Ilmar Laaban

Ilmar Laaban ( born December 11, 1921 in Tallinn, Estonia, † November 29, 2000 in Stockholm Hägersten, Sweden) was an Estonian poet and literary translator exile.

Life and work

Ilmar Laaban attended from 1934 to 1940 the school in Tallinn. He studied at the Tallinn Conservatory in piano and composition. In 1940 he wrote in French philology at the University of Tartu.

Laaban emigrated in 1943 during the German occupation of Estonia via Finland to Sweden. From 1943 to 1949 he studied at the University of Stockholm Romance Languages ​​and Philosophy. He then worked as a freelance writer and editor in Stockholm. His work was banned in the Soviet Union.

Ilmar Laaban wrote mainly poetry and literary criticism. In addition, he wrote in Estonian and Swedish essays. He translated many poems, among other Estonian into Swedish and the German. He also translated mainly French poetry, especially Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud, translated into Estonian and Swedish.

1988 his essays and articles in the four-volume collection of Swedish-speaking Skrifter were published. In 1997, the collection of essays marsyase Nahk appeared in Estonian.

Ilmar Laaban wrote many of his poems in the style of surrealism and the onomatopoeic poetry, as its pioneer, he is within the Estonian literature. He was very interested in language and sound games in the style of Ernst Jandl. His idol was Kurt Schwitters.

Also Laabans is known over 5,000 entries and recreations comprehensive collection of Estonian, Swedish and French palindromes, which appeared under the title Palingarderomb in Sweden partly 2007.

Collections

• Ankruketi Lopp on laulu Algus (1946 )
• Rroosi Selaviste (1957)
• Poesi (1988, in Swedish )
• Grandma luulet yes võõrast (1990 )
• Magneetiline Jõgi (2001)
• Sõnade sülemid, sülemite süsteemid (2004)
• Eludrooge ego- ordule (2008)