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 Enviado - 28 diciembre 2007 : 16:11:25
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In memoriam Jaan Kross, 19.2.1920 – 27.12.2007
Ahir, 27 de desembre, va morir el patriarca i sens dubte el més universalment conegut del escriptors estonians: Jaan Kross.
Compromés des de sempre amb el seu país, al qual va dedicar gairebé tota la seva obra, de manera al·legòrica durant l'ocupació soviètica d'Estònia i d'una manera més transparent a mesura que les llibertats es van anant obrint pas en el seu país fins que va recuperar la independència, Jaan Kross és conegut sobretot per les seves novel·les històriques, dues de les quals han estat publicades a Espanya en castellà (en traduccions del francés de l'enyorat Joaquim Jordà, revisades i compulsades amb l'original per l'escriptor, traductor i hispanista estonià Jüri Talvet i publicades per Editorial Amagrama): El loco del zar (Keisri hull), l'any 1992, i La partida del profesor Martens (Professor Martensi ärasõit), l'any 1995.
La vida de Kross no va ser fàcil. Estudià Dret a la Universitat de Tartu i, durant la segona guerra mundial, va ser detingut pels ocupants nazis a causa de la seva activitat clandestina en la resistència. Després que el seu país quedés integrat en la Unió Soviètica, fou víctima de les represàlies stalinistes i condemnat a cinc anys de treballs forçats a Sibèria. En tornar a Estònia esdevingué un membre destacat a la resistència interior.
Es donà a conèixer en el món literari amb els seus poemes, que esdevingueren un referent per a la seva generació. Aviat, però, la seva obra es decantà clarament cap a la narrativa històrica, mitjançant la qual recuperà moments i personatges que havien quedat a l'ombra durant segles a causa de la submissió dels estonians a altres potències (Dinamarca, Suècia, Polònia i, sobretot, Alemanya i Rússia). Segurament aquest ha estat el gran mérit de Jaan Kross, juntament amb la qualitat literària de les seves obres.
Malauradament, només han estat traduïdes al castellà dues de les seves novel·les (exemples importants i representatius, sens dubte, de la seva producció literària). Si volem conèixer-ne més, hem de recórrer a les versions franceses o en altres llengües.
Albert Lázaro-Tinaut
28 de desembre de 2007
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In memoriam Jaan Kross, 19.2.1920 – 27.12.2007
Ayer, 27 de diciembre, murió el patriarca y sin duda el más universalmente conocido de los escritores estonios: Jaan Kross.
Comprometido desde siempre con su país, al que dedicó la mayor parte de su obra, de forma alegórica durante la ocupación soviética de Estonia y de manera más transparente a medida que las libertades se fueron abriendo paso en su país hasta que éste recuperó su independencia, Jaan Kross es conocido sobre todo por sus novelas históricas, dos de las cuales han sido publicadas en España, en castellano (en traducciones del francés del añorado Joaquim Jordà, revisadas y compulsadas con el original por el escritor, traductor e hispanista Jüri Talvet y publicadas por Editorial Anagrama): El loco del zar (Keisri hull), en 1992, y La partida del profesor Martens (Professor Martensi ärasõit), en 1995.
La vida de Kross no fue fácil. Estudió Derecho en la Universidad de Tartu y, durante la segunda guerra mundial, fue detenido por los ocupantes nazis a raíz de su actividad clandestina en la resistencia. Después de que su país fuera integrado en la Unión Soviética, fue víctima de las represalias estalinistas y condenado a cinco años de trabajos forzados en Siberia. Cuando regresó a Estonia se convirtió en un miembro destacado de la resistencia interior.
Se dio a conocer en el mundo literario con sus poemas, que se convirtieron en un referente para su generación. Sin embargo, su obra se decantó pronto, y claramente, hacia la narrativa histórica, mediante la cual recuperó momentos y personajes que habían permanecido en la sombra durante siglos a causa de la sumisión de los estonios a otras potencias (Dinamarca, Suecia, Polonia y, sobre todo, Alemania y Rusia). Probablemente este haya sido el gran mérito de Jaan Kross, junto a la calidad literaria de sus obras.
Lamentablemente, sólo han sido traducidas al castellano dos de sus novelas (ejemplos importantes y representativos, sin duda, de su producción literaria). Si queremos conocer mejor su obra, hemos de recurrir a las versiones francesas o en otras lenguas.
Albert Lázaro-Tinaut
28 de diciembre de 2007 |
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Enviado - 29 diciembre 2007 : 12:37:36
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Jaan Kross
Joaquín Rubio Camín
ABC, Madrid
29.12.2007
El escritor estonio Jaan Kross, que falleció ayer a los 87 años, mantuvo su irónica humildad incluso en la cima de su fama internacional pues le gustaba considerar su obra, traducida a más de veinte lenguas, como fruto de un «historiador aficionado». Y bromeaba: «Acaso se trate, en cierto modo, de pereza», porque recurrir a la historia le permitía no forzar demasiado la imaginación.
El eterno candidato al Premio Nobel de Literatura, considerado la conciencia literaria de Estonia, reflejó de forma incomparable la cambiante historia de su país a través de cuentos y novelas. Distinguida por su fino humor y una gran humanidad, su obra tuvo una influencia determinante en su país y alcanzó renombre internacional. Kross también logró disfrazar en relatos históricos una ácida crítica a los años en que Estonia quedó reducida a una parte de la URSS.
Describió la vida del noreste de Europa durante el siglo XX conjugando con maestría el reflejo de destinos individuales con el de grandes movimientos políticos históricos. El propio Kross pasó ocho años deportado en Siberia, hasta su regreso a Tallín en 1954. En esta ciudad vivió y trabajó con Ellen Niit, reconocida poetisa y autora de literatura infantil. Su implicación en la lucha por la independencia y su breve experiencia como parlamentario le granjearon una gran credibilidad moral. «No me siento como la figura más importante de la literatura estonia», dijo poco antes de su muerte el autor, que solía recibir visitantes internacionales en su estudio. A través de la ventana de su buhardilla se podía ver la torre de la iglesia tallinesa y recordar así el pasado europeo.
Nacido el 19 de febrero de 1920 en Tallín, con apenas 16 años Kross comenzó a publicar cuentos y poemas en diarios juveniles. En 1944, poco antes del fin de la ocupación nazi, fue detenido. En cuanto fue liberado le apresaron las autoridades soviéticas y le deportaron a un campo siberiano.
Entre sus obras destacan «El loco del Zar» y «La partida del profesor Martens». Kross hablaba de la pobreza en los años del hambre, de la comunidad intelectual forjada dentro del Gulag y de amores prohibidos. Concebía el cambiante y doloroso devenir de su país como un destino humano e individual. En este sentido, nunca perdía de vista que, si bien Estonia fue dominada por Moscú, los bálticos no perdieron jamás el orgullo y lucharon siempre por su identidad.
(http://www.abc.es/20071229/sociedad-sociedad/escultor-madera_200712290253.html) |
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Enviado - 29 diciembre 2007 : 14:33:14
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Décès de l'écrivain et poète estonien Jaan Kross
LE MONDE / AFP
27.12.2007 | 20h58
L'écrivain, poète et traducteur estonien Jaan Kross, cité plusieurs fois comme candidat au Prix Nobel de littérature, est décédé jeudi après-midi à Tallinn, sa ville natale, à l'âge de 87 ans. "Il fut parmi ceux qui nous ont permis de préserver notre identité nationale et qui nous ont préparés à saisir la chance de recouvrer l'indépendance de l'Estonie", a estimé le président estonien Toomas Hendrik Ilves dans une déclaration publiée après la mort de l'écrivain. Dans ses romans, traduits en plusieurs langues, Kross a notamment fait revivre des personnages importants de l'histoire de ce pays balte. Pour gagner sa vie, il a traduit en estonien Shakespeare, Balzac et Zweig. Parmi les oeuvres les plus connues de l'écrivain figurent "Le fou du Tsar", "La triple peste", "Les troisièmes montagnes" et "Le départ du professeur Martens". Pour être resté fidèle à ses idéaux, Kross avait fait six mois de prison sous l'occupation nazie en 1944, puis avait été déporté de 1946 à 1954 par le régime communiste soviétique dans le Goulag sibérien.
(0,14-0,39-33730224@7-302,0.html" target="_blank">http://abonnes.lemonde.fr/web/depeches/0,14-0,39-33730224@7-302,0.html)
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Jaan Kross, un des maîtres de la littérature de l'Europe de l'Est
LE MONDE / AFP
27.12.2007 | 21h20
Poète, romancier, traducteur estonien Jaan Kross, décédé jeudi à Tallinn, à 87 ans, fut un maître de la littérature de l'Europe de l'Est, auteur d'une oeuvre poétique et romanesque qui lui a valu plusieurs fois d'être cité parmi les favoris du Prix Nobel de littérature. Il a exercé une influence significative sur la littérature balte contemporaine.
Longtemps secrétaire de la direction de l'Union des écrivains de l'Estonie soviétique, Jaan Kross a été membre du parlement estonien en 1992-93, après le divorce de ce pays balte d'avec Moscou.
Forte d'une quinzaine de romans et de quelques volumes de poésie, son oeuvre constitue une sorte de chronique de quatre siècles d'histoire de l'Estonie.
D'origine ouvrière, Jaan Kross, est né à Tallinn, le 19 novembre 1920, l'année de l'indépendance de l'Estonie qui, jusqu'en 1917, a été l'une des provinces de l'empire russe. En 1938, il s'inscrit à la faculté de droit de l'Universite de Tartu, dont il sort diplômé. En 1944, Jaan Kross subit d'abord des persécutions nazies puis, comme des milliers d'autres Estoniens, est arrêté et déporté en Sibérie. Il passe neuf ans en exil dans les camps de travail. Il est de retour en 1954 à Tallinn, l'ancienne ville hanséatique de Reval.
Son premier recueil de poèmes parait en 1958 et il devient d'emblée l'un des chefs de file de sa génération. Parmi ses recueils de poèmes : "Les violons de Pierre" (1964), "La pluie accomplit des miracles" (1969), "Le flux et le trident" (1971), une oeuvre qui met en scène des héros aux prises avec les grands problèmes de la société et préoccupés par le destin de l'humanité. Il gagne sa vie en traduisant Shakespeare, Balzac et Zweig.
A partir des années 1970, il s'oriente vers le roman historique. Paraissent notamment, "Les trois pestes", "L'aérolithe", "Le fou du tzar" "Le roman de Rakvere" et "Le navire contre le vent", ainsi que les nouvelles "Quatre monologues à propos de Saint Georges".
Son premier roman traduit en français, le plus célèbre, "Le fou du tzar" en 1990 a remporté le Prix du meilleur livre étranger: il imagine sous le règne du tsar Alexandre 1er au XIXe, un colonel déclaré fou, victime d'une surveillance policière et qui se révolte. Après "le départ du professeur martens", ont été publiés en France notamment "La vue retrouvée" en 1993, et, en 2006, "Le Vol immobile".
(0,14-0,39-33730289@7-302,0.html" target="_blank">http://abonnes.lemonde.fr/web/depeches/0,14-0,39-33730289@7-302,0.html) |
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Enviado - 29 diciembre 2007 : 21:25:15
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Jaan Kross, Estonia's best known writer, dies at 87
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE - Europe / The Associated Press
Published: December 28, 2007
TALLINN, Estonia: Jaan Kross, a writer and poet whose novels portrayed the fate of the small Baltic nation, has died after a long illness, according to his family. He was 87.
A prisoner during Nazi rule in the early 1940s and a survivor of a Siberian labor camp, Kross was known for historical novels. "The Czar's Madman," an epic about a Baltic-German nobleman, is considered one of his major works and was translated into English and several other languages.
Although set in the 19th century the hero of the book, who was imprisoned as a traitor, was believed to reflect the author's own experience of eight years in exile during the 1940-1991 Soviet occupation, when thousands of Estonians were exiled and killed.
He was released from the gulag in 1954.
Born on Feb. 19, 1920, in Tallinn, Kross studied law at Tartu University, Estonia's leading academic establishment. He published his first novel, "Between Three Plagues," in 1970 — 16 years after becoming a professional writer. After Estonia regained independence in 1991, he served briefly as a lawmaker in 1992-93 but became frustrated by politics and resumed writing.
President Toomas Hendrik Ilves praised Kross Thursday, after the author's death the same day was announced, as a preserver of the Estonian language and culture.
"He was one of those who kept fresh the spirits of the people and made us ready to take the opportunity of restoring Estonia's independence," Ilves said.
For many years, Kross was Estonia's strongest candidate for the Nobel Literature Prize.
Kross, who wrote a dozen novels and was a prolific poet, was awarded several Estonian and international prizes, including the Amnesty International Golden Flame Prize in 1990.
He is survived by his wife, the writer Ellen Niit, and two children. No funeral arrangements were given.
(http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/28/europe/EU-GEN-Estonia-Obit-Kross.php) |
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Enviado - 29 diciembre 2007 : 21:49:56
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Obituary: Jaan Kross
Eric Dickens
28 December 2007
Eric Dickens—translator of Kross and his fellow countryman Mati Unt, along with many other writers—offered to write an obituary of Jaan Kross for us. As Dickens points out, this is more than just an obituary—it’s also an overview of one of Estonia’s great writers who is hardly known in the U.S./UK despite the fact that several of his books have been translated and published by Harvill and The New Press.
Jaan Kross, the novelist and grand old man of Estonian literature died in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, on Thursday 27th December 2007. He was 87.
What follows is both an obituary, a history and a bibliography. As will be seen, life and letters are inextricably intertwined and as only three of Kross’ novels and one collection of stories are readily available in English, light will also be shed on those that are not yet available in that language. I will translate the titles of all the works mentioned for the convenience of readers.
Jaan Kross was born on February 19th, 1920, in Tallinn, as the son of a metal craftsman and engineer. The Estonian Republic, independent for the first time in history, had been proclaimed shortly before Kross was born, and he spent a reasonably idyllic life at school in Tallinn, and university in Tartu, studying to become a lawyer. But history was instead to ultimately make him the author of more than a dozen historical and semi-autobiographical novels, all intimately connected with the fate of Estonia.
At a national level, the twenty years of Estonian independence which marked Kross’ boyhood and youth were marred by a failed Communist coup in 1924, the knock-on effect of the Wall Street Crash in 1929, and the resulting authoritarian governments of the 1930s. But worse was to come. Kross’ dreams of peace and prosperity, and those of most Estonians, were shattered as a result of the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, where Hitler and Stalin in effect divided up Europe into two spheres of influence. Estonia, like Latvia and Lithuania, all three fledgling independent republics, fell under the Soviet, i.e. Russian, sphere of influence. From then onwards, until Estonia regained its independence in 1991, the country suffered occupation, war, destruction, deportations and a ruined and centrally planned economy, tailored to suit the exigencies of Moscow.
In 1940, the Soviet Union bullied its way into Estonia, stationing large numbers of troops in several parts of the country. A Communist takeover was then rigged so that it looked democratic. Yet the number of Estonian Communists was minuscule; Russian Communists were shipped in to pad out demonstrations. During this one year Soviet occupation, all the members of what had been the government of an independent state, including the President and Prime-Minister, were deported to Siberia, as were many members of parliament. Many were shot in 1942.
Kross was too young to be greatly affected, but observed, experienced. When the German Nazis invaded and occupied the country in the summer of 1941 and stayed for three years, Kross was imprisoned for a few months, on suspicion of being an Estonian nationalist. This was not the last time that Kross suffered at the hands of an occupying power.
In 1944, as the Germans retreated and the Soviets returned causing a power vacuum, a large number of middle-class people took the opportunity to flee to Sweden. Kross was not among them. He decided to stay put and take his chances with whatever history brought Estonia. All went reasonably well until 1946 when Kross was arrested, this time by the Soviet authorities, and sent to the Gulag – suspected, as by the Germans, of nationalist activity. He spent most of his eight years of labour camp and internal exile in the area around Krasnoyarsk in the Komi Republic, not returning to his home town Tallinn until 1954. Kross depicts these two periods of incarceration and forced labour in a series of stories, available in English translation under the title The Conspiracy and Other Stories.
For some 15 years after his release, Kross wrote poetry, but by 1970 he started publishing novels. From then onwards, Kross’ literary output was divided in two: he wrote both semi-autobiographical works and purely historical ones, all of them in prose.
A number of shorter novels were then published alongside what is regarded as his masterpiece, the historical tetralogy Between Three Plagues (1970, 1972, 1977, 1980) set in 16th century Tallinn, depicting the national aspirations of the Estonians, then under the rule of the Baltic-German barons, seen through the eyes of the clergyman Balthasar Russow, a real historical figure. Kross examines the psychology of his characters. This book has been translated into Russian, Finnish and German, but is not available in English.
In 1975, Kross published the novel The Third Range of Hills about the Estonian painter Johann Köler, and in the same year the novel The Moonstone which consists of a dialogue between two leading 19th century Estonian intellectuals and writers, the very young Kristjan Jaak Peterson, a poet, and the much older Otto Wilhelm Masing.
His most translated historical novel is The Czar’s Madman (1978), a work that tells the story of a 19th century Baltic-German nobleman who tries to persuade the Russian czar to abolish serfdom and is imprisoned in a casemate as a traitor for his pains. As with most of his protagonists, Kross based the character of Timotheus von Bock on a real-life figure. This novel has been translated into English by Anselm Hollo.
Next came a novel set in the 18th century, A Rakvere Romance (1982), where the burghers of Rakvere (German name: Wesenberg) revolted against the oppression of the nobility. It also involves a love story.
From then onwards, Kross shifted his focus to a more modern period. The novels and stories are mostly semi-autobiographical, and even where this is not the case, they are set in the twentieth century.
In 1984, the author published another of his novels that is available in English translation Professor Martens’ Departure, which is set during the early years of the 20th century when Czarist Russia decided to collate and classify all its various treaties with foreign countries. This is done by an ethnic Estonian, and diplomat Friedrich Martens. Kross also plays with the idea of his namesake, who did something similar a century previously. Curiously enough, both Martenses are real historical figures. What is rather sad about this novel is that it forespells one of Kross’ personal disappointments. Professor Martens narrowly misses the Nobel Peace Prize and this disappointment must, years afterwards, been the same as that of the author, since although a candidate, Kross never actually won the Nobel Literature Prize.
Kross’ 1987 novel Into the Wind describes the life of another real-life character, Bernard Schmidt the astronomer, lens polisher and inventor of the Schmidt telescope (still used today!), who was born on the Estonian island of Naissaar (Swedish and German name: Nargö), loses a hand during a teenage fireworks accident, but goes on to become the polisher of precision lenses and mirrors for telescopes of his own invention. Estranged from his wife, he moves to Germany during the rise of Nazism in the 1930s giving Kross the opportunity to examine the paradoxical life of this scientist and hermit as the clouds gather over Germany.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kross published three collections of short-stories plus his first directly autobiographical novel The Wikman Boys (1988) describing his schooldays and the characters he met there. Its sequel Mesmer’s Circle appeared in 1995 and here the author describes the ultimate fates of a number of these contemporaries at high school: some fled to Sweden, some were deported to Siberia, some died, some survived.
In 1989, the novel Excavations was first published in Finnish in Helsinki, Finland, before the Estonian version appeared. The reason for this was that Estonia was going through a very unstable period, during the break-up of the Soviet Union, and if Gorbachev and Yeltsin had not kept things under control, anything could have happened. This novel, that nevertheless appeared in Estonia the following year, is set in the 1950s and the protagonist, once again Kross’ alter ego, is a young man who has just returned from the Gulag and has to find a job to avoid being sent back to Siberia as a “parasite”, a frequent Soviet charge to get rid of inconvenient citizens. He takes part in an archaeological dig under what is now the parliament building and finds a document which proves Estonian claims to nationalism and is controversial from a Soviet or Russian point of view.
In 1993, Kross published the novel Untouchability about Jüri Vilms, who nearly became a member of the government of the newly independent Estonian Republic in 1918, but who died under mysterious circumstances off the Finnish coast near Helsinki, presumably shot by the Germans who were helping the Finns against the Russians at the time. There is, as often with Kross, a parallel theme of the researcher on the run, who is trying to find out more about Vilms, some decades later.
In 1997, a detailed bibliography of everything by and about Jaan Kross was published, in Estonian and in translation. The book is nearly 400 pages long!
The novel Treading Air (1998) looks at the life of a young man from his time at the Wikman high school of the novel above to his rather sad decline in a mental hospital in the 1980s. Ulo Paerand is highly intelligent and is obliged to take the initiative early in life to help the family budget when his father, who proves to be a philandering swindler, flees abroad with his mistress, leaving Ulo and his mother behind, penniless. They start a laundry and this is the start of a series of odd jobs for Ulo, including being messenger for the then Estonian Prime-Minister just at the time when Estonia is forced to sign what is in effect its death warrant as an independent republic on the Soviet-Estonian border. Ulo sees it all, experiences it all, yet remains something of an observer, a bystander. The novels examines the complex psychology of this very Estonian individual. This novel appeared in English translation by Eric Dickens in 2003.
Kross was to publish one more novel, Tahtamaa Farm (2001). This is a contemporary novel, set in post-Soviet Estonia, where an exile Estonian, one of those whose parents fled to Sweden in 1944, comes to Estonia to try to buy a plot of land from a somewhat gullible Estonian. The land contains valuable medicinal mud, which can be used in sanatoria, and as the scales fall from the eyes of the owner of the land, a duel ensues between the scheming Western businessman and the now equally shrewd Estonian.
Kross’ substantial autobiography Dear Travel Companions (600 text pages, plus documents and photographs) appeared in 2003. It covers his life until about 1962, when Kross had achieved some stability in life, had settled down and put his years in the Gulag behind him. It starts out with the small city of Tallinn, the family summer cottage and his student life, and moves on to his work at a newspaper and at a bank, studies, how he avoided being conscripted into the Waffen-SS (also described in the story Lead Piping), his prison experiences during the German occupation, and so on. Over 250 pages are devoted to his involuntary sojourn in Siberia, while the last 150 pages describe Soviet life when he returned from the Gulag. The text was edited by his daughter Kristiina, so there may be a little more to come from the following 45 years of his life.
Finally, Kross published a book of observations on the creation (and translation) of literary texts, also in 2003, under the rather complex title of Jaan Kross – One’s Own Historicity and Subtext. This is a collection of a series of lectures Kross gave in 1998 at the Department of Philosophy at Tartu University where Kross was Extra-Mural Professor of the Liberal Arts. The lectures are, in effect, critical examinations of his own novels and stories. This 220-page book is divided into two sections: Autobiographism and the opportunities and inevitabilities of literature and Text, context, surface text and subtext. This, along with his autobiography, neatly rounds off Jaan Kross’ life’s work.
Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves recently praised Kross’ work in preserving Estonia’s will to independence, language and literature. “He was one of those who helped the nation maintain a freshness of spirit and prepared the ground for the return of national independence”, said Ilves.
Jaan Kross was married three times and is survived by his widow, Ellen Niit the children’s writer and poet, and his children Kristiina, Eerik-Niiles, Maarja and Märten. From 1962 until his death, Jaan and his family lived in an apartment at the top of a block inhabited only by writers. This was common during Soviet times. The apartment block is right in the center of Tallinn, almost opposite the small commemorative plaque to the bombing of Tallinn in March 1944, which Kross experienced, when the other side of the street was flattened by the Soviet airforce, never to be rebuilt.
At time of writing, a brief obituary has appeared in the International Herald Tribune and ones will be appearing in the British dailies The Guardian and The Independent.
(Published in three percent, A resource for international literature at the University of Rochester. - http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=678) |
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Enviado - 29 diciembre 2007 : 22:39:28
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Three Dialogues on the Subject of Jaan Kross
by Kalev Kesküla
Estonian Literature Magazine (ELM) no. 10, Spring 2000
Characters:
• Jaan Kross, literary classic, 80 years old on 19th February
• Ellen Niit, his wife, Estonian writer
• Aksel Tamm, Soviet-time publisher, currently presidential adviser
• Oskar Kruus, Kross’s old colleague;
• Eva Lille, Estophile, family friend and Jaan Kross’s translator;
• Juhani Salokannel, same as above;
• Rein Veidemann, literary scholar, former politician;
• EWWRA, Estonian writer who wishes to remain anonymous;
All characters are real. All described events have actually taken place. Every word has been written down exactly as uttered.
Jaan Kross’s novels
Jaan: Had I succeeded in escaping to the West in 1944, I would hardly have become a successful lawyer, perhaps I’d have stuck to academic work. Would I have been an Estonian writer over there too? To be a writer in a foreign language would not have probably been morally acceptable.
Aksel: Kross has never been a writer to incite fervour; he was not loved by the readers like, for example, Egon Rannet, and his Stones and Bread.
EWWRA: Kross is probably the only consistently intellectual writer of prose of the 1990s whose work also has some sort of research basis. He builds up great mental constructions, like Eco, although without the latter’s postmodernism. Irony can sometimes be found on the sentence level. And his stylistic armour is so powerful that if a bright idea flashes, the message reaches you with a tremendous roar.
Aksel: Kross’s Swivel Chair Hour was at first rejected by the short imprints series Loomingu Raamatukogu, as a glorification of conformism. However compromising his Four Monologues Concerning St. George, it was pretty good prose. His style has indeed never changed; after all you spend most of your life writing the same symphony anyway.
Jaan: I have never written in order to show how to make compromises, but about how to survive despite them. Everywhere in the world where my books have been read, there have hopefully been a few who have understood them. Of course my books never cause any earthquakes. They’ve sold best in Finland and Germany. In the latter country, after all, there are still the Baltic Germans who know what I’m talking about. The Finns, too, have the necessary experience.
Juhani: The translator usually lives in the author’s shadow, he’s not noticed. But there have been cases in Finland where people, and strangers at that, stop me in the street and ask when the next Jaan Kross novel is coming out. He is very much admired in Finland, especially by those who really know what they’re talking about, e.g. several professors at the Helsinki University, and the historian Matti Klinge.
Jaan: The book the writer is currently working on should also be the most fascinating one for him, otherwise I’d have to tell myself that I’m now doing something less exciting. A writer cannot afford to adopt this sort of attitude. Between the Three Plagues is of course my most important work, with the highest level of identity between the main character and the author himself.
Eva: I’ve the feeling that when Kross writes, he does it with all his being, as it were. I’ve been present when he has been gathering meat on the bones of his work. He seeks something from every person he meets. Only in his company have I felt that I’m being used as material for a novel. His glance is so penetrating and he tries to enter your world. You listen to him spellbound; sometimes it seems as if you were a character in an opera where director Kross pulls all the strings. There are so many near-fatal incidents in his life, when he’s stayed alive by some miracle.
Jaan: Lucky occasions often come in bursts. In the camps I met a man, an Estonian, whom I had known in my childhood, had sat on his knee. I have also put this story down on paper (as The Ashtray). He was the head of the camp’s construction bureau and he managed to find a job for me there. I had to produce the technical drawings in black ink.
Eva: They make an excellent tandem, Jaan and Ellen. She has never bothered him with practical household matters. I’ve sat on their sofa, dozens of times, and seen Jaan’s eyes gloss over; suddenly he’s miles away, in one of his novels.
Jaan: I’ve never understood what the so-called entertainment industry actually is. Why does one have to be entertained? Ellen describes a half-mythological occasion: I had just finished a novel and decided to rest awhile. Half an hour later, I asked Ellen whether she had seen my notebook somewhere, with my notes. And so, an hour later, I was completely absorbed writing my next book.
Eva: I have seen his hot temper in action. Once on his way to the archives, when he had already gone out, he remembered that he had left some important notes behind, and had to climb to the fourth floor again. All those wasted minutes! I then saw what fury and rage he had in him. There he was - the structure of a novel ready in his head, the passion of a researcher urging him on, and he is surrounded by children, food, clothes, items of boring everyday life... Ellen is a magnificent writer herself. When I was younger, I was convinced that she had given too much of herself to Jaan. I no longer think like that. They complement one another.
Ellen: Well, a few poems for children can easily be produced even when I’m trying to create suitable conditions for Jaan and his novels. I sometimes check his letters, but I can’t be bothered to type up the novels. Health and memory are so essential. A writer of historical novels must remember what he wrote, even on page 35.
Jaan: I’m having trouble remembering first names. They used to be quite firmly tagged onto the surname, but not any more. But I have not yet noticed any serious deterioration in my capacity to remember.
Ellen: For a writer of novels, I think you are perfectly well acquainted with the factual side of things, so that the plot is convincing. Jaan reads his manuscripts to me. What else can he do, really, when he’s writing them right under my nose.
Jaan: Ellen is naturally my first reader.
Ellen: Most of the time you ignore my remarks completely, sometimes you do take them on board. Your method and style are so well established that it was obviously impossible to sell that half-finished manuscript that got lost. Perhaps somebody wrapped his herring up in it. But the second version even became a little better.
Jaan: The differences were mostly in the conjunctions. But there may have been some semantic elements which were better united in the second version.
Eva: I used to take groups of culturally interested Finns to the Kross family. I took our own coffee along, of course. The friendliness of that household helped to educate readers. Everybody bought a book and told his friends. Finns, Baltic Germans, friends of friends – they’ve all met Jaan face to face.
Ellen: On one occasion, I think we even had about 40 people in our living room.
Eva: Jaan Kross’ contribution has simply been staggering. He has done so much. But he has paid for that too.
Jaan: All this talk about me as a classic gives me the creeps. But on the other hand - we have to find our classics somewhere, so it looks as if I’ll have to put up with it.
Kross and the Riigikogu
Jaan: My father was a hard-working man, but he was also a society figure and for a time a member of the Tallinn City Council. He was a Strandmann man.
Rein: In 1992, Jaan Kross, who was on the list of the roughly social-democratic Mõõdukad (Moderates) party, was elected to the first Parliament (Riigikogu) of a newly independent Estonia. I remember him walking, suitcase in hand, stooping a little, reminding me vividly of Ullo Paerand from his novel Treading Air (Paigallend). But this comparison could have occurred to me only post factum.
Jaan: I wouldn’t say that the Westholm school injected élitism. In my opinion, élitism means a certain feeling of life-long superiority - come what may, we can take it. But everything Estonian was naturally our prime concern, that was only natural.
Rein: I had the impression that Kross performed his duty as an MP out of compassion for those who had involved him in politics. In that rôle, too, Kross was conscientious, determined and precise. His legal education helped to phrase the finesses of the laws. He seldom appeared at the Toompea rostrum, but always kept to the rules of rhetoric.
Aksel: During his time at the Riigikogu, I once met Kross in the street, and he explained the connection between the constitution and urinating: the former became parlamentarian, because somebody supporting presidentarianism had popped out to pee during the voting. He went to work in the Riigikogu with astonishing conscientiousness.
Jaan: By the way, I recently got a letter from a German publisher with USSR written on the envelope. In my reply, I thought to use the address “Gross-Deutschland“, or if that was too provocative, then “Amerikanische Zone“.
Rein: Kross could speak in the Riigikogu ex cathedra, as the occasion required, even using certain rhetorical demagogy. Alas, arguing with Kross was like trying to carry water in a sieve. What he says is so formidably well thought-out and he is so well-armed rhetorically that in the end one always left hopelessly beaten.
Jaan: The Riigikogu was quite a concentrated experience, but I don’t think my contribution had any particular value. I realised that the work at my domestic desk was probably worth more than just being one hundredth part of the Riigikogu members up on Toompea Hill. Still, I made significant observations there which I could not have made anywhere else.
All my life – and I have perhaps been overdoing it a bit – I have tried to prove to myself that I am not a man who can’t do his work properly.
Kross and Nobel Prize
Jaan: Had I received the Nobel Prize in 1990-91, it would have seemed a purely political decision. The situation was too favourable - that was what spoiled the whole thing. I sometimes harbour the illusion that by today I’ve got rid of all of my illusions. The litmus paper of illusion is disappointment, and I don’t really perceive disappointments any more. I’m no longer disappointed in people or how situations evolve. You simply know that besides others, the negative development is also programmed into an event.
EWWRA: Had Kross made a political proclamation of some sort in the early 1990, he would certainly have received the Nobel Prize. But men who’ve been to Siberia tend to be extremely careful. The same goes for Lennart Meri.
Aksel: Kross is not someone who makes political pronouncements.
EWWRA: Kross is a true Estonian, looking after his own interests, but in his works he represents significant values. And he’s a decent writer. If Kaplinski had received the Prize, it would have been like spitting in the face of Kross. But after the “Estonia“ ferry disaster, an Estonian writer has nothing more to hope from the Swedish Academy.
Aksel: Kross is now as old as Tuglas was in his last years, but Tuglas at that time was surrounded by a halo of untouchability. Kross at 80 is a perfectly normal person!
Jaan: I’ve no idea whether I have, somewhere on the verge of my subconscious, organised normality contests with literary classics. But I do try to decide and behave like other people in this country at this present time, and it is through this prism that I view my own behaviour. And if, as Aksel Tamm suggests, I have managed to succeed in doing so, then I’m well satisfied.
EWWRA: What is remarkable about Kross is that he has no need to prove himself to anybody, but he’s still beavering away like mad. Well, perhaps you have to prove to yourself at that age that you can still produce something. But the level in Kross’s works is just as high as ever!
Jaan: I don’t perceive in myself any wishes that should be realised beyond myself. The only thing is health - as long as I have that, I shall carry on working. To have normal, unchanging circumstances. Are the circumstances normal? Well, God knows, I wouldn’t want to waste too much time looking for an answer to that question, then time would slip through your fingers.
(http://www.einst.ee/literary/spring2000/10_kross_dia.htm) |
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Enviado - 29 diciembre 2007 : 23:11:07
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Jaan Kross (1920-2007)
Estonian poet, essayist, and novelist, who was especially known for his historical novels, although he started as a renewer of poetic form and content. Jaan Kross's central characters are generally outsiders, sharp observers, or strong-willed idealists, who face a difficult choice between compromising their values and beliefs or colliding with the broader realities of history and politics. Kross was often mentioned as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
"Strange, how people try to improve things by simply insisting that they are, or will be, better than they really are. I am guilty of that myself; no doubt about it. One might say that it is a professional habit of mine..." (from Professor Martens' Departure, 1984)
Jaan Kross was born in Tallinn. His father, also Jaan, was a machine-tool foreman, and mother, Pauline Kristine (Uhlberg) Kross, the daughter of a blacksmith. After attending the Jakob Westholm Grammar School, Kross entered in 1938 the University of Tartu, where he studied law, and then, in 1944-46, worked as a lecturer of international law. He also wrote poems which were published in magazines and decades later in Voog ja kolmpii (1971). In 1940 he married Helga Pedussaar; the marriage ended in divorce.
During WW II, Estonia was first occupied by the Red Army and then by Germany. For a period Kross was employed as a translator for the newspaper Postimees. He managed to avoid military service, but eventually he was assigned to work as a German interpreter. In 1944 he was arrested by the Nazis. Kross spent about five months in jail before he was released. In 1944 Estonia was incorporated into the USSR as the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. A number of writers and intellectuals chose emigration over life under Soviet occupation, but Kross decided to return to Tartu.
Kross's father was sent to the Gulag in Mordva in 1945; he died a year later. Kross himself was arrested in 1946 by the NKVD. He spent about eight years in exile and hard labour camps in the Komi and Krasnoyarsk regions. Most of the prisoners there were Russians, but in Intan his Gulag inmates included a German doctor of history and a Viennese masseur. Later Kross returned to this period of his life in the short stories 'Halleluuja' (1990) and 'Vürst' (1994), and in Kallid kaasteelised (2003), a book of memoir.
In 1953, Kross married Helga Roos, a translator, whom he had met in the Gulag; they had one daughter. While at university, Kross had tried to write a novel and but in exile Kross took up poetry. He also translated poems by Aleksander Blok. In 1954 Kross was back in Tallinn, where he devoted himself entirely to writing.
During the post-war decades in Estonia, writers played cat and mouse with the censor. The restrictions on free expression were not so effective as Moscow expected them to be, and the ideology of Socialist realism never gained a mandatory control of literature in the country. As a reaction to the ideological straitjacket, writers experimented from the 1960s with new techniques and adopted absurdist, surrealist or existentialist approach to the tension between art and the Soviet reality. Occasionally censors turned a blind eye when writers ignored the directions they were given. "Some of my work obviously got published only thanks to such occurrences," Kross has said.
Kross has been credited for being the first to broke the Socialist Realism mode and introduced new themes to Estonian poetry. Some of the poems of his first collection, Söerikastaja (1958), Kross had composed while in exile. In the fablelike 'Irax', supposedly set in the ancient Middle East, Kross satirized a Shah's governor, who is flattered and praised ad nauseam. The poem, written before Stalin's death, was taken as a criticism of Stalinism. Söerikastaja was widely reviewed and most of the reviews were very favorable. The collection was followed by Kivist viiulid (1964), Lauljad laevavööridel (1966) and Vihm teeb toredaid asju (1969).
With his third wife, the poet and translator Ellen Niit, whom he had married in 1958, Kross traveled in 1964 in Egypt and published with her a travel book, Muld ja marmor (1968). In 1962 Kross moved with his family to Tallinn's Writers House.
From the beginning, Kross poetry had included historical subjects, but it was not until in the 1970s, when Kross turned seriously his attention to the historical novel. History offered a seemingly neutral way to explore national and ethical questions, the role of the intelligentsia and political opportunism, and the artistic freedom of expression. His first novel Kross published in 1970, at the age of 50.
Kross's magnum opus was Kolme katku vahel (1970-1980), set in the 16th century, originated from a shelved screenplay. The central character is Balthasar Russow, a Lutheran pastor and chronicler, whose Chronicle of Livonia is born under the pressure of Lutheran orthodoxy - an obvious parallel to Kross's own experiences as a writer more or less tolerated by the Soviet censorship. Kross himself admitted in Omaeluloolis ja alltekts (1998), that out of all of his fictional characters, he was most like Russow.
Kross alter egos in his fiction were Peeter Mirk and Jaak Sirkel, whose experiences in the 1940s and 1950s the author depicted in his short stories and the books Wikmani poisid (1988), Silmade avamise päev (1988), and Väljakaevamised 1990.
Estonia declared its full independence in 1991 and in the same year Kross became a member of the parliament. He was also appointed to head the commission for investigation into the KGB.
In the new political situation, Kross published several works, in which he analyzed the Soviet period, including Paigallend (1998). The story, narrated by Jaak Sirkel, depicts the life of Ullo Paerand, an intellectual, poet, polyglot, and the secretary of the prime minister. He is also blessed with a brilliant memory, perhaps too good for his own sake. Decided to stay in his home country, whatever the costs are, Ullo chooses the life of a humble man and worker in a suitcase factory. Through the tale runs a tragic undercurrent of international politics: after WW II, Estonia was left alone by the West.
Kross's works have been published in about 20 languages and sold more than one million copies worldwide. "His life has encompassed Estonia's roller-coaster story to the point that he is seen as a representative and spokesman by his contemporaries," wrote Doris Lessing on the author in The Spectator (June 28, 2003). Kross's novels of Estonian history, set in a wider European context, have been compared to the old tradition of Tolstoy and Thomas Mann. History in Kross represents the immediate experience, inner events. Especially in the structure of his novels, a clear distinction is made between what is officially known and what were the real events.
Against the background of a thoroughly researched historical period, Kross often relateed the account of a witness of his time, sometimes employing the interior monologue. One of Kross's most sympathetic figures is the legal scholar and statesman F.F. Martens in Professor Martens' Departure (1984), who on a train bound to St.Petersburg summarizes his life and doings, the compromises he has made. At one point he admits that if he could start his life over again, he would do everything the same way. In The Czar's Madman (1978), written in the form of a secret diary, the narrator is the brother-in-law of Timotheus von Bock, a real historical figure, a visionary and hero, who opposed Tsar Alexander I, his boyhood friend, and was condemned insane. Berend Falck, the narrator of Rakvere romaan (1982), is a tutor, who works for the aristocracy but whose heart is on the side of the rising bourgeoisie. Again Kross depicted a character who tries balance between what he says and writes and what he really thinks.
Kross received several awards, including the Finnish Eeva Joenpelto Award in 1988, the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger in 1989, the Amnesty International Golden Flame Prize in 1990; the National Cultural award in 1998, annual award of the Estonian Cultural Endowment in 1998, and the Baltic Assembly prize for literature in 1999. The second volume of his memoirs, which Kross finished before his death on December 27, 2007, is due to appear in 2008.
For further reading: Viron kirjallisuus by Endel Nirk (1986); 'The Czar's Madman' by Juta Kovamees Kitching in World Literature Today, March 22, 1994; 'Nuoruuden tila ja aika Jaan Krossin tuotannossa' by Laura Visapää, in Runon silta - kielen silta (1997); Die historischen Romane von Jaan Kross by Kerttu Wagner (2001); Metamorfiline Kross: Sisevaateid Jaan Krossi loomingusse, ed. by Eneken Laanes (2005).
Selected works:
Söerikastaja, 1958
Tuule-Juku, 1963
Kivist viiulid, 1964
Viimane korstnapühkija, 1964 (with Ellen Niit, animation prod. by Tallinnfilm, dir. by Elbert Tuganov)
Lauljad laevavööridel, 1966
Muld ja marmor, 1968 (with Ellen Niit)
Vihm teeb toredaid asju, 1969
opera libretto: Barbara von Tisenhusen, 1969 (composed by Eduard Tubin, based on the novel by Aino Kallas)
screenplay: Kolme katku vahel, 1970 (film dir. by Virve Aruoja)
Neli monoloogi Püha Jüri asjus, 1970
Michelsoni immatrikuleerimie, 1971
Mardileib, 1971 (animation, prod. by Tallinnfilm, dir. by Heino Pars)
Voog ja kolmpii, 1971
Klio silma all, 1972 - 'Kleion silmien alla' (suom. Jouko Vanhanen)
Mardileib, 1973
translator: Vier Monologe Anno Domini 1506, 1974
Kolmandad mäed, 1975 - 'Kolmannet vuoret' (suom. Tauno Lähteenkorva, Irmeli Pääkkönen)
Taevakivi, 1975
opera libretto: Cyrano de Bergerac, 1976 (composed by Eino Tamberg)
Keisri hull, 1978 - 'The Czar's Madman' (trans. by Anselm Hollo) - 'Keisarin hullu' (suom. Juhani Salokannel)
opera libretto: Reigi õpetaja, 1979 (composed by Eduard Tubina, based on a novel by Aino Kallas)
Kolme katku vahel I-IV, 1970-1980 - 'Uppiniskaisuuden kronikka' (suom. Kaisu Lahikainen ja Jouko Vanhanen) - film 1970, dir. by Virve Aruoja, starring Ants Eskola, Ants Lauter, Raine Loo, Heino Mandri, Georg Ots,
Kajalood, 1980
Ülesõidukohad, 1981
Vahelugemised, 1968-82
Rakvere romaan, 1982 - 'Pietarin tiellä' (suom. Juhani Salokannel)
Professor Martensi ärasõit, 1984 - 'Professor Martens' Departure' (trans. by Anselm Hollo) - 'Professori Martensin lähtö' (suom. Juhani Salokannel)
Vastutuulelaev, 1987 - 'Vastatuulen laiva' (suom. Eva Lille)
Wikmani poisid, 1988 - 'Wikmanin pojat' (suom.Kalervo Mettala) - television mini series 1995, dir. by Vilja Palm
Silmade avamise päev, 1988 - 'Silmien avaamisen päivä' (suom. Juhani Salokannel)
Väljakaevamised, 1990 - 'Syvyydestä' (suom. Jouko Vanhanen)
Tabamatus, 1993 - 'Kuningasajatus' (suom. Juhani Salokannel)
Järelehüüd,1994
Mesmeri ring, 1995 - 'Mesmerin piiri' (suom. Juhani Salokannel)
The Conspiracy & Other Stories, 1995 (trans. by Eric Dickens)
Kogutud teosed. 9. kd.: Wikmani poisid, 1998
Omaeluloolisus ja alltekst, 1998
Paigallend, 1998 - 'Treading Air' (trans. by Eric Dickens) - 'Paikallaanlento' (suom. Jouko Vanhanen)
Tahtamaa, 2001
Kallid kaasteelised, 2003 - 'Rakkaat kanssavaeltajat' (suom. Jouko Vanhanen)
Novellid 1-12, 2004
Draama, 2005
(Source: Books and Writers [Kuusankosken kaupunginkirjasto, Finland]. - http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jkross.htm) |
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Enviado - 30 diciembre 2007 : 12:25:37
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A la memòria de l'escriptor estonià Jaan Kross
Albert Lázaro-Tinaut escriu sobre l'escriptor desaparegut
Vilaweb
28/12/2007 - 18:39h
Albert Lázaro-Tinaut, editor i traductor, especialista en les cultures bàltiques, ha publicat en el fòrum de la Casa de l'Est un apunt entorn la figura de l'escriptor estonià Jaan Kross, que va morir ahir (dijous) als vuitanta-set anys. Kross és l'escriptor més traduït i més conegut d'Estònia. Diverses vegades va sonar com a possible Premi Nobel de Literatura, però no li van arribar a concedir. Llegiu la semblança.
In memoriam Jaan Kross, 19.2.1920 – 27.12.2007
Ahir, 27 de desembre, va morir el patriarca i sens dubte el més universalment conegut del escriptors estonians: Jaan Kross.
Compromés des de sempre amb el seu país, al qual va dedicar gairebé tota la seva obra, de manera al·legòrica durant l'ocupació soviètica d'Estònia i d'una manera més transparent a mesura que les llibertats es van anant obrint pas en el seu país fins que va recuperar la independència, Jaan Kross és conegut sobretot per les seves novel·les històriques, dues de les quals han estat publicades a Espanya en castellà (en traduccions del francés de l'enyorat Joaquim Jordà, revisades i compulsades amb l'original per l'escriptor, traductor i hispanista estonià Jüri Talvet i publicades per Editorial Amagrama): El loco del zar (Keisri hull), l'any 1992, i La partida del profesor Martens (Professor Martensi ärasõit), l'any 1995.
La vida de Kross no va ser fàcil. Estudià Dret a la Universitat de Tartu i, durant la segona guerra mundial, va ser detingut pels ocupants nazis a causa de la seva activitat clandestina en la resistència. Després que el seu país quedés integrat en la Unió Soviètica, fou víctima de les represàlies stalinistes i condemnat a cinc anys de treballs forçats a Sibèria. En tornar a Estònia esdevingué un membre destacat a la resistència interior.
Es donà a conèixer en el món literari amb els seus poemes, que esdevingueren un referent per a la seva generació. Aviat, però, la seva obra es decantà clarament cap a la narrativa històrica, mitjançant la qual recuperà moments i personatges que havien quedat a l'ombra durant segles a causa de la submissió dels estonians a altres potències (Dinamarca, Suècia, Polònia i, sobretot, Alemanya i Rússia). Segurament aquest ha estat el gran mérit de Jaan Kross, juntament amb la qualitat literària de les seves obres.
Malauradament, només han estat traduïdes al castellà dues de les seves novel·les (exemples importants i representatius, sens dubte, de la seva producció literària). Si volem conèixer-ne més, hem de recórrer a les versions franceses o en altres llengües.
Albert Lázaro-Tinaut
28 de desembre de 2007
(http://www.vilaweb.cat/www/noticia?p_idcmp=2681266) |
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Enviado - 30 diciembre 2007 : 22:32:30
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Fallece el escritor estonio Jaan Kross, un eterno candidato al Premio Nobel de Literatura
Entre sus obras destacan "El loco del Zar" y "La partida del profesor Martens"
EL HERALDO DE ARAGÓN
Zaragoza, 29 de diciembre de 2007
DPA. Tallín | El escritor estonio Jaan Kross ha muerto a la edad de 87 años en su ciudad natal, Tallín, según informó ayer la agencia de noticias STT en Helsinki. Kross estaba considerado desde hace años como uno de los aspirantes al Premio Nobel de Literatura.
El escritor estuvo encarcelado durante varios años en Siberia durante el dominio soviético de los países bálticos y entre sus obras destacan "El loco del Zar" y "La partida del profesor Martens" (editadas en España por Anagrama).
Jaan Kross mantuvo su irónica humildad incluso en la cima de su fama internacional. Le gustaba considerar su obra, traducida a más de 20 lenguas, como fruto de un "historiador aficionado". Y bromeaba: "Acaso se trate, en cierto modo, de pereza", porque recurrir a la historia le permitía no forzar demasiado la imaginación.
Este eterno candidato al Nobel de Literatura, considerado la conciencia literaria de Estonia, reflejó de forma incomparable la cambiante historia de su país a través de cuentos y novelas.
Distinguida por su fino humor y por una gran humanidad, su obra tuvo una influencia determinante en su país y alcanzó renombre internacional.
Kross supo sacarle el mejor partido a la experiencia del análisis histórico desde el ángulo de la ficción y, como muchos de sus coetáneos y discípulos, fue autor de una obra poética con vida propia.
Además, fue traductor de grandes escritores, como William Shakespeare, Honoré de Balzac o Stefan Zweig.
Ácida crítica política
Jaan Kross logró disfrazar en relatos históricos una ácida crítica a los años en que Estonia quedó reducida a ser una parte de la Unión Soviética.
Kross describió la vida del nordeste de Europa durante el siglo XX conjugando con maestría el reflejo de destinos individuales con el de grandes movimientos políticos históricos de la época.
El propio Jaan Kross pasó ocho años deportado en Siberia, hasta su regreso a Tallín en 1954. En esta ciudad vivió y trabajó con su tercera esposa, Ellen Niit, reconocida poetisa y autora de literatura infantil con la que contrajo matrimonio en 1958.
Su implicación en la lucha por la independencia de su país y su breve experiencia como parlamentario le granjearon una gran credibilidad moral entre sus compatriotas.
"No me siento como la figura más importante de la literatura estonia", dijo poco antes de su muerte el autor, que solía recibir visitantes internacionales en su estudio. A través de la ventana de su buhardilla se podía ver la torre de la iglesia de Tallín y recordar así el pasado europeo.
Nacido el 19 de febrero de 1920 en Tallín, cuando apenas tenía 16 años Kross comenzó a publicar cuentos y poemas en diarios juveniles.
Su primer matrimonio, celebrado en 1940 con una mujer llamada Helga Pedussaar, acabó en divorcio.
En 1944, poco antes del fin de la ocupación nazi, fue detenido y pasó cinco meses en la cárcel. En cuanto fue liberado lo apresaron de nuevo, esta vez las autoridades soviéticas, y lo deportaron a un campo siberiano. Su propio padre fue también internado en un gulag, donde murió en 1946.
En sus obras, Kross habla de la pobreza en los años del hambre, de la comunidad intelectual forjada dentro del gulag (él conoció allí a Helga Roos, con quien se casó en 1953 y tuvo una hija) y de historias de amores prohibidos. El autor concebía el cambiante y doloroso devenir de su país como un destino humano e individual. En este sentido, nunca perdía de vista que, si bien Estonia fue dominada por Moscú, los bálticos no perdieron el orgullo y lucharon por defender su identidad.
Aunque el Nobel se le resistió, Kross sí recibió premios como el Finnish Eeva Joenpelto Award en 1988, el francés Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger en 1989, el Amnesty International Golden Flame Prize en 1990, el National Cultural Award en 1998 y el premio de literatura de la Baltic Assembly en 1999.
(http://www.heraldo.es/heraldo.html?noticia=216854) |
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Enviado - 30 diciembre 2007 : 22:53:58
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Reproducimos aquí una de las reseñas aparecidas en la prensa tras la publicación de la versión española de Keisri hull ('El loco del zar').
EL LOCO DEL ZAR
Jaan Kross
El loco del zar
Anagrama. Barcelona (1992). 411 págs.
por Jerónimo José Martín
ACIPRENSA
20 Enero 1993
Encasillar esta obra en la categoría de las novelas históricas supondría quitarle parte de su gran valor. Ciertamente, El loco del zar se inspira en hechos reales acaecidos en el imperio ruso durante la primera mitad del siglo XIX. En este sentido, permite al lector sumergirse en la memoria colectiva de un país muy poco conocido, Estonia, que acaba de recuperar su independencia. Pero la novela va mucho más allá. Porque lo que narra da pie a profundizar en cuestiones universales y, por tanto, de permanente actualidad.
Quizá la autenticidad que desprende cada página de este libro encuentre su razón de ser en la propia vida de su autor. Nacido en Tallinn (Estonia) en 1920, Jaan Kross sufrió desde muy joven las consecuencias de su inconformismo. Nada más acabar la carrera de Derecho fue detenido por los nazis por pertenecer a la Resistencia. Más tarde, los soviéticos le condenaron a cinco años de trabajos forzados en Siberia. A su regreso en 1954, comienza su carrera literaria, y muy pronto destaca como poeta y traductor de clásicos extranjeros. A finales de los sesenta, cuando ya se había convertido en uno de los guías culturales de su generación, se interesa por la historia de su país. Fruto de este interés son una decena de novelas históricas y varios libros de relatos, novelas cortas, ensayos..., que le acaban convirtiendo en el escritor más destacado de Estonia.
En El loco del zar, Kross recrea magistralmente la vida del coronel Timotheus Von Bock, Timo, un joven y brillante aristócrata estonio que durante un tiempo fue edecán de Alejandro I. Pero su extremada fidelidad a la promesa que hizo al emperador de decirle siempre la verdad provoca que Timo sea primero condenado a nueve años de cautiverio y más tarde declarado loco y recluido en su finca de Livonia. Allí, él, su mujer Eeva -una valerosa y culta estonia de origen humilde- y su pequeño hijo Jüri serán sometidos a una estrecha vigilancia policial, que marcará dramáticamente la evolución del sentido de sus vidas. Un sentido al que intenta dar respuesta Jakob, el cuñado de Timo, que narra todos estos hechos en su minucioso diario secreto.
A partir de una prosa elegante, llena de referencias culturales, Kross impulsa la acción con numerosos recursos literarios que proporcionan variedad al libro y alivian el tempo lento, muy eslavo, que imprime al desarrollo de la narración. Pero lo que cautiva de esta novela son sus personajes, todos ellos retratados con gran vigor. En este sentido, es clave la mirada desengañada que página a página se dirige a sí mismo el propio narrador, Jakob. Tras su distante e irónico cinismo, oculta el reconocimiento de su propia mediocridad, en contraste con la enorme talla humana de Timo y Eeva.
Especialmente Timo adquiere perfiles de héroe caballeresco. Su lucha por no traicionar los dictados de su conciencia le lleva a sacrificar todo lo que más quiere, hasta el extremo de convertirse en loco a los locos humanos.
La novela contiene evidentes paralelismos que acercan a un mismo punto dos tiranías: la zarista y la soviética. Pero quedarse en estos aspectos político-históricos -que Kross apunta con certera lucidez- quizá sería superficial. Kross no se queda en el nivel de los sistemas políticos, y se adentra en el núcleo íntimo de los seres humanos, donde radican sus cualidades morales. Así, recuerda a los hombres de Estado que cualquier reforma social o política, para que tenga valor, ha de pasar por la reforma de los individuos.
Kross apunta que es la trascendencia del ser humano la que sostiene su honestidad personal y, por tanto, la justicia del entramado social. "No hay en el mundo principios más estables que éstos: ¡Amor, Verdad, Dios!", llega a señalar Timo en su programa político. Quizá, este interesante enfoque se vea un poco lastrado por la formación luterana de Kross, que se aprecia sobre todo en el limitado valor que parece dar a la providencia divina. Pero está a un paso de superar el inevitable pesimismo al que conduce esa limitación. Y, desde luego, tiene de por sí un gran valor su atrevida apología de esa locura que es ser honesto hasta las últimas consecuencias.
(http://www.aceprensa.com/articulos/1993/jan/20/el-loco-del-zar/) |
Editado por - alazaro a las 30 diciembre 2007 22:55:11 |
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alazaro
Envíos 10057 |
Enviado - 02 enero 2008 : 11:43:30
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OBITUARIO
Jaan Kross, escritor estonio
Fue mencionado como candidato al Premio Nobel
RICARDO MORENO
El País, Madrid
02/01/2008
Jaan Kross, considerado el mayor escritor de Estonia y reiteradamente mencionado como posible ganador del Premio Nobel de Literatura, falleció en la ciudad de Tallin a los 87 años. Doris Lessing dijo de él que era un "fantástico novelista que por su agudeza y hondura debía ser considerado un escritor universal. La Academia (sueca) debió haberse apresurado a otorgarle el premio", agregó. Su vida y su obra estuvieron marcadas por las circunstancias históricas de su pequeño país, víctima sucesivamente de la ocupación de la Alemania nazi y de la Unión Soviética, lo que le significó la cárcel y el exilio en Siberia. Cuando fue liberado en 1954 llevaba consigo, además de las huellas de su duro cautiverio, el conocimiento de varias lenguas que había aprendido en esos años, lo que le sirvió para trabajar como traductor en los años posteriores. Luego comenzó a escribir su propia producción literaria, que fue traducida y conocida en una veintena de países, Francia, Alemania y España, entre otros.
El tema de la responsabilidad del escritor frente al avasallamiento de la soberanía y dignidad por una potencia militarmente superior aparece como un tema recurrente en sus obras. Su figura fue considerada como la de un gran maestro del idioma y la literatura, y como un símbolo de la identidad nacional que contribuyó con su aporte artístico y moral a la fundación de Estonia. Kross estaba casado con Ellen Niit, también conocida en el mundo literario como autora de literatura para niños.
(http://www.elpais.com/articulo/Necrologicas/Jaan/Kross/escritor/estonio/elpepinec/20080102elpepinec_2/Tes) |
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alazaro
Envíos 10057 |
Enviado - 14 febrero 2008 : 13:15:34
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JAAN KROSS, UN CONSTRUCTOR DE ESTONIA
JÜRI TALVET,
escritor, catedrático de la Universidad de Tartu
La triste noticia del fallecimiento de nuestro grand old man me llegó un día después de haber leído –con el propósito de redactar otro artículo, todavía inédito– las novelas de Thornton Wilder El puente de San Luis Rey y Los idus de marzo. Esta última me hizo pensar en ciertas semejanzas entre Wilder y Kross. Así pues, escribí en aquel artículo: “Ambos se han movido entre las profundas capas de la historia, en las que quizá se hayan sentido más cómodos que en las casas de sus propias vidas”.
Es obvio que nadie puede instalarse en los días de su propia vida como si éstos fueran una casa para siempre. Sin embargo, sí que ha sido posible –lo han hecho Kross y Wilder– crear otro mundo para complementar la fragilidad del de nuestros días, de modo que el pasado, desafiando los esquemas austeros de la historia, despierte y salgan de él personajes vivos, sean Julio César o Timotheus von Bock, para ofrecernos su apoyo espiritual; poco importa, pues, que Thornton Wilder y Jaan Kross, por ejemplo, hayan abandonado este mundo sin haber sido reconocidos con el premio Nobel.
No se puede pedir más perfección a su obra. No hay duda de que ambos pertenecerán a ese grupo selecto de escritores del siglo XX no avalados por el galardón del Nobel a cuyos libros el público lector siempre va a volver, por mucho que pese la seducción de la literatura impuesta por las modas y las corrientes pasajeras y meramente comerciales.
Todo escritor que cree su obra en una lengua internacional –como Wilder, en nuestro caso– se sentirá tentado de ocuparse de los asuntos del ancho mundo. Por eso el autor norteamericano escribió sobre la antigua Roma y el Perú colonial. La vida de Jaan Kross, en cambio, transcurrió siempre en Estonia; su único largo viaje fuera de los límites de su país le llevó a Siberia, como deportado, entre miles de víctimas del estalinismo. Son bien sabidas las dificultades que tiene cualquier escritor que se exprese en una lengua minoritaria para hacer accesible su obra al lector internacional. Respecto a esto, Kross nunca abrigó grandes esperanzas. Se ocupó, sin desviarse ni un ápice, de lo que le dictaba el corazón, y si algo de ello trascendió las fronteras de Estonia –¡y no fue poco!–, supuso para él un valor añadido. No dejaba de ser un éxito que alguna muestra de la intelectualidad y la espiritualidad de Estonia, más allá de las hazañas de nuestros deportistas, llegara a establecerse en la memoria universal.
Y a Jaan Kross lo que le dictaba el corazón era Estonia. El gran tema de toda su obra narrativa fue la construcción consistente y congruente de Estonia como nación y como Estado. En una fase inicial, ese tema se manifestaba mediante alusiones, signos y asociaciones fugaces que, durante siglos, de su diminuta patria, olvidada e ignorada por el resto del mundo, habían aparecido en la cultura europea y universal. Fue el caso, por ejemplo, de Miguel Sittow, un artista de Tallin que estuvo al servicio de los Reyes Católicos (en Cuatro monólogos sobre San Jorge, 1970); el general zarista Iván Ivánovich Michelson, hijo de unos siervos de la gleba estonios (en La matriculación de Michelson, 1971); el rebelde hacendado balticoalemán Timotheus von Bock (en El loco del zar, 1978; publicado en español por Anagrama, en traducción de Joaquín Jordá, 1992), el historiógrafo alemán oriundo de Estonia Balthasar Russow (en Entre tres pestes, 3 tomos, 1970-1980), el jurista estonio Friedrich von Martens (en La partida del profesor Martens, 1984; aparecido en traducción española de Joaquín Jordá, también en Anagrama, 1995), o el astrónomo y óptico Bernhard Schmidt (en El bajel del viento en contra, 1987).
Cuando las circunstancias políticas le dieron más libertad, Kross pudo manifestar con mayor claridad su otro ideal: el de la nación como Estado, el Estado nacional, algo en lo que a nadie se le ocurría soñar en Estonia hasta mediada la década de 1980. A diferencia de Stefan Zweig, por ejemplo, Kross no convirtió a su protagonistas en adalides del espíritu elevados por encima de su tierra y de su pueblo. Los protagonistas de las obras narrativas de Kross se identifican más bien con momentos fugaces de lucidez en la vanguardia de su nación. En cada instante de su existencia, su mente y sus manos aparecen amarrados a unos límites, ya sea por falta de libertad política o intelectual, ya sea por su propia conciencia, su responsabilidad ante el pueblo y el país por el que se desviven, la imposibilidad existencial de huir (esto se acentúa, sobre todo, en el símbolo clave de El loco del zar; véase, p. ej., mi ensayo “Paigallend, o la construcción de Estonia en la narrativa de Jaan Kross”, en Revista de Occidente, 2001, 242, pp. 136-156).
En un momento determinado de la historia estos instantes de lucidez se avivan, se encuentran y, como resultado de ello, se produce una “explosión”. Una parte del ideal se hace realidad, se metamorfosea en algo cotidiano, comprensible por sí mismo, y hace que nos olvidemos de su origen prodigioso e impredecible.
En Los idus de marzo, de Wilder, vemos hasta qué punto veneraba Julio César la obra de los grandes poetas y cómo admiraba a Catulo, aunque éste manifestara enemistad y recelo respecto al dictador. Catulo estaba muy poco familiarizado con la política. Si Kross hubiera escrito novelas contemporáneas y no históricas, con toda probabilidad habrían surgido muchas dudas y discusiones en torno a sus ideas. La grandeza de los escritores no estriba en su inequívoca intuición política, sino en algo muy distinto. Respecto a la mayoría de los mortales, les ha sido concedido un don, un talento especial; por eso Wilder le hace decir a César: “saben observar la totalidad de la vida y armonizar lo que llevan dentro con lo que está fuera de ellos”. Esto es el ideal: la esencia que trasciende la realidad para seguir reluciendo en el futuro.
La Estonia histórica todavía ha de recorrer un largo camino hasta llegar a la Estonia de las obras narrativas de Jaan Kross. Gracias a éstas, sin embargo, sabe mejor hacia dónde orientar sus pasos.
(Artículo publicado originalmente, en estonio, en el diario Eesti Päevaleht, 28.12.2007, p. 7. - Traducción al castellano del autor, con la colaboración de Albert Lázaro-Tinaut.) |
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JAAN KROSS HA MORT / JAAN KROSS HA MUERTO
