Pranas Morkūnas (9 October 1900 – 28 December 1941) was a Lithuanian translator and dadaist poet.

Biography and literary works

Morkūnas was born in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

on 9 October 1900. In 1919 he was volunteer in Lithuanian army, later he participated in

Lithuanian Riflemen's Union The Lithuanian Riflemen's Union (LRU, lt, Lietuvos šaulių sąjunga), also referred to as Šauliai ( lt, šaulys for ''rifleman''), is a paramilitary non-profit organisation supported by the State. The activities are in three main areas: milita ...

. From 1924 he was studying Lithuanian language and law at University of Lithuania, was correspondent of Lithuanian press, translated erotic and mystery literature into Lithuanian, was working as administrator of journal ''Kultūra'' (Culture). His poem ''šaipėrantas'' was published in January 1930, in the first issue of pro-communist literary journal '' Trečias frontas'' (The Third front), as "an interesting formal experiment". ''šaipėrantas'' was not understood and ridiculed after publication. His collection of dadaist and imaginist poems ''Dainuoja degeneratas. Dadaistiški imažinistiniai eilėraščiai'' was only published in 1993. Poetry of Morkūnas was continuation of rebellion started by ''

The Four Winds ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' literary movement against traditional poetr

Morkūnas died in the front at

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

on 28 December 194

External links

Poems of Pranas Morkūnas
1900 births 1941 deaths Lithuanian writers Lithuanian male poets Lithuanian people of World War II Writers from Riga 20th-century Lithuanian poets Military personnel killed in World War II {{Lithuania-writer-stub