Cheese Hans

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Käsu Hans (* unknown; † probably 1715 in Puhja ) was an Estonian poet.

Life

Little is known about Käsu Hans (or Hans Kes ). In 1701 he was employed as a sexton in Puhja near Tartu . Possibly he was of Estonian origin . This would make him the first poet of Estonian descent known by name.

"Oh, poor city of Tartu"

Käsu Hans wrote his famous poem Oh! In the Tartu language probably around 1708 . ma waene Tardo Liin ("Oh, poor city of Tartu"). In it he describes on the one hand the former bloom and beauty of Tartus, on the other hand he laments the complete destruction of the city 1704–1708 in the Great Northern War (1700–1721) by Russian troops. After a long siege, the city was conquered under Peter I in June 1708 and razed to the ground on July 12, 1708 by order of the Tsar.

The poem (32 stanzas) is rhymed and divided into three parts. Käsu Hans not only describes the event, but also exhorts (especially the cities of Tallinn , Riga and Pärnu ) to beware of God's punishments. The poem shows a knowledge of Estonian and Livonian history as well as the theological and ecclesiastical literature of the time and Estonian folk poetry. It is the first surviving poem in Estonian that was written for a historical reason. It does not contain any baroque elements, but is more of a report on the event that had shocked contemporaries of the time.

The original of the poem has not been preserved. It was probably passed down in the vernacular. The first surviving copy (out of a total of eight) dates from 1714 by the pastor of the Tartu Johanniskirche , Johann Heinrich Grotjan .

literature

  • August Annist : “Käsu Hans ja tema 'ikulaul' Tartu hävitamisest a. 1704-1708 ". In: Akadeemia , 1993 No. 1 (46)
  • Cornelius Hasselblatt: History of Estonian Literature. Berlin / New York 2006, ISBN 3-11-018025-1 , pp. 123f.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Other scientists claim 1734
  2. ↑ It was published for the first time in full in print and with a German translation by Friedrich Bienemann the Elder in 1902. J. (1860–1915): The disaster of the city of Dorpat during the Northern War (reprint 1971)
personal data
SURNAME Cheese Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kes, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian poet
DATE OF BIRTH 17th century
DATE OF DEATH around 1715
Place of death Puhja