Jaan Kaplinski

Jaan Kaplinski (1941-2021) The most famous, significant, and most translated Estonian writer today, Jaan Kaplinski, started his literary life as a poet in what are termed the Golden Sixties of Estonian literature. He wrote as well prose, essays, plays, and translated from several languages, cultivating an intellectual style. Born in Tartu, as a son of a Polish lecturer and a French-language philologist, he participated in various types of culture as a boy and in his youth, starting with linguistics. His later prose was often from a viewpoint of an aging man: a rare and needful aspect in a really soul-stirring way. Kaplinski enriched Estonian literature with his travel writing and children’s books.

Every Understanding

comes in due time

your little hands

on my rough cheeks

first snow

always

to someone

for the first

for someone

for the last

time

— Jaan Kaplinski | Translated from the Estonian by Sam Hamill