Eino Leino Day (Summer and Poetry Day) in Finland (06/07)





Finns deeply revere their famous lyricist poet Eino Leino (1878-1926, real name Armas Eino Leopold Lönnbom). Eino Leino's birthday is celebrated in Finland as a festive Day of Summer and Poetry.

Almost every adult in the country has their own «» favorite poems by Leino. Songs on his lyrics are often heard on the radio, some of his lines have become proverbs. There are still jokes and legends about his life. What is the reason for this unfading popularity?

The culture and history of a people is preserved and developed, first of all, in the word and passed on from generation to generation through language. If the poet, according to Joseph Brodsky, is an instrument of language, then Leino — is a vivid example of this: in his poems the Finnish language sounded completely new, Finnish poetry was enriched with new rhythms and forms.

For him, it seems, there were no difficulties — he transferred all the achievements of European poetry to his native soil, using with equal brilliance a variety of forms and metrics of versification: from sonnets, rondo and canzon to ballads in Kaleval size. He translated the «Divine Comedy» Dante and the iambs of German and Swedish poets into Finnish.

In addition, Leino created dozens of novels, novellas and dramatic works, he was a brilliant publicist, employee and editor of many newspapers and magazines; he wrote several thousand articles for various publications, and his works on literary criticism have not lost their significance to this day. But still, first of all, — is a great lyrical poet with a talent of truly enormous proportions.

In the context of the development of Finnish national culture, this is all the more significant because for many centuries the Finnish language was a stepson in their country, considered a primitive language of commoners, in which it is impossible to express all shades of feelings. Finnish received the official status of the state language only under Alexander II, in 1863.

What Leino became for his native language is comparable only to who Pushkin appeared for the Russian language. In non-word arts, Leino's contemporaries — composer Jan Sibelius, singer Aino Akte, artists Axeli Gallen-Kallela, Hugo Simberg, Helen Scherfbeck, architect Eliel Saarinen, sculptor Ville Wallgren — have gained worldwide fame.

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