Latvian Literature in Estonia during the 1920s and 1930s
Läti kirjandus Eestis 1920.–1930. aastatel

Summary/Abstract: The story of Latvian literature is a story of reception – the reception of another culture through literature that begins with the reading process and ends with an interpretation of the text in a new context. The greatest number of Estonian translations of Latvian literature were published during the 1920s and 1930s and during the Soviet period. The most important translators during the 1920s and 1930s were Mart Pukits and Karl Aben. Sometimes the translators or other Latvian writers and critics also wrote overviews about Latvian literature in Estonian literary magazines (Looming, Eesti Kirjandus). Estonian translators began to translate Rainis, the greatest Latvian poet, in the 1920s. The prose poem Straumºeni (1933) of another great Latvian poet Edvarts Virza was translated into Estonian in 1937. It was something new and original in the Estonian context as Virza’s prose poem is absolutely different from Estonian rural literature, offering a new way of seeing patriotism and traditions. Virza’s poem created a polemic in the Estonian literary magazine Looming. Interestingly enough, Looming published some very critical articles in the 1930s, which would have been impossible in Latvia at the time.The most important Latvian modernist writers Jºanis Akuraters, Jºanis JaunsudrabiÏnš and Jºanis Poruks’ writings were translated in the 1920s to be published in collections and periodicals. Jºanis Poruks’ short stories were published in the collection Pärlipüüdja („Pearl diver”) in 1929. Mart Pukits published an historical overview of Latvian culture Läti kultuurilugu („Latvian Cultural History”) in 1937, which, for the time being, was the conclusion of the development of Latvian culture and literature for the Estonian reader.

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