Kristiina Ehin

The thirst is the same in all of us
Review of the self-published hardcover edition (2020) crowdfunded through Hooandja

Janu on... is a beautifully designed collection of Estonian poetess Kristiina Ehin's recent work which looks back on her family's history and then that of all Estonians and the entire world towards the beginnings of the current pandemic. It is elaborately illustrated with the graphic collage works of Gabriela Urm which incorporate archival and present day photographs with drawings.

Many of the poems have introductions by Ehin to describe her inspirations or reasons for writing them. My favourites in the collection were the extended family tributes Minu suguvõsa naised (My Family's Women) and Minu suguvõsa mehed (My Family's Men).

Ehin is also known as a popular song lyricist, and the collection includes one recent song lyric, see Link below.

Trivia and Links
The Hooandja (Estonian: Momentum Giver) crowdfunding campaign for Janu on kõikidel üks was funded here.

The Curly Strings music video for the poem Mind nad kätte ei saa! (They Won't Catch Me!) with lyrics by Kristiina Ehin, can be seen here, It includes English translation subtitles. Ehin wrote the poem to commemorate Eeva Talsi's (lead singer & violinist of Curly Strings) grandfather's escape from the Soviet Communist deportations in March 1949.… (plus d'informations)

Ehin's poems are beautiful and straightforward to understand despite their grounding in Estonia, its language, history and vulnerability. She writes about hopes and fears of generations, of families and relationships, the beauties of the countryside and natural world and the anxiety of proximity of a super power. There is no escape from fear - ‘Even I have seen Putin in a dream/Just like most of the women I know...I knew I had to teeter on the wispy border between yes and no/Like all of Europe’ page 77. And then there is the language, the Estonian language and its importance. What great words there are, for instance, ‘mutimullahunnikutest’ - molehills, I suspect, page 86.… (plus d'informations)