Seventy Seven Sentiments: A Selection of Eino Leino's Poems - Paperback

by Pentti M. Rautaharju (Translator), Eino Leino (Author)

Seventy Seven Sentiments is the first English edition collecting the poems of the Finnish poet laureate, Eino Leino. Beloved and idolized by Finnish poetry lovers, this edition provides an opportunity for a larger audience to fall in love with the romantic, often melancholic poet, who maintained his optimism and enthusiasm about a better mankind. Eino Leino (1878-1926) was the leading force in the creation of the foundation of the Finnish poetry during its formative years amid the rising nationalism of the nation aspiring for independence during the last period of the Czarist Russia. Dr. Pentti Rautaharju is an acclaimed retired professor and researcher of cardiology who has enjoyed translating classic Finnish poetry since his retirement in 2002.

Author Biography

Eino Leino is justifiably idolized by the Finnish poetry lovers as the greatest poet of the Finnish written languish, following in the footsteps of the vast oral tradition of Finnish epic poets and rune singers documented in "Kalevala". Leino started writing poems already in his teens, and he was 18 years old when his first major collection was published, followed by 31 other poetic collections among other literary works. Leino was the leading force in the creation of the foundation of the Finnish poetry during its formative years amid the rising nationalism of the nation aspiring for independence during the last period of the Czarist Russia. Twenty of the 77 poems selected come from the 1898 collection Sata ja Yksi Laulua (One Hundred and One Songs). The poems in that early collection reveal romantic, often melancholic sensations of the young poet, still optimistic and enthusiastic about a better mankind. Leino's poems commonly reflect mystic symbolism, duality of love and betrayal, deep passionate love and desperation of love lost, life and death, beliefs and doubts of the searcher of truth. They also reflect the closeness of the poet to the nature around his childhood home on the northern shore of Oulujãrvi, a large lake in North-Central Finland. These sentiments are reflected in the following lines translated from Leino's poem Nocturne: I'm not merry, I'm not sad, I don't weep, but bring me the forrest's shadows, / the shine of the cloud where the day drowns, / the shimmer of the windy hill still asleep, / twinflower's fragrance, reflections on the lake; / the song of my heart from them I make. Leino's life cycled through periods from celebrated acclaim and elation of the spirit to extreme frustration, poverty and rejection. As a fiery activist in the evolving cultural, social and political life of the Finnish society, Leino was a sharp critic of the prevailing establishment at any given period, and the elite turned at times strongly against him. His three marriages all failed almost from the beginning. The poet was unyieldingly clinging to the freedom of his personal life, and at the end the freedom of his spirit was the only thing left from his idealism. A few loyal friends tried to sustain his spirit through the turbulent cycles of his life and the periods of deep depressions. He escaped to extremes of bohemian life that gradually ruined his health. Eino Leino died in 1926 at age of 47 years.