Kõrboja peremees

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Anton Hansen-Tammsaare's birthplace

Kõrboja peremees ( The landlord on Kõrboja ) is the title of a novel by the Estonian writer Anton Hansen Tammsaare (1878–1940) from 1922.

Appear

Anton Hansen Tammsaare had already published ten books with mostly short prose and short stories when he published his first novel in 1922. At around 43,000 words, the text is hardly longer than some of the longer stories published before, but it was Tammsaare's first work that was explicitly called a novel in the subtitle.

The first edition was published in 1922 by the Tallinn publishing house “Maa”, and in 1926 by the Tartu “Noor Eesti” publishing house the second edition. This was followed by new editions in regular succession, the tenth volume took place in 1980 as the fifth volume within the eighteen-volume Gesammelte Werke von Tammsaare, and the novel was also repeatedly reprinted afterwards.

action

Formally, the novel is about two farms, one wealthy and the other poor. This is expressed in the speaking names of the two, the well-off farm bears the (eponymous) name Kõrboja ('desert stream'), the neighboring, vegetating one is called Katku ('plague'). The unmarried daughter of the widowed farmer runs the farm on Kõrboja, while the wretched Katku farm is run by two grumpy old people who have what they see as a son with a poor character, who is half-blind due to an accident in his childhood. At the beginning of the novel, this son named Villu has just returned from a prison sentence. Between him and the energetic Anna from the wealthy Kõrboja farm, there has been a friendly relationship since childhood, which is now gradually expanding into a love affair. This is only hinted at sparingly in the novel until Anna asks Villu to come to him as a farmer on the farm.

In Villu's view, his relationship with a certain Eevi, with whom he has an illegitimate child, is problematic. That is why she was chased away from the Kõrboja farm at the time. Now Eevi ekes out her existence with her old mother and son in a cottage nearby. Therefore Villu does not consider herself worthy of Anna's love. Although he has vague ideas about a possible improvement to the floor, he ultimately doesn't dare to do it, especially since he also mutilated his arm during a game on Midsummer Night. He would rather marry Eevi, the mother of his child, and let her take care of him if necessary. However, Anna persists and tells him to come to Kõrboja. Villu is not up to the pressure and he is putting an end to his life. Shocked by this act, Anna sees her plans thwarted and leaves the court. She wants to go back to the city where she tried her luck before. On the way there she runs into Eevi with her son, who after the death of her mother lost her right to live in the cottage and has become a beggar. Now Anna thinks about it and takes them both on to the Kõrboja farm. She introduces her father to the son of the dead Villu and the former maid Eevi as the future master of Kõrboja.

Reception and meaning

The reception of the novel was ambivalent at first, in addition to rejection, there was also early praise. For example, Friedebert Tuglas characterized the novel as the best work of 1922. With increasing distance, however, the praise prevailed, and today the novel is referred to as the “most complicated, but also the most poetic novel” of Tammsaare. In 1937 Andres Särev made a stage version of the novel, and in 1979 it was filmed by Leida Laius.

In this novel, Tammsaare only apparently deals with the rural subject and concentrates on the psychological description, as he does again and again in his later work. At the center of the novel is a woman who switches and rules and brings about all decisions, and from this point of view the title of the novel is almost misleading, because the “farmer” of Kõrboja only appears as a toddler on the last pages. The peasant woman is depicted on Kõrboja, and with this the author actually "set a monument to the Estonian woman as such."

Translations

translation to German

While the novel was translated relatively quickly in some neighboring countries (see below), it took a while in Germany until the novel found a publisher. However, the Estonian translator Arthur Behrsing had already published a five-page sample of the novel in 1923, but this had no further consequences.

A complete translation did not appear until 1958 in the GDR:

  • Anton Tammsaare: The farmer from Körboja . Translated by Dr. Adolf Graf. Berlin: Rütten & Loening 1958. 258 pp.

According to the translator, the reception of the novel was quite positive, even if the author was once accidentally referred to as a “Finnish writer” and discussed with Scandinavian literature.

Translations into other languages

  • Latvian : Meschstrautu saimneeks . T. Elīna Zālīte. Rīga: Roses apg. 1925. 177 pp.
  • Finnish : Korpiojan isäntä . Suom. Ida Grünthal. Helsinki: Werner Söderström 1929. 132 pp.
  • Hungarian : Az erdőárki gazda . Ford. Bán Aladár. Gyoma: Kner Izidor Kiadása 1933. 214 p .; New translation: Sötét sziklák . Ford. Bereczki Gábor. Budapest: Európa 1970. 192 pp.
  • Swedish : Husbonden på Körboja . Bemyndigad övers. från estniska av C. Mothander. Stockholm: Wahlström 1938. 216 pp.
  • Dutch : De boer van Körboja . Geautoriseerde vertaling naar het Estisch van Willem Arondéus. Amsterdam: Nederlandsche Keurboekerij nv 1941. 240 p .; ²1943.
  • Lithuanian : Kerbojos šeimininkas . Vertė E. Astramskas. Vilnius: Valstybinė grožines literatūros Leidykla 1960. 231 pp.
  • Russian : Романы: хозяин усадьбы Кырбоя. Я любил немку. Новый нечистый из пекла . Πеревод с эстонского О. Наэль, Н. Яворская, А. Соколов. Москва: Художественная литература, 1968. 664 p. (Together with Ma armastasin sakslast and Põrgupõhja uus Vanapagan )
  • Esperanto : La mastro de Kõrboja . Trad. Benita Kärt. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1976. 156 pp.
  • Bulgarian : Стопанинът на Кърбоя . Πревод от естонски Дора Янева-Медникарова; издателство Бряг 2008. 152 p.

literature

  • Angela Burmeister: Estonian literature in Germany and in the German Democratic Republic from the beginning of the 20th century [sic] to the end of the eighties. [Unprinted] Dissertation A for obtaining the academic degree of doctor in a branch of science (doctor philosophiae) submitted to the Scientific Council of the Wilhelm-Pieck-Universität Rostock. February 1990.
  • Cornelius Hasselblatt: Estonian literature in German translation. A reception story from the 19th to the 21st century . Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2011.
  • Toomas Haug: AHT lahkumine Koitjärvelt. Lapse sünd "Kõrboja peremehes", in: Looming 12/2007, pp. 1876–1888.
  • Elizabeth Judas: Russian influence on Estonian literature. A study on Jakob Tamm and Anton H. Tammsaare . Los Angeles: Wetzel Publishing Co., Inc. 1941.
  • Heino Puhvel: AHTammsaare elu ja loomingu varasem periood (1878 1922) . Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1966.
  • Karl Mihkla: AH Tammsaare elutee yes looming . Tartu: Noor-Eesti kirjastus 1938.
  • Helene Siimisker: AHTammsaare . Lühimonograafia. Tallinn: Eesti Riiklik Kirjastus 1962. (Eesti kirjamehi)
  • Erna Siirak: AH Tammsaare in Estonian Literature . Tallinn: Perioodika 1978.
  • Eerik Teder: AH Tammsaare teoste tõlkimisest Euroopa rahvaste keeltesse, in: Sõna, mõte, inimene. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1977, pp. 36-59.
  • Elem Treier: Ligemalt tundmatu armastuslugu. "Kõrboja peremehe" algvariant "Mets-Jeesukene", in: Looming 11/1994, pp. 1561–1568.
  • Kadri Tüür: Keskkonnaelementide tähendusest AH Tammsaare romaanis "Kõrboja peremees", in: Keel ja Kirjandus 11/2001, pp. 745–755.
  • Maarja Vaino: Irratsionaalsuse poeetika AH Tammsaare loomingus . Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikool 2011. (Tallinna Ülikooli humanitaarteaduste dissertatsioonid. 26)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt : History of Estonian Literature. From the beginning to the present. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter 2006, p. 456.
  2. ↑ AHTammsaare: Kogutud teosed 1-18. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1978-1993.
  3. ↑ Heino Puhvel: Järelsõna, in: AH Tammsaare: Kogutud teosed. 5. köide. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1980, p. 208.
  4. ↑ Epp Annus, Luule Epner, Ants Järv, Sirje Olesk, Ele Süvalep, Mart Velsker: Eesti kirjanduslugu. Tallinn: Koolibri 2001, p. 286.
  5. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt: History of Estonian Literature. From the beginning to the present. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter 2006, p. 457.
  6. ^ Arthur Behrsing: Forays through the newest Estonian poetry. Reval: Estonian Publishing Company W. Kentmann and Co, pp. 28–34.
  7. ↑ Eerik Teder: AH Tammsaare teoste tõlkimisest Euroopa rahvaste keeltesse, in: Sõna, mõte, inimene. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1977, pp. 36-59.
  8. ↑ This happened in the newspaper "Der Demokratie" (Schwerin) on July 6th, 1960, quoted in after Angela Burmeister Estonian literature in Germany and the German Democratic Republic from the beginning of the 20th century [sic] to the end of the eighties. [Unprinted] Dissertation A for obtaining the academic degree of doctor in a branch of science (doctor philosophiae) submitted to the Scientific Council of the Wilhelm-Pieck-Universität Rostock. February 1990, pp. 78-79.