review, entitled ' "Zur Judenfrage" - Randanmärkningar till ett filosemitiskt livsprojekt', of a book of essays by Mikael Enckell called Om konsten att älska skriften.

- A review by Kristina Rotkirch [pronounced: ROOT-cheerk] of Russian author Olga Slavnikova's prizewinning novel 2017.

- Irmelin Sandman Lilius writes an essay about King Arthur, Merlin and Guinevere.

- Emma Strömberg discusses a poetry forum on the internet.

- A review by Emelie Enckell of the poetry collection Muntliga dikter by Swedish author Andreas Björsten.

- Poems by Finland-Swede Torsten Pettersson.

- Two theatre reviews by Isabella Rothberg of the plays Blaue Frau by Mia Hafrén and Villans hemlighet by several women author-actors: Freja Appelgren, Kontur editor Malin Kivelä, Åsa Nybo and novelist Hannele Mikaela Taivassalo. The latter play is described as a "tvärkonstnärlig föreställning", and as Rothberg says, is full of absurd humour, mysterious women, with the smell of coffee all around. There is Gothic, Sylvia Plath and Jane Eyre among the associations raised.

- A debate article by regular contributor Trygve Söderling (who doubles up as editor of the Finland-Swedish literary periodical 'Nya Argus') about repressive legitimacy in the Finland-Swedish press and Merete Mazzarella's blog.

- A review by former editor, Peter Lodenius, of Czech author Jáchym Topol's new novel in Swedish translation Den gyllene huvudet.

Kontur

- Malin Kivelä discusses a new Swedish translation of Proust.

- An essay-article by Sven-Erik Klinkmann about death and Johnny Cash.

- Poetry by the Estonian author Elo Viiding in Peeter Puide's Swedish translation.

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