Writer and journalist, whose brothers Henry Parland (1908-1930) and Oscar Parland (1912-1997), also gained fame as writers. With Bengt Holmqvist, Harry Järv, Göran Schildt, Sven Willner, and Henrik Tikkanen, Ralf Parland was a representative of the generation, who returned from the war without illusions and without the old system of values on which the pre-war Finland had been built. He has been called both modernist and timeless mystic. From the late 1940s Parland lived in Sweden. He received the Nils Ferlin award in 1989.

Dagars glitterprakt
och solflageoletter
fågellåt
glasyrblå eter
och skimmergröna vatten veckade
kring strandens midja.

Ur våra mörka boningar
där skuggan rastar
vi stiger ned mot vindomfläktad trädgård.
Vi går med barnets leksakssteg i solljum sand.

(from 'Juni' by Ralf Parland, Nya Argus, No. 3, 1938, p. 40) )

Ralf Parland was born in Vyborg, the son of Osvald Henriksson Parland (1876-1956), an engineer and bridge builder, who worked for the Russian civil service, and Ida Maria Sesemann (1878-1942), who came from a Baltic-German family, prominent in Vyborg's history. They spoke German and Russian at home; from his father (of distant English origin) Parlan learned English. Osvald worked in St. Petersburg, where his family had a house on the Vasilyevsky Island. Vyborg was Finland's second largest city, but a little place compared with something on the scale of the Russian capital.

Like his brothers, Parland had dreams of becoming an artist. Upon the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, the family moved to Finland, where Parland adopted Swedish as the language in which he wrote then on. After graduating in 1932 from secondary school in Kauniainen, Parland studied at Technical High School, but dropped his studies and devoted himself to literature. In his early writings he shared Henry Parland's light style and ironic view.

Busch (1934), Parland's first book, a collection of short stories, was followed by Ebonit (1937). Elmer Diktonius (1896-1961) reviewed both of these works, describing him as an exceptional talent. "Men eljes: vilken särartad, på hjärnans och känslans vägnar rikt utrustad begåvning!" ('Elmer Diktonius anmäler nya böcker' by Elmer Diktonius, Arbetarbladet, No. 146, 20.12.1937, p. 3) In Grankulla, Diktonius had been Parland's neighbour, and he had spent a good deal of time with him in his youth. However, after the war Parland moved away from Diktonius's politically-committed avant-garde. Recalling his old mentor and friend, he wrote in 1953 in Dagens Nyheter: "There has been a strange silence around the name Elmer Diktonius." ('Revolutionär i skuggan' by Ralf Parland, Dagens Nyheter, 24.07.1953, p. 3)

By nature, Parland was an urban poet without Marinetti's obsessive praise of speed and industry. He filled his poems with images from jazz, natural sciences, popular products, and modern comforts, but beneath the surface of normalcy, there lies a layer of pessimism, doubt, and a sense of betrayed trust. Parland's first collection of poems, Avstånd (1938), embraced modernist techniques, exemplified by poets such as Diktonius and Gunnar Björling (1887-1960). E. N. Tigerstedt referred to these influences in his review: "Parland has läst sina klassiker – om uttrycket tillåtes – med utbyte: När han t. ex. skriver: "Och solen kom och bodde i min snormustasch" – utropa vi glatt igenkännande: Björling! Diktonius saknas inte heller, som vi se av exempelvis följande rader: Råbiff-skratt / sperma-fnitter / volt och / flirt / och / kullerbytta." ('Ralf Parlands dikter' by E. N. Tigerstedt, Svenska Pressen, No. 112, 17.05.1938, p. 3)

Parland became editor of the newspaper Viborgs Nyheter in 1939. He contributed music reviews – he played violin – and other writings to several magazines, among others Nya Argus, Stockholms-Tidningen, Dagens Nyheter and Perspectiv. He also contributed to the publishing house Holger Schildts' new cultural magazine, a quarterly, which had liberal editorial policy.

In 1939 Parland started his career as translator with Marcu Valeriu's Machiavelli, renässansmänniskan och maktfilosofen (Machiavelli, die Schule der Macht, 1937), published in Stockholm by Natur och kultur. Other translation's from German and Finnish include Goethe's Den unge Werthers lidanden (1949), Robert Musil's Tre kvinnor (1957), Eeva Kilpi's novel Tamara (1974), Daniel Katz's novel Orvar Kleins död (1978), and Peter Rosei's Von Hier nach Dort (1980).

During World War II Parland took a critical stand on Finland's policy, and opposed the war against the Soviet Union. He tells in Epitaf över viljans rus (1948) that he used Pervitin, an early form of methamphetamine, popular among soldiers and officers. "För den som idogt och metodiskt sökt kämpa sig fram till ögonblicken av intellektuell högspänning, som vet hur dyrköpta dessa stunder är, ligger det mycket nära till hands att uttolka pervitinets psykiska effekt som en genial genväg till det produktiva tillståndet". (quoted in Droger och Diktare by Peter Linde, new rev. ed., 2021, p. 184)

With Lars Hjalmarsson Dahl and Atos Wirtanen he translated into Swedish Olavi Paavolainen's diary from the years 1941-44, Synkkä yksinpuhelu (Finlandia i moll, 1947), which had appeared in 1946 and had caused considerable controversy due to its hidden anticipation of the defeat of Germany – then Finland's ally – and criticism of the Greater Finland ideology, a taboo subject during the Continuation war. He joined the leftist literary association Kiila (Wedge) with Oscar Parland, Thomas Warburton, and a number of other Swedish-speaking Finnish writers.

In 1948, Parland left Finland for Sweden, and thereafter spent most of his time in that country, publishing poems and short stories with Orwellian science fiction themes (Eros och elektronerna, 1953; En apa for till himmelen, 1961). These works marked the abandoning of modernism. Reviewers did not categorize them as pure science fiction. "Ralf Parland skriver science-fiction av samma orsaker som Harry Martinson och Ray Bradbury: för att kritisera maskiniseringen och avkultiveringen av vår civilisation." (Roland Adlerberths in Göteborgs-Tidningen, quoted in Raketsommar: science fiction i Sverige 1950-1968 by Jerry Määttä, Lund: Ellerström, 2006, p. 133) In the short-lived Swedish Galaxy (1958-1969), version of the famous American magazine, he published science fiction stories ('Arabellas himmelsfärd,' No. 6, 1959; 'Allt sker i rymden,' No. 8, 1959).

Music remained an important part of Parland's life, too. When the Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich won in 1958 the Sibelius Award, Parland interviewed him for the Finnish Broadcasting Company. Occasionally, Parland sosialized with the so-called Klara Bohemians, writers, journalists, and artists, who spent their time in Klara in the central part of Stockholm.

Already in Abel y Aifairs sånger (1941) Parland had brought to the fore his interest in myths, and in Mot fullbordan (1944) his affection for the cultures of  China and India. Hymner från Santsche-pi (1959) was an antiutopia, with connections to the James Hilton's more simple story of Shangri-La. "Jag är kommen till Santsche-Pi / att lärä er oberördhetens broderskap / det blå medvetandets sanning: / Varen rör / för detta viddrag från tingen! / Ty det är icke ni / det är vinden genom er." The work also made a nod to Harry Martinson's epic space poem Aniara (1956). ('A Brilliant Eclecticism: Ralf Parland' by George C. Shoolfield, in A History of Finland's Literature, edited by George C. Schoolfield, Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press, 1998, p. 528) Parland's final science fiction novel was i: en roman om förhävelsen (1973), a prose expansion of the Santsche-Pi myths.

Sonat för fallskärm och kalebass (1964) showed the author's affection for Russian culture. With Leo Lindeberg he translated the poems in the final part of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago. The novel first came out in Swedish in 1958. Parland's short stories were usually sketchy. Like his brother Oscar, he returned in several works into his childhood milieu, among them Hem till sitt hav (1957) and En hundpredikan (1966).

Ralf Parland died on May 22, 1995, in Stockholm. He was buried at Skogskyrkogården in Stockholm. Parland was married three times. In 1938 he married the toy designer and writer Eva Aline Wichman (1908-1975); they divorced after seven years and Parland married Heli Gestrin (1901-2006). His third wife from 1960 to 1965 was the Swedish artist Helga Henschen (1917-2002), who had been married to German-Swedish author Peter Weiss.

For further reading: Femtio år finlandssvensk litteratur by Thomas Warburton (1951); Modern finlandssvensk litteratur by Bengt Holmqvist (1951); 'Hem till sit hav: Livskänslan hos Ralf Parland' by Sören Fallberg, OOB 73 (1964); 'Hur mina böcker kom till' by Ralf Parland, Nya Argus, No. 72 (1979); 'Ralf Parland' by Gustaf Rune Eriks, PosteRestante, Medlemsblad för Nils Ferlin-Sällskapet, Nos. 1-2 (1989); 'Ett folk som blött' by Johan Wrede, in Den Svenska Litteraturen, Vol. 6 (1990); 'Bohemer - mer eller mindre' by Sven O. Bergkvist, in I Klarabohemernas värld by Sven O. Bergvist and Dan Mellin (1993); 'A Brilliant Eclecticism: Ralf Parland' by George C. Shoolfield, in A History of Finland's Literature, edited by George C. Schoolfield (1998); "Jag strängar min buk och spelar de skimrande tarmvredssonater" by Marit Lindqvist, in Nya Argus, 90 (1997); Finlands svenska litteraturhistoria. Andra delen: 1900-talet, edited by Clas Zilliacus (2000); Raketsommar: science fiction i Sverige 1950-1968 by Jerry Määttä (2006); 'Ralf Parland och Willy Kyrklund,' in Finlands Svenska Litteratur, edited by Michel Ekman (2014)

Selected works:

• Dusch, 1934 [Showerbath]
• Ebonit, 1937 [Ebonite]
• Avstånd, 1938 [Distance]
• translator: Marcu Valeriu, Machiavelli, renässansmänniskan och maktfilosofen, 1939 (original title: Machiavelli, die Schule der Macht)
• Abel y Aifairs sånger, 1941 [Abyl y Aifair's songs]
  
• translator:  Illés Kaczér, Svart erotik, 1941 (original work: Pao)
• Mot morgondag: en åhörares betraktelser om musik, 1942 [Toward tomorrow]
• Mot fullbordan, 1944 [Toward completion]
  
• translator:  A. B. Normi, En vagabond, 1946
• Oavslutat människa: dikter och legender, 1946
• Himlens stenar: noveller, 1947 [The heaven's stones]
• translator (with Lars Hjalmarsson Dahl and Atos Wirtanen): Olavi Paavolainen, Finlandia i moll: dagboksblad från åren 1941-1944, 1947 (original title: Synkkä yksinpuhelu 1-2)
• Epitaf över viljans rus, 1948 (Stockholm: Sveriges författareförening)
  
• Nattens eldar: dikter 1938-1948, 1949 [Fires of the night]
• translator: J.W. von Goethe, Den unge Werthers lidanden, 1949 (original title: Die Leiden des jungen Werthers)
• Relief: dikter, 1950 (illustrated by Erik Prytz)
• Brev till ett tomrum, 1951
• Hårt ljus: noveller, 1952 [Hard light]
• Det blåser ur intet, 1953
• Eros och elektronerna, 1953 [Eros and the electrons]
• De två vägarna: prosa i urval, 1954 [The two roads]
• translator: Carl Pidoll, Sista symfonin, 1955 (original title: Verklungenes Spiel)
• Eolita, 1956
• translator: Robert Musil, Tre kvinnor 1957 (original title: Drei Frauen)
• Hem till sitt hav: Karelska noveller om mycket vatten, 1957 [Home to his sea]
  
• translator (poems, with Leo Lindeberg): Boris Pasternak, Doktor Zjivago, 1958 (translated from the manuscript by Sven Vallmark; original title: Doktor Zjivago)
• Hymner från Santsche-pi, 1959 [Hymns from Santsche-pi]
• Zodiaken: en diktsvit, 1961 (illustrated by Börje Sandelin)
• En apa for till himmelen, 1961 [An ape flew to the sky]
  
• Sonat för fallskärm och kalebass, 1964 [A sonata for parachute and calabash]
  
• translator (with Brita Edfelt): Norbert Kunze, Den sista bron 1965 (original title: Die letzte Brücke)
• En hundpredikan, 1966 [A dog sermon]
  
• Bländverket: Dramatiskt poem i tre satser, 1968
• Regnbågens död, 1970 [The rainbow's death]
• translator:  Esther Vilar, Den dresserade mannen, 1972 (original title: Der dressierte Mann)
• i: en roman om förhävelsen, 1973 [i: A novel about arrogance]
  
• translator: Eeva Kilpi, Tamara, 1974 (original title: Tamara)
• translator: Reima Kampman, Du är inte ensam: en undersökning av människans sidopersoner, 1976 (original title: Et ole yksin)
• translator: Daniel Katz, Orvar Kleins död, 1978 (original title: Orvar Kleinin kuolema)
• translator: Peter Rosei, Utanför: roman, 1980 (original title: Von Hier nach Dort)
• 'Kamreeri, joka kavalsi kuun,' 1986 (original title: Kamrern som försnillade månen, 1970; Jäinen vaeltaja: sata vuotta suomalaista tieteiskirjallisuutta, edited by Jari Koponen, Olavi Markkanen, Ritva-Liisa Pihljerta and Pentti Holappa)