dr mohit k ray
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oparative Study of the Indian Poetics and the Western Poetics . New Delhi : Sarup & Sons, 2008.
C.H.Herford's The Age of Wordsworth . New Delhi : Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2003
Foreword:
I am glad to learn that Sarup and Sons, a reputed publisher of New Delhi , has decided to publish a selection of contemporary Estonian poems in English translation. The poems have been translated by no less poet-critics than Professors, the Estonian Jüri Talvet and the American H.L. Hix. The latter has also meticulously edited the anthology arranging the poems in thematic groups. Each group has been prefaced by luminous critical observations and the aesthetics of the poems included in the group, which provide the necessary perspective for understanding and enjoying the poems. It may be pointed out, for the benefit of the non-Estonian readers, that Estonia (Eesti), a small, lovely country on the Baltic with a fabulous landscape and simple, honest and hardworking people passed through many political upheavals (under Swedish rule from 1629; annexed to Russia, 1721; independence,1918; declared Soviet Socialist Republic,1940; German occupation during the Second World War; resurgence of nationalist movement in the 1980s; declared full independence, August, 1991). Estonian poetry which consequently underwent and absorbed many influences - predominantly Baltic-German and Russian - began to take a definite shape in the early nineteenth century when it started looking for a national genius and drew heavily on folklore and the literature of the classical antiquity as well as the Finnish, German and partly British romantic poetry. Kristian Jaak Peterson (1801-22) wrote Pindarics and Kalevipoeg (1861), the epic of Fr. R. Kreutzwald was based on the metrics and the imagery of Finno-Ugrian folksongs. Juhan Liiv (1864-1913) whose life was troubled by poverty and mental illness, wrote at the end of the 19 th century and the start of the 20 th century some of the deepest lyrical verse in Estonian, carried by a tragic-existential feeling of life, love for his homeland and a keen sensibility for nature. By the late nineteenth century symbolism in its Western form added a new dimension to Estonian poetry. Mention should be made of the group "Siuru", named after a mythological bird, that abandoned subjectivism for more universal themes and hard crystallized verse forms, the 'gem like flame', so to speak. The most important exponent of the group was Marie Under. Another later group, "arbujad" or Magicians, including Heiti Talvik, Betti Alver, Uku Masing and others, registered a native tendency towards symbolism in a rigorously disciplined form. Estonian poetry entered a dark phase during the period of Sovietization of Estonia since the Second World War; but poetry can never die, and during this period we hear many voices of the experiences of war and exile in a rich variety of verse forms. Since 1991 when Estonia became independent we have a fresh flowering of Estonian poetry combining traditional themes of the land and the people, their trials and tribulations, and a modern note of the scars of the cultural memory, untiring intellectual quest and cultural nationalism. The poems in the anthology secure for Estonian poetry a permanent niche in the world poetry for their range and depth, richness and variety of form, as well as the substance and quality of the visions. An excursion into Estonian poetry under the able guidance of Professors Talvet and Hix is sure to be a sustaining and edifying experience for any reader who loves poetry; and who does not? Professors Talvet and Hix deserve our gratitude for introducing us to the rich world of contemporary Estonian poetry. Mohit K.Ray/Former Professor of English Burdwan University / Burdwan/ INDIA