Jaan Kaplinski | |
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| Born | (1941-01-22)22 January 1941 |
| Died | 8 August 2021(2021-08-08) (aged 80) |
| Notable works | Letter of 40 intellectuals The Same River |
| Notable awards | Baltic Assembly Prize for Literature, the Arts and Science |
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Jaan Kaplinski (22 January 1941 – 8 August 2021[1]) was an Estonianpoet,philosopher, politician, and culture critic, known for his focus on global issues and support forleft-wing/liberal thinking. He was influenced by Eastern philosophical schools (Taoism and especiallyBuddhism).[1][2]
He worked as a translator, editor, and sociologist and as an ecologist at theTallinn Botanic Garden. He was nominated for theNobel Prize in Literature.[3]
Kaplinski was born 22 January 1941 inTartu to Polish teacherJerzy Kapliński [et] and Estonian dancer Nora Raudsepp-Kaplinski. Kaplinski studiedRomance languages and linguistics underKallista Kann at theUniversity of Tartu, graduating as a French philologist in 1964.[2][4]
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Kaplinski worked[when?] as a translator, editor, and sociologist,[5] and ecologist at theTallinn Botanic Garden.
From 1992 to 1995 Kaplinski was a member of theRiigikogu (the Estonian parliament).[1] He was originally a candidate on theCentre Party list, but soon became an independent representative. Since 2004 he was a member of theEstonian 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 anopen list system in local elections), collecting 1,045 votes.[6] Jaan Kaplinski was one of those intellectuals who supportedToomas Hendrik Ilves' candidature.
Kaplinski's mother, Nora (Raudsepp), wasEstonian.[7] His father was Jerzy Bonifacy Edward Kapliński, a Polish professor ofphilology atTartu 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 activistLeon Kapliński. As an adult, Kaplinski came to believe that his father had distant Jewish ancestry, and was a relative ofJacob 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 translatorAnne Lill, with whom he had a son,composerMärt-Matis Lill.[13]
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Kaplinski published numerous collections of poems, prose, and essays. He translated writings fromFrench,English,Spanish,Chinese, including theTao Te Ching, andSwedish, the work ofTomas Tranströmer.[14]
Kaplinski's own work has been translated into English,Finnish,French,Norwegian,Swedish,Dutch,Icelandic,Hungarian,Japanese,Latvian,Lithuanian,Russian,Hebrew,Bulgarian, andCzech. His essays deal with environmental problems,philosophy of language, classicalChinese 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 titleWhite Butterflies of Night (Белые бабочки ночи) and was awarded in Russia.
Kaplinski was one of the authors and initiators of the so-calledLetter of 40 intellectuals (Neljakümne kiri) action. A letter signed by well-known Estonian intellectuals protesting against the behavior of the authorities inSoviet-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 novelThe Same River is published by Peter Owen in English translation by Susan Wilson.[15]
In 1997, he was awarded theBaltic Assembly Prize for Literature, the Arts and Science.[16]
The Same Sea in Us All (Barbarian Press, 1985) (translated by the author with Sam Hamill)
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