Anna Haava

Anna Haava studied at Tartu Linna-tütarlastekool. The recorded working language is Estonian, Russian and German. The field of work recorded is poetry. Distinctions recorded are Order of the Badge of Honour, 3rd Class of the Order of the Cross of the Eagle, Order of the Estonian Red Cross and People's Writer of the Estonian SSR.

• Name — Anna Haava • Other Names — Anna Rosalie Espenstein • Birth Name — Anna Rosalie Haavakivi • Born — 15 October 1864 • Birthplace — Pala municipality, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire • Died — 13 March 1957 • Place of death — Tartu, then part of Estonian SSR, Soviet Union • Honours — 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 Order of the Badge of Honour

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. • Illustration — Replica of a 1889 bust of Haava by August Weizenberg 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.)

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. Her work still appears in print. In 2006, a German musical score was published, Kolm eesti laulu Anna Haava sõndele (1937–1940) = Drei Lieder für eine Singstimme mit Klavierbegleitung nach Gedichten von Anna Haava (Three songs for one voice with piano accompaniment based on poems by Anna Haava), and its authors are listed as, Gregor Heuer and Anna Haava.

As a translator, Haava was able to earn income by making important foreign language literature available to Estonian readers, including J.W. Goethe's Egmont, F. Schiller's Wilhelm Tell, H. Hofmannstahl's King Oedipus, W. Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, among others. Haava also translated some ancient mythology such as I. C. Andrä's and R. Schneider's Greeka muinaskangelased (Ancient Greek Heroes) and G. Schalk's Rooma muinaskangelased (Ancient Roman Heroes). Her own poems were widely translated, including Russian, Finnish, Swedish, Hungarian, German, Italian, Esperanto, English and other languages as well.

As a young woman, Anna started singing in a folk choir and fell in love with a student of the theological faculty of the University of Tartu. but she was only 25 when, one after another, both of her parents and the young student died. Two years later, her only sister, Liisa, passed on as well. Her personal life in pieces, she traveled to Leipzig, Germany for her health, and then moved for several years to St. Petersburg, Russia where she became a nurse and teacher. In 1906, Haava returned to Estonia to live in Tartu where, for a while before the World War I, she joined the editorial team of Postimees. Later she worked as a freelance writer and translator. Haava never had much income. Beginning in 1920 she qualified to receive a writer's pension, and in 1945 she was granted a personal pension.

• Illustration — Grave site memorial to Anna Haava In 1954, the city of Tartu held a celebration for the poet's 90th birthday in the University of Tartu's ceremonial hall. As part of that occasion, the city also named a street after her. Anna Haava died in Tartu at the age of 92 on 13 March 1957 and was buried in the Maarja cemetery section of Raadi cemetery there. A stone bearing one of her poems marks the grave site. In 2006, the Anna Haava Memorial Room was opened in Assikvere Community Center in Jõgeva County, Estonia.

• 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 • Order of the Badge of Honour

Some collections. • Poems I (Luuletused I) 1888 • Poems II (Luuletused II) 1890 • Poems III (Luuletused III) 1897 • Waves (Lained) 1906 • With a Sword and a Cross (Ristlained) 1910 • Children of the Nordic Countries (Põhjamaa lapsed) 1913 • From Our Days (Meie päevist) 1920 • Still, Life is Good (Siiski on elu ilus) 1930 • I Sing an Estonian Song (Laulan oma eestilaulu) 1935

Anna Haava is recorded as having received Order of the Badge of Honour, 3rd Class of the Order of the Cross of the Eagle and Order of the Estonian Red Cross. Recorded at birth as Anna Rosalie Haavakivi. Recognition and collections. Haava received Order of the Badge of Honour, 3rd Class of the Order of the Cross of the Eagle, Order of the Estonian Red Cross and People's Writer of the Estonian SSR.