INGLISKEELNE EESTI LUULE JA GLOKAALSUSE KESKENDUVAD KEERUD
Estonian Poetry in English and the Concentric Windings of Glocality

Summary/Abstract: After renderings of Estonian folk verse in the 18th–19th centuries, in the mid-20th century larger publications of Estonian poems in English appeared. The collections by E. H. Harris and W. K. Matthews have set a standard for future English translations. Ants Oras’s translations may improve on the poetic qualities of the texts and prove the ability of a native Estonian to employ subtle English as a literary medium. Bernard Kangro, the first Estonian to have a full book of verse published in English, possesses similarities in his sensuous poetics of natural life to the Englishman M. Drayton. His evocations of the mystical otherness bear resemblance to the poetry of the Celtic Revival, as shown in the comparison of one of his poems with one by J. Joyce. Extended metaphors have been practised with restraint by Estonian poets; still, comparisons with the English metaphysical poetry of the 17th century are possible. The recent translations of Juhan Liiv by H. L. Hix and J. Talvet consciously abandon some of the original poetic parameters to offer a method responsive to the invigorating language opportunities of the age.

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