Estonia

24 February marks Estonia’s declaration of independence from Russian and Germany in 1918—Estonia’s independence was recognized in 1920, before the USSR occupied the nation for just over fifty years, from 1940 to 1991. More recently, Estonia entered the European Union in 2004, and has also been a member of NATO since the same year.

The oldest known settlement in Estonia arose around 11,000 years ago, on the banks of the River Pärnu, in southern Estonian. The name “Estonia” is thought to arise from the work of Tacitus—in Germania he refers to a people called the Aestii.

Under Soviet occupation, particularly during Stalin’s rule, thousands of civilians were killed, and thousands more deported.

Today’s poem by Andres Ehin was translated by Brandon Lussier, who very kindly provided the poem, and introduced to the University of Iowa’s online journal, eXchanges, which publishes translations from all sorts of languages. Andres Ehin has published 12 books of poetry as well as novels and short stories, and has translated many authors in Estonian. He has been a winner of Estonian National Prize and the Estonian Cultural Capital Prize.


(3)

blunt tools

threw the blade

out

from among the hardware

Andres Ehin, translated from the Estonian by Brandon Lussier
from eXchanges