Georg Meri
Georg-Peeter Meri (born October 8, 1900 in Kolchanowo near Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire , † June 10, 1983 in Tallinn ) was an Estonian diplomat, writer and translator. He is the father of the writer and later Estonian President Lennart Meri .
Life
After attending business school in Moscow , Georg Meri was arrested by the Bolsheviks and imprisoned in 1917/18. He took from 1918 - 1920 at the Estonian War of Independence against Soviet Russia in part. Meri studied from 1920 to 1923 at the University of Tartu and from 1931 to 1933 at the Sorbonne political science. It was from 1926 - 1940 as a senior diplomat in the Estonian Foreign Ministry in Tallinn and in numerous Estonian embassies working abroad u. a. in Berlin and Paris , where he was mainly entrusted with economic issues.
After the occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union , Georg Meri and his family were arrested on June 14, 1941 , deported to Siberia and later imprisoned in Moscow . Georg Meri as well as his wife and two sons Lennart and Hindrek survived the deportation . They came back to Estonia after the end of World War II . In 1946/47 Georg Meri found work there as an editor and employee of the publishing house.
Meri was arrested again in 1950 and was only released after Stalin's death in 1953 . He then worked as a driver and in a state construction company before he was allowed to work again as one of the most famous Estonian translators. Georg Meri is famous in Estonia mainly for his Shakespeare translations.
Georg Meri was married to the Swedish-born Estonian Alice-Brigitta Meri, née Engmann.
Shakespeare translations by Georg Meri into Estonian
- Antony and Cleopatra
- Coriolanus
- All's well that ends well
- Hamlet
- Henry IV.
- Henry V.
- Henry VI.
- Henry VIII
- Julius Caesar
- The merchant of Venice
- King Johann
- King Lear
- Macbeth
- Measure for measure
- Othello
- Richard II
- Richard III
- Romeo and Juliet
- A midsummer night's dream
- Timon of Athens
- Titus Andronicus
- Troilus and Cressida
- A lot of noise about nothing
- What you want
- As you Like It
In addition, he produced state Soviet commissioned translations a. a. from the Russian by Boris Leontjewitsch Sutschkow, Nikolai Dobroljubow , Wera Panowa and from the English by Archibald Joseph Cronin .
literature
- Lennart Meri about his father in: Oplatka, Andreas: Lennart Meri, a life for Estonia. Dialogue with the President. Zurich 1999, ISBN 3-85823-762-0
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Meri, Georg |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Meri, Georg-Peeter (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Estonian diplomat and translator |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 8, 1900 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kolchanovo near Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 10, 1983 |
| Place of death | Tallinn |