THE LAST AWAKENING POET: JUHAN LIIV
|
Juhan Liiv is the only poet of Russification times whose suggestive
force can be compared to the same of Koidula or Jakobson. At the
same time Liiv was poet par excallence, the most gloomy and tragic
figure in Estonian literature at all.
ORIGIN AND SCHOOLING
Born in 1864 nearby Lake Peipsi, he got unextinguished memories
of mighty and beautiful nature there. Nature remained main topic
of his verses beside the patriotic theme.
To contrast the nature's fulfillness, the village life around
was poor. Liiv's family presented ultimate poverty from which
there was no way out. Those facts had influence to further tragic
and miserable world-view, reproduced in poetry.
Parents of Liiv nevertheless understood how important and needable
the education could be for an Estonian. Juhan's older brother
Jakob Liiv was educated until he became a schoolmaster. Juhan
himself spent some months in Hugo Treffner's gymnasy in Tartu.
Before and beside the studies he was working as a journalist.
DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS
Physical weakness ordered Liiv to leave the school. Work at the
newspaper "Olevik" did not succee either. Wanting to
become a poet, Liiv recognized that his verses were too different
from the leading taste in poetry. Liiv's extremely sensible temper
made others laugh and arose several gossips and anecdotes. Understanding
it, a paranoic mania became to grow in the poet's mind.
THE SHADOW
At last his first prose story "Vari" ('The Shadow',
1894) was published after two years looking for an editor. The
fact that readers liked the story is mark of unsatisfaction with
traditionally sweet and sentimental adaptions and originals on
inept level.
CONTENT
Construction of "The Shadow" is quite helpless itself.
Basically the action is running on contraversial relations and
black-and-white principle. As the action takes place "in
the closer past", in the last times of corvee, the story
had special political color added.
A fatherless child Villu looses also his mother with whom he has
been lived in extreme need. The lost father has been a German
nobleman who has taken no care of his mistress with child. The
boy is taken by a mercyful peasant family. The fact that he is
different from other children, more weak by body but more vigilant
by mind, is paid no attention.
Together with other serves Villu must go out for horribly hard
work. That one who does not manage will be hardt beaten either
later at the manor or just on the field. Description of beating
is drawn by really artistic hand. All Estonians suffer the unjury
unresistant. Villu, maybe for his father kin's pride, is the only
one who
refuses to be beaten
.
He is the only one who sees humiliating
in the fact. The hard conflict between the young boy and the overseer,
having got right to beat his mates, is solved by the young landlord
Hugo.
Hugo presents the lighter side of life, the new and more human
ideas. The young baron is absolutely different from his cruel
father. He saves Villu and, knowing that the boy can learn, takes
him to his pupil and friend. At the manor Villu meets the young
nobleman's bride Helene who becomes the boy's first passion. By
her side, Helene presents carity and friendship, no more.
Happy days at the manor do not long last. Some Estonian field-workers
are sent to watch at night herding upon the old landlord's horses.
They fall asleep and the horses will be lost. A hard punishment
without any judge except the old baron himself takes place. Among
those who are beated is also Villu's stepfather. Rushing to the
manor yard, Villu can see torturing of serves and the old baron,
enjoying their blood and cries. The boy attacks the landlord so
that the last falls down hardly. Now the young rebellian is senteced
to get sixty strikes himself. Knowing the fact, the young baron
is abandoning father and will be left out of the heritage. Helene
fells gravely ill. Villu, not surviving his lost honour and too
weak to heal of the beatening, will get mad.
The epilogue is complying with reader's expectations. The old
baron has changed all his manners, recognizing how much of unhappiness
he has caused. The young baron has arrived home and got married
to his bride. All manor order has been altered by the couple.
Now everybody is happy. The old baron is loved by people as much
as the younger pair. But that manor is the only one where the
shadow has been passed over. No neighbours have followed their
example yet.
Poor Villu is sitting in a small comfortable hut, built by his
noble friend. There he spent days, listening to the roar of Lake
Peipsi behind the forest. In the final, Villu is repeating only
a symbolic sentence:
"If only that forest will not be in
front of!"
.
What about the characters, Liiv is excellent in creating village
types with special dialect language. Two of his peasant types,
slow and lazy Veni-Villem and rushing Räpsi-Rein, have become
all-known synonymes. Liiv also presents good ability of emphathy.
One must remember that he himself had been born of holy matrimony.
His parents were religious Herrnhut people. An illegimite son
had to be hard sin for them. Nevertheless their son feels pity
and mercy. Liiv is just the first who is rising up that problem
in Estonian literature.
MENTAL ILLNESS
Although Liiv wrote several other pieces in prose, even trying
to repeat "The Shadow's" line, none of them is higher
than an average village story nowadays. Beside satisfaction "The
Shadow" had gloomy influence of its own to its writer, too.
About at the same time Liiv became a
patient
at Tartu Psychiatrical Clinics
. The paranoia was compiled by
Mania grandiosa. Poor and laughed-out in real life, Liiv thought himself
an illegitime son of Czar Alexander II and King of Poland in his psychosis.
Since 1893 an official guard was held upon the writer. His doctor
at the Tartu Clinics, Juan Luiga, was an ambicious man. His star
hour had arrived when he got a really gifted poet upon his experiments.
Luiga took care upon Liiv, ruling and dominating. Attitude like
that harmed the terrifyed man even more. At the same time Luiga
was able to save many admirable poems which Liiv thought to be
too weak and wanted to destroy.
PHYSICAL HEALTH BREAKING UP
Liiv did never heal. After the crisis period, he was sent to his
home places, as the order was at that times. The writer felt his
beggard's position especially humiliating. His pshychosis declared
that he is waited in Poland. So Liiv escaped several times and
was found on the railway without neither sense, money nor ticket.
Bad life conditions weakened the organism until the TBC was on
place.
FORGOTTEN
As it was told, poems by Liiv were thought too "simple"
by people. Laconic form, ultimately simplified form and scant
ornament did overshadow extremely passionate and pure suggestive
force in Liiv's poems. When the new about his illness spred out,
he was thought to be dead and forgotten fast.
In the beginning of next century The Noor-Eesti movement revealed
that Liiv is still alive. Friedebert Tuglas met him personally,
took his poems and had a look at them. He learned that poetry
by Liiv was the best which Estonian language had ever offered.
Tuglas and others started to popularize Liiv at once.
At first a money sum was collected by younger literati to make
Liiv's life better. Then his poems, appeared occasionally in the
newspapers to that time, became published as separate book of
45 poems (1909). Next year the publication was repeated.
DESCRIPTION OF POETRY
The time had arrived to an honest and forceful poetry as Liiv
had written long ago already. Nobody has been able to describe
the Estonian nature better than Liiv did until our days. Nobody
either has surpassed his hot love to Fatherland and mother tongue.
Liiv's love to Estonia can be explained by an event, taken place
in 1906 at building of the new Estonia Theatre house in Tallinn.
The house was built by people's donations partly. Liiv who had
no money took his coat off and spred on the building place.
LACKING OF LOVE THEME
Probably strange seems the fact that Liiv as a passionate character
has written not a great deal of love poetry. The fact can be explained
by his illness which made impossible any relationship between
man and woman in Liiv's life. The only exception remained his
youth friend Liisa Golding. Probably she has been helene's prototype
in "The Shadow". 110 letters by Liiv to her have preserved,
too. The letters explain how lonely Liiv needed just a friend
to whom confess personal troubles. As the heroine of "The
Shadow", Liisa had finally refused of Liiv's love either.
DEATH
Recognition by the Noor-Eesti became too late. Liiv was not able
to continue any kind of work which would last too long. Travelling
towards Poland once again, he as a ticketless passanger was thrown
out of the train in a desert place, leaving his coat in the train.
It was the end of November. The writer got fatally cold. He was
able to reach his home place at Peipsi and died there by pneumonia
and total exhaustion on Dec. 1
st
, 1913.
Rest poemsby Liiv had grew more and more gloomy. A great deal
of them was collected by his brother Jakob. More great part has
been lost or destroyed. Anyway Liiv was glorified His importance
was explained and his memory held on. Today namely Juhan Liiv
is symbol of a real poet of patriotic feelings and compassion
to those who were needing it. An Estonian never forgets how Liiv
dared to be a patriot in hard Russification times, not surrending
to others who so successfully had managed to sell their ideals.
TEXT EXAMPLE
JUHAN LIIV
FRAGMENTS
- The songs are sonorous in richness, sore in poverty.
- (The Axe and the Forest)
The Axe:
What is use of your rustle, I can cut you down easily!
The Forest:
But then you will have no wood for your helve -
And I will grow and grow!
- Who cannot be great, let him be a little one -
little greatness is fooler than foolish!
- Goats are ruminents and sheep are ruminents;
even thinking men can be ruminents,
and the biggest ruminents are newspapers.
- (To the School-Agers)
Who studies for bread
That won't get a heart -
One can not serve two masters together.
- Who does not remember the past
Is living without the future.
- "Your coat suits me -
Give it to me!"
"Then cold will kill me." -
"Well, you're revolting again!"
- You sleep in living and sleep in writing -
You're anyway an honoured man.
And in this large drove of our world
One can really be a leader even sleeping!
- Life and Love!
How your mortality makes you immortal!
- Every real spring has a muddy thaw spring before -
How can you demand blossoms from the spiritual spring at once?
- The boots can be made even with glue only;
The songs can be made even with rhyme only!
- The song with a rhyme is fair and profound,
Without it - just better!
A polite young maiden is fair,
A blushing one - fairer!
- Who sings in sonorous sonnets,
Is amusing himself full-armed in flowers.
TO THE POETS
What is smarting in my chest,
What is making sad my mind,
What is frightening again,
What is startling me at all:
That there's so much of beauty
In wide extensive world,
That there's so much of sorrow
During the span of life,
That there's so much of beauty
In roaring waves of sea,
That there's so much of beauty
In stars up on the sky,
That there's so much of gentless
Deep in beloved eyes,
That there's so much of warmness
In young and opened heart,
That there's so much of living
Deep in the bosom's ground,
That there's so much of sorrow
In every burning breast:
There is so much of beauty
And life and pain in world -
And such a tiny part of it
Can be found in your songs?
When I was only a little boy
A ringing was ringing in my mind.
And when I grew older
The ringing went louder.
Now I am almost buried in it,
My bosom is ruined under it,
My spirit and life are ringing sounds -
Too cramped for them are earthly bounds!
I SAW ESTONIA YESTERDAY
On the railway
I saw Estonia yesterday.
I saw cottages, huts and shacks,
I saw luggage and bags and sacks,
On the field there were limestone stacks.
I saw Estonia yesterday.
I saw Estonia yesterday!
Farmhouses, living their dying days!
O what a narrow, blocked-up ways!
Juniper, alder widely lies!
I saw Estonia yesterday!
I saw Estonia yesterday!
All only shrubbery, trees are ill,
Places of ugliness, weakened will,
Spirits and thoughts so dusky, still -
I saw Estonia yesterday!
Dead silence and the wood in rime.
Daybreak is blood-read in the east.
The air is drizzling crystal drops,
Air from the north is fire steam.
A beast yells in the dawning light.
Wolf, deer and roedeer moan and groan.
From time to time cold gives a crack.
Dead silence covers all again.
Daybreak is blood-red in the east.
Embrace me with your arms.
For my sun has forgotten me,
I'm feeling night harms.
There's no star in sky mirror.
I'm feeling horror.
Cover upon me.
SNOW-FLAKE
Little snow-flake so
Silent, silent
Glides to window-pane
Silent... silent
As it lingered
Silent, silent,
Thinking falling, too:
Silent, silent!
Why thou beat, my breast?
Silent, silent!
Peace is seeking thee -
Silent, silent...
REVISAL QUESTIONS