Pentti Saarikoski (
Impilahti
Impilahti (russian: Импила́хти; krl, Imbilahti; sv, Impilax) is a rural locality in the Republic of Karelia, Russia, located at the northern tip of Lake Ladoga near the Finnish border, about west of Petrozavodsk, the capital city ...
, now in the
Republic of Karelia
The Republic of Karelia (russian: Респу́блика Каре́лия, Respublika Kareliya; ; krl, Karjalan tašavalta; ; fi, Karjalan tasavalta; vep, Karjalan Tazovaldkund, Ludic: ''Kard’alan tazavald''), also known as just Karelia (ru ...
September 2, 1937 –
Joensuu
Joensuu (; krl, Jovensuu; ) is a city and municipality in North Karelia, Finland, located on the northern shore of Lake Pyhäselkä (northern part of Lake Saimaa) at the mouth of the Pielinen River (''Pielisjoki''). It was founded in 1848. The ...
August 24, 1983) was one of the most important poets in the literary scene of
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...
during the 1960s and 1970s. His body of work comprises
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meani ...
and translations, among them such classics as
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
's ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Iliad'', ...
'' and
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...
's ''
Ulysses''.
According to Saarikoski, he was the only person in the world who had ever translated both Homer's and Joyce's Ulysses – a statement that probably holds true even today. Moreover, it only took two years for him to translate Homer's ''Odyssey'' from Victor Bérard's edition, which is thought to be a rather fast accomplishment. Other notable translations include ''
Poetics
Poetics is the theory of structure, form, and discourse within literature, and, in particular, within poetry.
History
The term ''poetics'' derives from the Ancient Greek ποιητικός ''poietikos'' "pertaining to poetry"; also "creative" an ...
'' by
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...
and ''
Catcher in the Rye
''The Catcher in the Rye'' is an American novel by J. D. Salinger that was partially published in serial form from 1945–46 before being novelized in 1951. Originally intended for adults, it is often read by adolescents for its themes of angst ...
'' by
J.D. Salinger.
Saarikoski is buried in
Heinävesi in the cemetery of the
New Valamo monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...
.
Early life
During World War II, Saarikoski was sent to Sweden as one of the
Finnish war children
During World War II some 70,000 Finnish children ( fi, sotalapset, the 'war children' sv, krigsbarn) were evacuated from Finland, chiefly to Sweden, but also to Norway and Denmark.Korppi- Tommola, Aura"War and children in Finland during the ...
. He learned to write and read Swedish in
Norrköping
Norrköping (; ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Linkö ...
in 1944.
His work
Saarikoski's breakthrough was both critically and commercially ' (What is actually going on?) published in 1962. The collection of poems heralded a new era in Finnish culture, laying the foundation of Finnish "participative poetry", a style whose adherents insisted that poets should participate in politics through their work. Indeed, some of the poems featured in the collection do have a clear political tone, whereas in the 1950s Finnish
modernists were generally more inclined to think that art should be done solely for art's sake. ''Mitä tapahtuu todella?'' marked also a change in the poet's style. His early works ' (Poems) and ''Toisia Runoja'' (Other Poems), both published in 1958, are not yet "participative poetry" or "democratic poetry" as the poet himself called his style. Instead, they are distinguished by their references to Greek antiquity while the general style was modern, which has led literary critics to say that Saarikoski's first works form his "Greek period". Saarikoski's interest in Greek began very early on. In fact, he studied Greek and literature at the
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the R ...
in the 1950s, though he never received a degree.
During the 1970s Saarikoski continued to publish poem collections. His admiration for the Greek philosopher
Heraclitus
Heraclitus of Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἡράκλειτος , "Glory of Hera"; ) was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire.
Little is known of Heraclitus's life. He wrot ...
deepened to such lengths that at one point Saarikoski adopted the philosopher's colloquial name "The Obscure", "Hämärä" in Finnish, to his poetry. Saarikoski began to obscure his poems intentionally and titled one of his collections ''Hämärän Tanssit'' (The Dark One's Dances, translated by
Anselm Hollo
Anselm Paul Alexis Hollo (12 April 1934 – 29 January 2013) was a Finnish poet and translator. He lived in the United States from 1967 until his death in January 2013.
Hollo published more than forty titles of poetry in the United Kingdom and ...
), which is a reference to Heraclitus. While some of his works especially from the late 1960s had received rather morose reception from critics, his last three poem collections which form "Tiarnia-trilogy" (1977, 1980, 1983) are often seen as the second artistic peak point of his career. They were written in Sweden where Saarikoski lived with his last wife
Mia Berner
Mia Berner (13 June 1923 – 9 December 2009) was a Norwegian philosopher, sociologist, university lecturer, radio journalist, essayist, novelist, poet and non-fiction writer.
Berner grew up in Stavanger, and started studying philosophy at th ...
. These works reflect pessimism towards technocratic society which is seen as deterring the social participation of citizens. All the works include a word "dance" in their title which refers to a form of social resistance.
Saarikoski also wrote
column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression (physical), compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column i ...
s by the
pen-name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
"Nenä" ("Nose").
[ His columns satirized the church, the army, politics and, all in all, conservatism. In his columns, he parodied the official political ]jargon
Jargon is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The context is usually a partic ...
of his times in a very effective manner. He served as the editor-in-chief of a Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...
affiliated cultural magazine, '' Aikalainen'', between 1963 and 1967.
Politics
Saarikoski stood as a candidate for the Finnish People's Democratic League
Finnish People's Democratic League ( fi, Suomen Kansan Demokraattinen Liitto, SKDL; sv, Demokratiska Förbundet för Finlands Folk, DFFF) was a Finnish political organisation with the aim of uniting those left of the Finnish Social Democratic P ...
(SKDL) in the parliamentary elections of 1966
Events January
* January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko.
* January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo ...
and 1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...
, but was not elected. He became a member of the Communist Party of Finland
The Communist Party of Finland ( fi, Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue, SKP; sv, Finlands Kommunistiska Parti) was a communist political party in Finland. The SKP was a section of Comintern and illegal in Finland until 1944.
The SKP was banned ...
in 1968.
Celebrity
Saarikoski was a well-known celebrity
Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in spor ...
in Finland due to his controversial personal life. He was an enthusiastic communist, was married four times and consumed alcohol
Alcohol most commonly refers to:
* Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom
* Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks
Alcohol may also refer to:
Chemicals
* Ethanol, one of sev ...
heavily. Saarikoski himself said: "I make my life fiction so that it would be true". In an interview,[Kansakunnan perilliset, Part 23: Pentti Saarikoski, By Mirja Pyykkö, YLE, TV1, broadcast 6.3.2006] Saarikoski's daughter, , stated that her father was a prime example of a European bohemian
Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to:
*Anything of or relating to Bohemia
Beer
* National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst
* Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors
Culture and arts
* Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...
, and as such helped to establish an image of a modern intellect in Finland.
Translated works
* Helsinki: selected poems of Pentti Saarikoski; translated from Finnish by Anselm Hollo (London: Rapp & Carroll, 1967)
Poems: 1958-1980; translated from Finnish by Anselm Hollo (West Branch, Iowa: Toothpaste Press, 1983)
Trilogy (The dance floor on the mountain, Invitation to the dance, The dark one's dances); translated from Finnish by Anselm Hollo (Albuquerque: La Alamada Press, 2003)
The edge of Europe a kinetic image by Pentti Saarikoski; translated from Finnish by Anselm Hollo (University of Notre Dame, Indiana: Action Books, 2007)
References
External links
*
Pentti Saarikoski in 375 humanists 02.04.2015, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saarikoski, Pentti
1937 births
1983 deaths
People from Pitkyarantsky District
Finnish People's Democratic League politicians
Communist Party of Finland politicians
Finnish writers
Finnish male poets
Finnish translators
Finnish-language writers
20th-century translators
20th-century Finnish poets
Finnish expatriates in Sweden
20th-century male writers
Translators of Homer
Finnish refugees
Refugees in Sweden