Mihkel Juerna

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Mihkel Jürna (born September 5 . Jul / 17th September  1899 greg. In Soonuka , Lääne-Viru County , † 5. December 1972 in Tallinn ) was an Estonian writer , translator and literary functionary.

Life

Jürna went to school in Kiltsi and Väike-Maarja and from 1917 to 1923 attended the Hugo-Treffner-Gymnasium in Tartu . He then studied for three years at the University of Tartu Law without, however, get a degree. Later enrollment as a medical student at the same university (1934–1937) did not lead to a degree.

From 1930 to 1940 he was secretary of the Estonian Writers' Union . After the Sovietization of Estonia, he took an active part in the communist transformation of literary life and was a member of the commission responsible for the weeding and destruction of books from public libraries.

During the Second World War he lived in the Soviet hinterland and was an editor for Estonian radio programs in Leningrad . After the war he was briefly active in the Estonian state publishing industry and was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the ESSR . From 1947 he lived as a translator in Tallinn, where he also died.

plant

Jürna made her debut in 1921 with poems and an expressionist drama fragment that appeared in the magazine Ilo . In 1925 he went public with Juhan Sütiste (Johannes Schütz) and Erni Hiir with the two almanacs Sang (Griff) and Boomerang . In them, however, only a general attitude of protest against the literary establishment was perceptible; in terms of content, they did not succeed in "leaving the rather vague level of opposition and arriving at any clearly defined program".

From 1926 onwards, Juerna's short stories appeared in the magazine Looming , and in 1927 his first book of short stories appeared. At the same time he began translating from English to a translation of William Shakespeare's King Lear . Later on, Jürna appeared primarily as a translator of Russian literature.

His novellas initially had expressionist features. Later there are grotesque or satirical elements. Jürna has not translated anything into German, but one of his novellas was included in a French-language translation anthology in 1937.

Books

  • Tavalised ('The Ordinary'. Short stories. Tartu: Noor-Eesti 1927. 160 pp.)
  • Üks armastus ('Eine Liebe'. Novellas. Tartu: Eesti Kirjanikkude Liit 1929. 149 pp.)
  • Ärigeenius ('The business genius '. Novellas. Tartu: Eesti Kirjanikkude Liit 1932. 140 pp.)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt : History of Estonian Literature. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter 2006, p. 518.
  2. ↑ Eesti kirjanduse ajalugu. IV köide. 2. raamat. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1984, p. 148.
  3. ↑ Madame et son chien, in: Anthologie des conteurs estoniens. Paris: Sagittaire 1937, pp. 175-183.
personal data
SURNAME Juerna, Mihkel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 17, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Soonuka , Estonia Governorate
DATE OF DEATH 5th December 1972
Place of death Tallinn