Jaan Kaplinski’s The Same Sea in Us All

Jaanus Valk

doi:https://doi.org/10.54013/kk824a7

Keywords: syntax, non-finite constructions, tense and aspect, person, poetry translation, Dù Fǔ

Estonian poet and thinker Jaan Kaplinski (1941–2021) felt a close affinity with Chinese culture throughout his life. He began studying Chinese in 1966, started translating classical Chinese poetry into Estonian by himself, and published his first translations of Dù Fǔ 杜甫 in 1969. These translations are written in free verse, consisting of phrases that do not tend to form full clauses. Although not a fixed form, one can identify this type of free verse in Kaplinski’s own original poetry as well.

This article discusses Kaplinski’s poetry series Seesama meri meis kõigis (“The Same Sea in Us All”), written in 1970–1972 and published in the collection Uute kivide kasvamine (“New Stones Growing”) in 1977. A comparison of the typewritten manuscripts and pencil corrections shows that the choice of verb forms was a central concern for Kaplinski. When divided into primary (that is, clause-level) independent constituents, the forty poems in the series comprise 201 such units (that is, an average of five per poem). In descending order of frequency, these are: 1) elliptical clauses, 103 (51%); 2) noun phrases, 46 (23%), 3) full clauses (simple sentences, independent clauses of compound and complex sentences), 26 (13%); 4) infinitive constructions, 12 (6%), 5) nominalizations, 8 (4%); 6) minor sentences, 4 (2%); 7) independent converbal constructions, 2 (1%). Thus, only one eighth are full clauses, whereas all the other types of constituents share an avoidance of finite verb forms.

The article argues that the Chinese model was compelling for Kaplinski: he incorporated some of its features even into his Estonian in order to avoid restrictive morphological meanings (tense, person, number) and achieve a broader poetical sense. At the same time this strategy exemplifies the Huáyán 華嚴 way of understanding that “in every thing there is every other thing”, “all in one, one in all”, and “the same sea in us all”.

Jaanus Valk (b. 1973), MA, Junior Research Fellow and Doctoral Student in comparative literature; Under and Tuglas Literary Institute of the Estonian Academy of Sciences (6/1 Kohtu Street, 10130 Tallinn), jaanus@instlit.ee; University of Tartu, Institute of Cultural Research (16 Ülikooli Street, 51003 Tartu), jaanus.valk@ut.ee

Jaan Kaplinski’s The Same Sea in Us All

Chinese in Estonian

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