of the artists image. Haavikko believes they are essential. He distrusts books, completed products. A book is important event, a solemn affair. more unobtrusively creation can be carried out, the better. Along with this he believes it is impossible to be just a writer. That would mean isolating oneself completely from the outside world. So he has lived a busy life in other fields: as a real-estate agent, literary editor and consultant. But to return to history. How does Paavo Haavikko bring together the past and the present? Another Finnish poet, Lassi Nummi, has commented on Fourteen Rulers in an essay with the evocative title At the Sea Gate of the Palace: The words and expressions of modern language, the references, analogies and anachronisms, bloom into a luxuriant foliage round the historical trunk. Or, on the other hand, the true trunk is modern political and economic thinking, while the images of ancient Byzantium form the foliage. past is inseparable from the present, and both enter into the future. Elucidating history in the light of today, elucidating today in the light of history, is a kind of backward vision. Haavikko combines with this gift of backward vision something is of at least equal importance: he foretells. There is a prophetic quality runs through many of his works. Aulis Sallinen the composer noted while working on Haavikko's libretto of King Goes Forth to France: It is as if this text were not written according to this world, but in some strange way the world were imitating this text. Paavo Haavikko who has won the Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a writer at the height of his powers. He has interpreted our myths and our history for us; he has revealed the mainsprings of our actions. He has significantly upheld respect for the truth which is perhaps the most demanding of the artists responsibilities; he has never wavered in his insistence or precision of thought and language. In saluting his achievements, we are saluting the achievements of all great artists whose vision reveals for us however dimly our perceptions can follow their revelations something of our existence, its quality, its wonders and dangers, its purpose or lack of purpose. From his vantage point a citizen of a small country is now stable, independent, peaceful, yet one has seen its share of turmoil, of war and revolution, of subservience to other powers for centuries before Haavikko is ideally poised as an artist to steer our vision, to make us see our world clearly and whole. Whither next? Paavo Haavikko himself feels he has moved on from his earlier poetry. Perhaps this very visual, very audile writer will find some new form tomorrow in which to exploit his talents. Still, the poet, the man with a vision who leads us into the unknown, will be present no matter what the form. And for all his uniqueness and personal contribution, he does not see himself as standing alone. I feel, he has said, that my work is a good point of departure for others. Elsewhere he has described his work as needles of a great pine. They are sharp, whole needles. Their fragrance is evasive and pervasive. They point the way.
Search from 250 M+ research papersSearch from 250 M+ research papers
Aug 1, 1995
Pamela K Jensen 
