Jaan Kaplinski
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Jaan Kaplinski (22 January 1941 – 8 August 2021[1]) was an Estonian poet, philosopher, politician, and culture critic, known for his focus on global issues and support for left-wing/liberal thinking. He was influenced by Eastern philosophical schools (Taoism and especially Buddhism).[1][2]
He worked as a translator, editor, and sociologist and as an ecologist at the Tallinn Botanic Garden. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.[3]
Early life and education
Kaplinski was born 22 January 1941 in Tartu to Polish teacher Template:Ill and Estonian dancer Nora Raudsepp-Kaplinski. Kaplinski studied Romance languages and linguistics under Kallista Kann at the University of Tartu, graduating as a French philologist in 1964.[2][4]
Career
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Political career
From 1992 to 1995 Kaplinski was a member of the Riigikogu (the Estonian parliament).[1] He was originally a candidate on the Centre Party list, but soon became an independent representative. Since 2004 he was a member of the Estonian Social Democratic Party. In the 2005 local government elections, he ran in Tartu and was ESDP's first candidate in their list. Kaplinski was elected as the second Social Democrat candidate (Estonia uses an open list system in local elections), collecting 1,045 votes.[6] Jaan Kaplinski was one of those intellectuals who supported Toomas Hendrik Ilves' candidature.
Personal life
Kaplinski's mother, Nora (Raudsepp), was Estonian.[7] His father was Jerzy Bonifacy Edward Kapliński, a Polish professor of philology at Tartu University,[2] who was arrested by Soviet troops and died of starvation in a Soviet labour camp in 1943.[1][8][9][10][11] His great-uncle was Polish painter and political activist Leon Kapliński. As an adult, Kaplinski came to believe that his father had distant Jewish ancestry, and was a relative of Jacob Frank.[12]
Kaplinski was married to writer and director of the Tartu Toy Museum, Tiia Toomet. They had three sons and one daughter - Ott-Siim Toomet, Lauris Kaplinski, Lemmit Kaplinski and Elo-Mall Toomet. He had a daughter, translator Maarja Kaplinski, from his first marriage to Küllike Kaplinski. He had a relationship with Estonian classical philologist and translator Anne Lill, with whom he had a son, composer Märt-Matis Lill.[13]
Writings
Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Kaplinski published numerous collections of poems, prose, and essays. He translated writings from French, English, Spanish, Chinese, including the Tao Te Ching, and Swedish, the work of Tomas Tranströmer.[14]
Kaplinski's own work has been translated into English, Finnish, French, Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch, Icelandic, Hungarian, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, Hebrew, Bulgarian, and Czech. His essays deal with environmental problems, philosophy of language, classical Chinese poems, philosophy, Buddhism, and Estonian nationalism.
Kaplinski also composed poems in English and Finnish. In the 2000s he began writing in Russian, and his first original Russian collection (composed of some of his poems translated from Estonian into Russian) appeared in 2014 under the title White Butterflies of Night (Белые бабочки ночи) and was awarded in Russia.
Kaplinski was one of the authors and initiators of the so-called Letter of 40 intellectuals (Neljakümne kiri) action. A letter signed by well-known Estonian intellectuals protesting against the behavior of the authorities in Soviet-annexed Estonia was sent to the main newspapers of the time. Although not openly dissident, the letter was never published in the press at that time and those who signed were repressed using administrative measures.
His semi-autobiographical novel The Same River is published by Peter Owen in English translation by Susan Wilson.[15]
In 1997, he was awarded the Baltic Assembly Prize for Literature, the Arts and Science.[16]
Poems
- The East West Border...
The Same Sea in Us All (Barbarian Press, 1985) (translated by the author with Sam Hamill)
- The Wandering Border (Copper Canyon Press, 1987)[8] (translated by the author with Sam Hamill and Riina Tamm)
- Evening Brings Everything Back (Bloodaxe, 2004)
- Contributor to A New Divan: A Lyrical Dialogue between East and West (Gingko Library, 2019)
Legacy
- Main-belt asteroid 29528 Kaplinski is named after Jaan Kaplinski.
- In 2022 Jaan Kaplinski Society was founded in Estonia.
See also
References
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- ↑ Benjamin Ivry, 'Will Bob Dylan, Jaan Kaplinski or Philip Roth Win the Nobel Prize This Year?,' The Forward4 October 2016.
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External links
- Kaplinski's homepage, includes writings in English Template:Webarchive
- Kaplinski's Russian-language poems Template:Webarchive
- Kaplinski's poems in French Template:Webarchive
- Jaan Kaplinski. Globalization: for nature or against nature Template:Webarchive
- Jaan Kaplinski. From harem to brothel. Artists in the post-communist world Template:Webarchive
- Lauri Sommer. Kaplinski's changing tale
- Wandering Border:: Poetry of Jaan Kaplinski by PGR Nair . https://web.archive.org/web/20170207192938/http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=PoemArticle&PoemArticleID=95
- Maya Weinberg, "The enchantment or the contemplation on what exists" (Hebrew), on the "Maala" website, December 2023, on "Dust and Color"
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- 1941 births
- 2021 deaths
- Estonian people of Jewish descent
- Writers from Tartu
- People of Polish-Jewish descent
- Social Democratic Party (Estonia) politicians
- Members of the Riigikogu, 1992–1995
- 21st-century Estonian philosophers
- 20th-century Estonian philosophers
- Estonian male poets
- Translators from Swedish
- Translators from Spanish
- Translators from French
- Translators from English
- Translators from Chinese
- Translators to Estonian
- 20th-century Estonian poets
- 21st-century Estonian poets
- 20th-century Estonian translators
- 21st-century translators
- Hugo Treffner Gymnasium alumni
- University of Tartu alumni
- Recipients of the Eino Leino Prize
- Recipients of the Order of the National Coat of Arms, 3rd Class
- Recipients of the Order of the National Coat of Arms, 4th Class
- Deaths from motor neuron disease
- Neurological disease deaths in Estonia