Anna Haava (born Anna Rosalie Haavakivi; 15 October 1864 – 13 March 1957) was an Estonian poet, writer and translator in the late 19th and 20th centuries. She was one of the founding members of the Estonian Writers' Union in 1922. She was honoured with the 3rd Class of the Order of the Cross of the Eagle, 1930; 2nd Class Order of the Estonian Red Cross, 1935; People's Writer of the Estonian SSR, 1954; and the Order of the Badge of Honour.
Biography
Anna Rosalie Haavakivi was born 15 October 1864 in rural Kodavere Parish, which is now part of Peipsiääre Parish, in eastern Estonia. Haava's father, Joosep Haavakivi (1836–1891) married Sohvi Janast from the village of Punikvere, Estonia in 1860. In the peasant family from the Haavakivi mill-farm, Anna was raised with her older sister, Elisabet (1860–1893), and a younger brother, Rudolf (1870s–1950). It's said that as her father played the violin, Anna would sing along; her musicality would later influence her poetry and writings greatly.
In 1873 Anna Haavakivi began her formal education, attending schools in Pataste and Saare-Vanamõisa and Hoffmann's German-language private school in Tartu, Estonia from 1880 to 1884. From the German-language Tartu Higher Girls’ School, she graduated with a home teacher diploma, which, at that time, was the only higher education available to Estonian women. Haava began working as a kindergarten teacher in Tartu.
Haava's fluency with languages helped her throughout her life because the History of Estonia included, in turn, periods of Tsarist-Russian influence, new national independence, occupation by German forces during World War II, and annexation into the USSR by Soviet Russia.
While Haava attended the German-language school, she was given a "more German-sounding" name, Anna Rosalie Espenstein, and taught how to be a good German. But, on graduation, Anna insisted on restoring her birth name, Haavakivi, and resuming her life as a patriotic Estonian. (Although Anna today is widely remembered with the surname Haava, that did not become her official name until 1939.)
Writings
Anna Haava was an active poet her entire adult life, from the age of 22 well into old age. She published her first poem in the newspaper Postimees after the notable Estonian poet Lydia Koidula died in the summer of 1886. Her tribute was titled To Koidula and was signed by "An Estonian Girl." This work would become only the first of many Haava poems to appear in print.
Haava's first three collections, Luuletused I (Poems I) (1888), II (1890) and III (1897) contain romantic sentimental songs, the main theme of which is love. On publication, Haava's youthful poems got a warm public reception with all three volumes reprinted several times.
Haava published stories in journals, made a collection of aphorisms, Peotäis tõtt (A Handful of Truth, 1900). She also wrote prose describing her childhood home in the book titled, (Little Pictures of Estonia, 1911).
Beginning in 1906, she began releasing collections of works exhibiting a less joyful tone, starting with Lained (Waves). Haava wrote to condemn injustice, violence and ethnic discrimination, and her criticism only deepened in some poetry collections, Ristlained (Crosswaves, 1910) and (From Our Days, 1920). Haava's poetry became even more personal in the collections (Children of the Nordic countries, 1913), (Still, Life is Beautiful), and (I Sing My Estonian Song, 1935). Her last original collection of poems appeared in 1954.
Haava was one of the founding members of the Estonian Writers’ Union in 1922.
In 2006, the long-unpublished manuscript (Memories of Laanekivi Mann's Childhood) appeared, and in 2008 a book of her collected poetry, Luule (Poems), contained up to 700 poems.
Musicality
I can’t live without songs:
If I fall silent suddenly, - A
world without songs will become cramped,
Heart beat will break.
--Anna Haava (Translation by B. Kozhun)Haava infused many of her poems with a remarkable musicality that facilitated their adaptation as lyrics for music composed by then-contemporary artists. As early as 1887, Miina Härma, a young organist studying in St. Petersburg, set her first songs to Haava's poems and more than 200 of Haava's poems have since been set to music by other composers. Some Haava-inspired songs went on to become familiar at regional festivals or transformed into folksy songs.
Haava also wrote the libretto to Artur Lemba's opera Lembitu tütar (Lembitu's Daughter) in 1908.