now a museum devoted to him and #MarieUnder, another previous writer-occupant sadly, and oddly, lacking any street named after her.

#A_Rambling_Dictionary_of_Tallinn_Street_Names
#Literature #Kirjandus
#NationalIcon #RahvuslikudIkoon
#NotableEstonian #MärkimisväärneEestlane
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View of the Viru Keskus in Laikmaa, Tallinn, with the Hämarik (Twilight) sculpture in the foreground.

Nighttime in Laikmaa, Tallinn, with a modern-art light sculpture in the foreground.

Self-portrait of Ants Laikmaa, in the Enn Kunila art collection.

Portrait of Marie Under by Ants Laikmaa.

#German-educated #MarieUnder he convinced to start translating/writing her poetry into/in #Estonian.
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« We Wait The splendour of our tree lies torn and scattered, The shade of death hangs over all the mattered. Dispersed and dispossessed, as restless rangers, We drift but past ourselves - our selves are strangers. Yet tense, in large-eyed hope, we gaze and wait. Our cross is heavy but our backs are straight. We know, whatever burdens wrench our shoulders : Life owes us justice ! and the knowledge smoulders. A cry from soul to soul drowns scorn and spite : Bring, day of grace, thy liberating light ! Restore what we have lost, retrieve, retrieve Our name, our face, the land for which we grieve. Come, sacred day of hope, whose lightning flashes ! Thy children wait for thee in tears and ashes. We wait. We keep our faith. We stand unbowed. Thus life grows easier - thus death is proud. »

Marie Under, Ants Oras (trad.), « We Live », in Aleksis Rubulis, Baltic literature, Notre Dame / IN (USA) : University of Notre Dame Press, 1970, pp. 84-85.

#marieunder