Profile

Gender

Female

Born

1921-12-05 （Helsinki）

Died

1995-07-07 （Tampere） age 73

Nationality

Finland

Languages

Finnish

Residence History

Helsinki → Vyborg (Viipuri) → Tampere

Career

Occupations

poet, playwright, translator

Active Years

1944-1995

Influenced By

William Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, Hermann Hesse, Franz Kafka

Awards & Nominations

Works

Style & Themes

Literary Style

modernism

Recurring Motifs

timenostalgiashadow of warloss of homeland

Legacy

One of the most influential modernist poets in post-war Finland. Authored over fifteen poetry collections, plays, novels, and short prose. Widely translated Shakespeare, Carroll, Hesse, Kafka. Her works translated into many European languages.

Quotes

• The war years shadowed my youth. I was seventeen when the Russian planes started bombarding my home town of Wiborg on 30 November 1939, damaging it badly. At armistice, Wiborg had to be yielded, it remained behind the border – an endless source of nostalgia for one who had a catlike, persevering fondness for homestead. Even as a ten-year-old, I had spine-chilling dreams about the destruction of Wiborg, and from those times onwards I have been haunted by reflections about the nature and mystery of time. I believe that we have a false conception of time; everything has already happened somewhere in an unknown dimension.

  Source: Manner

Trivia

• The loss of Vyborg profoundly influenced her work, fostering themes of nostalgia and time.