Aila Meriluoto (10 January 1924 – 21 October 2019) was a Finnish poet, writer and translator. Meriluoto was born in

Pieksämäki Pieksämäki () is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southern Savonia region, about north of Mikkeli, east of Jyväskylä and south of Kuopio. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. Th ...

, and published her first collection of poems, ''Lasimaalaus'' in age of 22. It was a success among critics and readers. She became the most celebrated and widely read female poet of post-war Finland. The central themes of her early poems are art and femininity. Her first collections reflect the influence of Austrian author Rainer Maria Rilke. In collection ''Pahat unet'' (1956) some of the poems have a free form. The next collection, ''Portaat'', came five years later, and there Meriluoto had found her own modern style of expression. Meriluoto lived in Sweden for 13 years. In 1974 she moved back to Finland, and the language of her poetry changed again to more close to a talking voice. In addition to poems, Meriluoto wrote novels, and books for young people. She has translated works by

Harry Martinson Harry Martinson (6May 190411February 1978) was a Swedish writer, poet and former sailor. In 1949 he was elected into the Swedish Academy. He was awarded a joint Nobel Prize in Literature in 1974 together with fellow Swede Eyvind Johnson "for wr ...

, Rainer Maria Rilke,

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

and

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

. Meriluoto was married 1948–1956 to another poet,

Lauri Viita Lauri Arvi Viita (17 December 1916 – 22 December 1965) was a poet hailing from the Pispala district of Tampere, Finland. Viita was a verbally talented son of a carpenter who became a self-taught writer. He only published four poetry collections, ...

. She described him and their stormy marriage in a biographical novel. Meriluoto died in a care home in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

on 21 October 2019, aged 95.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meriluoto, Aila 1924 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Finnish poets 20th-century women writers Finnish expatriates in Sweden Finnish women poets People from Pieksämäki Writers from Helsinki Translators of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Translators of William Shakespeare