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Eino Leino (1878-1926) - originally Eino Armas Leopold Lönnbohm | |
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Finnish poet, a master of song-like poetic forms, playwright, and novelist. Leino was the most important developer of Finnish-language poetry at the turn of the 20th century, and now probably Finland's most cited poet. In his works Leino combined the archaic and mythic tradition, symbolism, and influences from Friedrich Nietzsche with his romantic concept of the poet as a truth-seeking visionary. Leino's command of the language was outstanding, and he was the first Finnish translator of Dante. Leino's life style was bohemian and from the beginning of his literary career Leino was a well-known figure in the restaurants and cultural elite of Helsinki. "Short time's to us allotted till our urn. Living, like furnace flames then let us burn, Eino Leino was born Armas Einar Leopold Lönnbohm in Paltamo, Hövelö, the son of Anders Lönnbohm, a surveyor, and Anna Emilia (Kyrenius) Lönnbohm, who came from a priest and an officer's family. He was the seventh and youngest son; there were ten children in all in the family. Leino's father died in 1890 and his mother five years later. These losses were a deep blow to him, which he expressed in his poems in feelings of loneliness and as an orphan. He was educated in Kajaani, Oulu, and Hämeenlinna, graduating from Hämeenlinna Grammar School in 1895. At the age of sixteen Leino published a translation of a poem by Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-1877), the great Swedish language Finnish poet. In 1895 Leino started his studies at the Imperial Aleksander University of Helsinki. He joined literary and newspaper circles and became a member of the Young Finnish circle. Among Leino's friends were the artist Pekka Halonen and Otto Manninen, who gained fame as a poet and translator. By the end of the century, Leino left the university without taking a degree. He worked as a journalist and critic on the newspapers Päivälehti (1899-1905) and Helsingin Sanomat (1905-14). His pseudonyms, 'Mikko Vilkastus' and 'Teemu', were from Aleksis Kivi's play Nummisuutarit. Between the years 1898 and 1899 he edited with his brother Kasimir Leino the magazine Nykyaika, and was heavily in debt after its bankruptcy. Also both Russian censorship and self-censorship threatened free expression - Russification of Finlad had started under governor general Nicholas Bobrikov, who was shot to death by Eugen Schauman in 1904. Later Leino planned to include Schauman in his collection of poems about great Finns. When his marriage with Freya Schoultz and dreams of bourgeois life style neared an end in 1908, Leino went abroad and travelled in Berlin, Dresden, Münich, and Rome. Leino's close friend and companion during the turning point of his life was the poet L. Onerva. Leino lived with her in Rome in 1908-09, before he was divorced from his wife. Both poets were still legally married. Leino's liaison with the writer Aino Kallas from 1916 to 1919 was another scandal - she was the wife of an Estonian diplomat. In Rome Leino lived at Lungo Tevere Prat and continued with his translation of Dante's Divine Comedy. A memorial tablet has been placed on the wall of house where he lived: "In questa casa negli anni 1908-1909 il grande poeta finlandese Eino Leino tradusse La Divina Commedia con amore inspirato alla universalita di Roma." Leino attempted to revive Finnish theatre, and boldly attacked Kaarlo Bergbom, the founder of the Finnish Theatre. His major plays from the beginning of the century include SIMO HURTTA I-II (1904-19), LALLI (1907), and MAUNU TAVAST (1908). From 1915 to 1918 Leino worked as an editor of the magazine Sunnuntai. At the outbreak of the Finnish Civil War (1917-18), Leino was in Helsinki, where he witnessed the battles with his small boozing circle. The reign of the Reds did not win Leino's sympathies; the women's battalion especially horrified the poet: "This was the first time I'd seen so many of them gathered together, and I have to confess, in the name of truth, I've never at any other time witnessed such human savagery, bestial frenzy, mental derangement and physical disfigurement." (trans. by Herbert Lomas, from Helsinki: a literary companion, 2000) After the war Leino's idealistic faith for a national unity collapsed, and his influence as a journalist and polemic writer grew weaker. He was granted a State writer's pension in 1918 at the age of forty. Although publishing prolifically, he had financial problems and his health was giving way. "Life is always struggle with eternal forces," Leino said in a letter in 1925 to his friend Bertel Gripenberg: "Nous sommes pourtant nécessaires. Aussi malades. Mais c'est de la tristesse de la vie, qui pour nous est toujours un combat avec les forces étérnelles." - Leino died at Riihiluhta in Nuppulinna on January 10, 1926. "Well - Eino Leino - perhaps he was the only Finnish author who can really be called a genius," said Bertel Gripenberg. Leino was married three times, first with Thyra Freya Franzena Schoultz (1905-10), then with the harpist Aino Inez Kajanus (1913-1920), who was the daughter of the conductor Robert Kajanus, and for the third time with Hanna Laitinen (1921, died 1929). Freya Schoultz was a translator and commercial correspondent; and with her for a couple of years the poet enjoyed bourgeois life in a large seaside flat. Leino's only child, Eya Helka, came of this marriage. Leino's first collection of poems, the light-hearted MAALISKUUN LAULUJA, appeared in 1896, when he was eighteen-years old. Later he turned from the free style to the meter and style of folklore. TUONELAN JOUTSEN (1896), a Neo-romantic verse play, combined symbolism and folk poetry. After a journey to Russia Karelia and falling in love with a "nature child", Anni Tiihonen, Leino wrote SATA JA YKSI LAULUA (1898). He started the work in Berlin. It included one of his most beloved poems, 'Hymyilevä Apollo', originally part three of the larger poetic work entitled 'Hymni'. Reinhold Roine's (pseudonym R.R.) review of the book in the newspaper Uusi Suometar was hostile. Later Leino published his 'Hymn' in TUULIKANNEL (1919), but to this version he had made small changes. For decades, the poem has been heard on New Year's Eve radio broadcasts. Another popular poem, the resignated 'Nocture', was first published in TALVI-Y� (1905). "I have stopped chasing Jack-o'-Lantern, / I hold gold from the Demon's mountain; / around me life tightens its ring, / time stops, the vane has ceased to swing; / the road before me through the gloom / is leading to the unknown room." Simo Hurtta, an epic poem, took its subject from the long war in the early 18th century between Russia and Sweden-Finland. Talvi-y� and HALLA (1908), born in the years of political dissatisfaction, returned to the images of darkness, frost, and cold. His personal crisis led the poet to abandon individual heroes and the theme of death - he focused on cosmic visions and legends. Leino's works, such as PAINUVA PÄIVÄ (1914) and ELÄMÄN KOREUS (1916), still had high artistic values. His first and only screenplay, KES� (1913), Leino wrote according to stories in one night - allegedly he had not seen any feature films. After the Finnish Civil war Leino worked productively but on several occasions his efforts led to pathos and empty preaching. During this period there appeared LEIRIVALKEAT (1917), JUHANA HERTTUAN JA CATHARINA JAGELLONICAN LAULUJA (1919), AJATAR (1920), SYREENIEN KUKKIESSA (1920), and SHEMEIKAN MURHE (1924). Leino also wrote plays, essays, contemporary novels, animal fables, and translated into Finnish works from such authors as Racine, Runeberg, Schiller, Anatole France, J.W. von Goethe, Dante, Rabindranath Tagore, Dante (Divine Comedy, 1912-14) and Corneille. His oeuvre includes 32 books of poetry, 25 plays, 25 novels, and 16 translations. Tell me, O Sun, what is that Having published several books of verse, Leino produced his major work, HELKAVIRSIÄ (1903-1916, Whit songs), a collection of narrative poetry composed in the trochaic meter. It was based on the Kalevala and folk poetry, and appeared in two collections. Several of the ballads present the past in heroic light, its characters are great visionaries, who challenge their fate or willingly yield to greater forces. "Täss' on mies tämän sukuinen, / kadu ei tehtyä tekoa / eikä taivasta tavota." (from 'Ylermi') The second volume of Whitsuntide songs is more resigned and more mystical than the first, and the symbolism is more obscure. "Uskoin ennen ihmisihin, / en nyt itke, en iloitse, / ohi käyvät onnet heidän, / onnettomuudetkin ohitse, / tiedän kyllä kylmyyteni, / en sitä sure, en kadu, / se on voitto taisteloiden, / tulos tappion tuhannen." (from 'Äijön virsi') Obsession with death marks some later pieces. Leino never wrote a third volume of Helkavirsiä, although the noted short story writer Aino Kallas in vain tried to persuade him to do so. Leino's autobiographical books, ALLA KASVON KAIKKIVALLAN, appeared in 1917, and ELÄMÄNI KUVAKIRJA in 1925. As an essayist Leino was one of the best of his time. In the unfinished series of essays, SUOMALAISIA KIRJAILIJOITA (1909), he drew well-characterized portraits of Finnish authors. SUOMALAISEN KIRJALLISUUDEN HISTORIA (1910) was a short but insightful history of Finnish literature. Leino also wrote about himself in the book and admits the influence of Goethe on his poetry. He praises Aleksis Kivi's novel The Seven Brothers - "Yhtä rohkea kuin kirjan sisällys on sen muoto, joka on sekoitus draamallisista, eepillisistä ja lyyrillisistä aineksista, kaikki kuitenkin yhtyneinä klassilliseksi kokonaisuudeksi." Although his general attitude is positive, one exception is Irmari Rantamala's (Maiju Lassila) large and shapeless novel Harhama (1909), which he dismisses as "tasteless". In his own novels Leino reacted to contemporary social, political, and ideological questions. His cycle of novels, TYÖN ORJA (1911, slave of work), RAHAN ORJA (1912, slave of money), NAISEN ORJA (1913, slave of woman), and ONNEN ORJA (1913, slave of fortune) deals with the modern capitalist world, which destroys idealism. For further reading: Nalle ja Moppe: Eino Leinon ja L. Onervan elämä by Hannu Mäkelä (2003); 'Eino Leino (1878-1926)' by Marja Liisa Nevala, in 100 Faces from Finland, ed. by Ulpu Marjomaa (2000); Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999, 3. vol.); Mestari by Hannu Mäkelä (1995); Poliittinen Eino Leino by Yrjö Larmola (1990); Eino Leinon tie Paltamosta Roomaan by Teivas Oksala (1986); Eino Leino ja Italia by Peka Lilja (1985); Eino Leino ja Viro by Pekka Lilja (1981); Maan piiristä metafyysiseen by Aarre M. Peltonen (1975); Epic of the North by J.I. Kolehmainen (1973); A History of Finnish Literature by J. Ahokas (1973); Mielikuvirn taistelu by Marja-Liisa Kunnas (1972); Studier i Eino Leinos kalevalaromantik by Sakari Vapaasalo (1961); Tuntemani Eino Leino by Aino Thauvón-Suits (1958); Eino Leino aikalaistensa silmin, ed. by Aarre M. Peltonen (1958); Voices from Finland, ed. by E. Tompuri (1947); Eino Leinon runoudesta by V. Tarkiainen (1954); Eino Leino by Olli Nuorto (1938); Eino Leino I-II by L. Onerva (1932) - See also: Aino Kallas, Viktor Rydbergin runoteoksessa Dexippos on Sibeliuksen säveltämä ja Eino Leinon suomentama 'Ateenalaisten laulu'. Hella Wuolijoki: Kummituksia ja kajavia. Muistelmia Eino Leinosta ja Gustaf Mattsonista (1947); Juhani Siljo: Eino Leino lyyrikkona (1912) - Note: Eino Leino Award established in 1956 - See also: Eino Leinon Seura - Influence: Larin-Kyösti - Film: Runoilija ja Muusa (1978), directed by Jaakko Pakkasvirta, starring Esko Salminen as Eino Leino and Elina Salo as L. Onerva. The film depicted Eino Leino's life and women in it. ELEGIA Haihtuvi nuoruus niinkuin vierivä virta. Häipyvät taakse tahtoni ylpeät päivät. Tiedän ma: rauha mulle on mullassa suotu. Upposi mereen unteni kukkivat kunnaat. Uupunut olen, ah, sydänjuurihin saakka! Siis oli suotta kestetyt, vaikeat vaivat, Toivoton taisto taivaan valtoja vastaan! Selected works:
© 2003 |
