Janus Djurhuus
Janus Djurhuus (actually Jens Hendrik Oliver Djurhuus; born February 26, 1881 in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, † August 31, 1948 ibid ), a lawyer by training, was the first Faroese poet who wrote modern and lyrical poems.
Life and work
Djurhuus was born in 1881. His parents are Ola Jákup Djurhuus (1832-1909) and Else Marie (nee Poulsen from Hósvík, 1847-1897 ). His younger brother Hans Andreas came about two and a half years later, with the world and was also an important poet in the Faroe Islands - albeit quite different ( see below). Both were great-grandchildren of the Faroese poet pioneer Jens Christian Djurhuus ( 1773-1853 ).
Janus Djurhuus received his linguistic baptism, as he used to call it, in the junior high school, when he 's poem Nú he tann stundin komin til handa ( " Now the time had come to act" ) of Jóannes Patursson heard it a classmate ( later known land Dean, poet and translator of the Bible Jákup Dahl ) recited. This poem was at that time the battle hymn of the Christmas meeting, 1888.
As a student of classical philology Janus Djurhuus was familiar with the ancient Greek and Latin literature that permeated his own poetry. Linguistically, it is, however, firmly rooted in the Old Norse literature and traditional balladry.
Janus Djurhuus was a romantic poet. Through him we hear the echo of some of the largest European poets whose works he has brilliantly translated into Faroese.
Many of his poems are marked by heroic power and enormous natural narratives. In other poems, he is nonetheless concerned and disappointed by his countrymen and the home that he lashes out, but that never seems to be finished.
Janus ' debut was in 1901, and in 1914 he published his first collection of poems Yrkingar, the first of its kind in the Faroe Islands. Four other such collections should follow. One of his most outstanding work was the translation of Homer's Iliad into Faroese.
Historian John F. West, in his standard work Faroe. The Emergence of a Nation by the following anecdote:
It is said that Janus one day, when a Greek steamer arrived in Tórshavn, went on board and the ship's boys after the captain sent. When that came on deck, Janus began with his presentation of the Odyssey - heart and in Ancient Greek. The captain himself made classic, hesitated for a moment ... and voted one.
The poetry and translation activity of Janus Djurhuus have shaped the Faroese literature sustainable. He is an outstanding classics, and a large part of what has since been written in Faroese, can be attributed to his model.
The Postal Administration Faroe honored Janus Djurhuus on 20 September 2004 with a stamp block, which focuses on ten of its national romantic poems ( message on German ). This block won the public vote for the most beautiful Faroese stamp issue of 2004.