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Marie Under (1883 - 1980) |
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Estonian poet, generally
considered among the greatest poets
of the 20th-century in her language. Marie Under escaped with her
family in
1944 the Soviet occupation of Estonia to Sweden, where she spent in
exile the rest of her life. Under's works have been translated into
some ten languages. The final two of her 13 collections of poems
appeared while she on the other side of the Baltic Sea. The Estonian PEN club nominated
Under several times as a candidate for the Nobel Prize for literature. On the lake in the manor gardens a light Marie
Under was born in Tallinn, the daughter of Fredrich
Under, a schoolteacher, and Leena (Kerner) Under. Both of her parents
come originally from Hiiumaa, Estonia's second largest island. Under
learned to read
at the age of four and began to writing verse at the age of thirteen,
but her first collection did not appear until se was thirty-four.
From 1891 to 1900 Under attended a private German-language
school,
studying German, French, and Russian. Later Under translated new German
poetry, Schiller, Goethe in Estonian, and also such writers as Pär
Lagerkvist and Boris Pasternak. Under
worked briefly as a salesclerk in
a bookstore, but after meeting the writer Eduard Vilde, she joined for
a short time the radical newspaper Teataja (Herald). In 1902 Under married Carl Hacker, an accountant, and moved with him to an estated in Kutshino, near Moskow. From 1902 to 1906 she lived in Russia; her two daughter, Dagmar and Hedda, were born there. While vacationing in Estonia she started an affair with the artist Ants Laikmaa (1866-1942), who painted several portraits of her. In 1913 Under met in the Estonia Theater Artur Adson (1889–1977), a young poet, whose encouragement and support was crucial for her literary development. After divorcing Hacker – it was a long and complicated legal process – she married Adson, who later wrote her biography (pub. 1974). Under's first poem appeared in the newspaper Postimees (The Courier) under the pseudonym "Mutti" when she was 21; the name was given by Laikmaa. In the 1910s Under contributed to various anthologies and made in 1917 her debut as a writer with a collection of sonnets, Sonetid. With this work, a declaration of youthful love, longing for beauty, and joy of life, Under established her place in the Estonian literary scene. Her second collection, Eelõitseng (1918, Early flowering), consisted of poems written between 1904 and 1912. Under was the central member of the Siuru group, which
advocated on the eve of Estonian independence new literary movements,
such as expressionism and futurism. The name "Siuru" came from the
Estonian national epos Kalevipoeg;
it is a a mythical blue bird. The literary group was founded in May
1917; Under was its only female member, her nickname was "Princess", Friedebert Tuglas was called "Prince". Under's early work were more or less impressionistic pieces, but she soon found her voice in emotional, dynamic way of expression that had much bold freshness. Her most sensual collection of poems, Sinine puri (1920, Blue sail), with its celebration of erotic love, defied boldly bourgeois conventionality and made her the best-known representative of the Estonian neoromantic poetry. After World War I Under's poems became more pessimistic. She employed religious images to convey her feelings of pain, delirium, and suffering – a dark angel of death comes to the door as a gate-crasher, prophets stumble over words, Noah's arch sails into the flood and rain. German expressionism influenced her deeply; this is especially seen in Verivalla (1920). The book includes translations from poets such as George Heym, Franz Werfel, Ernst Stadler, Johannes R. Becher, and Walter Hasenclever. Most of the poems were taken from Menschheitsdämmerung: Symphonie jüngster Dichtung (1920), edited by the writer and journalist Kurt Pinthus. The dark and oppressive 'Unetuma laul' (Song of Sleeplessness), a cry of help in Hääl varjust (1927), is one her most anthologized works.
The German poet-painter Oscar Kokoschka
said: "I love this poetess honestly and affectionately; she has a power
of vision comparable to that of those great German women who in the
eleventh and twelfth century succeeded in depicting a Saviour utterly
different from the Saviour of theology". (quoted in World Authors 1975-1980, edited by Vineta Colby, New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1985, p. 756) Under suffered
sporadically from insomnia throughout her life. "Even
an executioner can have a peace," the "I" of the poem realizes
tormented, and wanders restlessly in clogs with a ghost dog. The whole
world has fallen asleep, the poet, a city person, is the only one
awake. Under paralles sleep with death and beds with coffins.
The poems ends with a resignation: sleep comes only after giving up
everything, in the calm rest under the ground. "Vaimline unetus haarab
luuletajat siis, kui puudub südamerahu mitte üksi enese, vaid kogu
inimkonna tegude pärast, kui meis saab kustumatult elavaks sotsiaalne
vastutustunne kõikide eest. Sellises vaimlises virgelolekus, kui kogu
ümbrus on vaimlises unes, tuntakse ühist südamelööki kogu loodusega." ('Marie Under luuletajana' by H. Visnapuu, Eesti Kirjandus, No. 3, 1933, p. 105) Õnnevarjutus (1929, Eclipse of happiness), in which Under returned to ballad lyrics, is considered among her central works. It contained the poem 'Porkuni preill' (The Lady of Porkuni), based on the tragic fate of Barbara von Tiesenhausen. "Mis valgus sääl Porkuni tiigi pääl / Käib heitlevalt üles ja alla, / Veeroosest suvel Ja talvel jääl / Kui põlev süda lööb valla?" (Õnnevarjutus: kogu ballaade, Tartu: Eesti Kirjanikkude Liit, 1929, p. 7) Under used traditional themes from folk poetry, mostly tragic love, but brought into them timelessness. Õnnevarjutus is set in the atmosphere of ancient villages and traditions. Happiness is always shadowed by unavoidable doom, generation after generation. Dark visions of frozen waters and chained wind, contrasted to short moments of happiness, being alive, were central also in her tenth collection, Kivi südamelt (1935, Stone of the heart). During
the period of independence, Under was the dominant poet in Estonian
literature along with Ernst Enno. Her financial problems were greatly
relieved after the
National Fund for Culture decided to give her permanent support. In
1937, simultaneously with Thomas Mann, she became an honorary member of
the International PEN. During the
early years of World War II, when Estonia was taken over by the USSR
and
then occupied by the Germany, Under wrote about the suffering and the
resistance of her people in Jõulutervitus (1941) ("Astun vaikselt jõululumist rada / üle kannatanu kodumaa. / Igal lävel tahaks kummardada: / ükski kodu pole leinata.") and Mureliku
suuga (1942). Like many established writers of the older and middle
generation, such as Johannes Aavik (1880-1973), Gustav Suits
(1883-1956), Karl Rumor (1886-1971), Karl Ristikivi (1912-1977), and Valev Uibopuu (1913-1997), Under
chose emigration over life under Soviet rule. However, she was declared
in 1940 a "distinguished people's poet". From 1945 to 1957 she worked as an archivist in the Stockholm's Theatre Museum. After retirement, she lived on a modest old-age pension. Her first collection of poetry in exile, Sädemed tuhas (Sparks in the ashes), came out in 1954, and was followed by Ääremail (1963, Borderlands). Under's translation of Boris Pasternak's The Poems of Yuri Zhivago, published by Vaba Eesti, came out in 1960; the novel was translated by Artur Adson. Her translation of Anna Akhmatova's poem Requiem was based on the edition, which was published by Russian emigres in 1963 in Munich. Under's later poetry was
marked by introspection and philosophical observations of life and nature. Her humane patriotism
exceeded nationalistic or political boundaries, but her poems also
contributed in keeping Estonian literature alive as emigre literature.
Several poems dealt
with feelings of rootlessness and homesickness, without mentioning the
name of her home country. Because
of heavy arthritis, Under spent her last years at the Vårberg
Convalescent Care Hospital. Marie Under died on September 25, 1980, in
Stockholm. The funeral was attended by hundreds of people. Under was
mistakenly cremated against her wish and buried at the Forest Cemetery
in Stockholm. As an emigrant writer, Under did not enjoy in Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic official favor, although she was removed in the 1950s from the list of banned authors, and her eightieth birthday was noted also in the Soviet Estonia – articles appeared on her work and the authorities send her birthday greetings. Frail physically, she was unable attend celebrations organized in her honor. The Bavarian Academy of Arts made her an honorary member. Under's literary fame survived the political upheavals of the Cold War and as a sign of this, the Under and Tuglas Center for Literary Research has been founded in the house in the Tallinn suburb of Nõmme, where Under worked in the 1930s. For further reading: Marie Underin runous by Elsa Haavio (1939); Anthology of Modern Estonian Poetry, compiled and translated by W. K. Matthews (1953); 'Introduction' to Child of Man by W. K. Matthews (1955); Estonian Poetry and Language: Studies in Honor of Ants Oras, ed. by Viktor Koressaar and Aleksis Rannit (1965); 'Marie under and Estonian Poetry' by Ants Oras, in The Sewanee Review, Vol. 78, No. 2 (Spring, 1970); Marie Under and Estonian Poetry by Ants Oras (1975); Marie Under eluraamst, ed. by Artur Adson (1974, 2 vols.); The Poetry of Estonia, ed. by Vincent B. Leitch (1983); Marie Under inimesena by Helmi Rajamaa (1983); Eesti kirjandus by Ender Nirk (1983); 'Under, Marie,' in World Authors 1975-1980, ed. by Wineta Colby (1985); 'Under, Marie,' in Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, Vol. 4, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999); Under by Katrin Saukas (2007); 'Under Marie,' in Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century, edited by Wojciech Roszkowski and Jan Kofman (2008); 'Inimkonna hämarus: Marie Under ja saksa ekspressionism' by Tiina Ann Kirss, in Methis. Studia Humaniora Estonica, Vol 14, No 17/18 (2016); 'Introduction' by Leonard Fox, in Selected Poetry by Marie Under (2016); An Introduction to Estonian Literature by Hilary Bird (2018) - Suomeksi Underilta on julkaistu valikomat Puutarhan syksy: valikoima Marie Underin runoja 1909-1962 (1978), toim. Irmeli Pääkkönen et al., ja Avaran taivaan alla (1983), suom. Aimo Rönkä. Runoja on myös kokoelmassa Eestin runotar, toim. Elsa Haavio (1940) ja Tuhat laulujen vuotta, toim. Aale Tynni (1957). Selected works:
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