Asta Willmann. Spell, published by Maris Makko, ) distributed by Considine books, online www.abebooks.com/home/consdidi... . ISBN 9985-78-713-7 2002, 464 pg. Translated by J. Hayes Hurley and Erik Linnolt.
This book has not been noticed by the Estonian press abroad, perhaps because the translation was copyrighted in 1988, some16 years ago. There usually is some hoopla when an Estonian writer has been translated into some other language. What might be the reason for this? One may suspect that “ la jalousie royale” could be the case.
Asta Willmann (1916-1984) was born in Tallinn, Estonia and started a promising career in journalism, acting and play-directing in the “Endla” theater in Pärnu (1936-1944). She escaped from the oncoming Russian troops to Sweden, where she lived until 1951 when she settled down in Vancouver, Canada with her husband Erik Linnolt. There she studied Modern History and Political Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, graduating with a BA in 1955. The couple then moved to the U.S., settling in Hartford, Conneticut where she attained an MA in Fine Arts at Yale University. (1963-1971). She was employed by the Hartford Conservatory’s Drama Department until her death in 1984.
To many Estonians she is known as a poetess, novelist and playwright. She self- published her poetry collection “Ihuüksi” (On My Own) in 1950. Five years later her short story collection “Lumm” (Spell) appeared, and is now here, entirely translated into the English language. Her other major works are a five part novel - “Peotäis tuhka, teine mulda” (From Ashes to Earth), a drama-novel “Hundisõidul” (Baiting the Wolves), and a comedy “Trummid peavad olema” (There must be Drums).
The first story in this short story collection is about a writer, Peter van Horne. He tries to spend his holidays somewhere on the coast of the North Pacific, in a place peculiarly named Cape Coffin. Van Horne desires only to lay down and meditate, but local Indian myths begin to haunt him. He finally finds out that all the fantasies are but the great realities of Life, nothing else but one's own imagination.
Another story is located in Estonia and tells of an old man’s - Antsy Kustas - nightmare on the eve before the day when he must give testimony at a prayer meeting. He has to give a full account of how he got married, of how he got drunk at his own wedding, and finally how his cottage burnt down because of that. The local people call him Antsy Kustas, as he was the guy who burnt down all the ant hills in order to use the ashes as fertilizer for his vegetable plot. The burning of his cottage was simply the revenge of the ants who became homeless.
The short story “Temerity” is a lighthearted story that rolls out of Sweden - from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. It is actually a tale of a student graduation prank. Docent Holger Hasselgren has a love affair with his professor Kjällroth’s wife Margit, and in order to muddle the evidence gives an Estonian student a free pass to the Swedish Opera House. Another ticket goes to the professor’s wife. So these two people meet and another love story almost pops up. But there is a happy ending as Margit’s daughter Barbro tells her mother: if you don't end this affair, I will run away from my family. Common sense prevails.
There is also a Christmas story of a busdriver, who on Christmas Eve invites his last customer to his home for dining and wining. They celebrate it in honour of the busdriver’s wife, who had died a few months before. It ends up with the busdriver throwing the guest into the street. It could be read as a fable, or as a true story, it is up the reader.
The fifth story “Calling” could easily be called “The Saga of Sir Randolph Scott.” He learns that his grandmother was a beautiful woman who died young in a foolish fox-hunting accident. Sir Randolph also learns that his grandfather had drowned in a Norwegian fjord, so he sails to Bergen and starts looking for a place named Paradise. There he finds Randi, an innkeeper’s daughter. He tries to woo her, but she is in love with another - Tryggve. Sir Randolph gives the latter some money so that he can go to a navigation school. Tryggve goes, but does not return until he has become an old man. Meanwhile, Sir Randolph comes back every summer in order to dabble at painting and to woo Randi again. Randi waits until Tryggve returns, caresses him and sings him a lullaby, in the same way that Solveig sang to Peer Gynt. Sir Randolph is finally sent back to Scotland to arrange the paintings in his private museum.
There is another such saga-like long, long story in this book, — “The Fruits of Sin”. The wife of a rich landowner escapes from her cruel husband to the Lapps of the Swedish tundra (or “ödemarken”) and stays there for good. Two Lapp brothers Josta and Nitti accept her with open hands. In turn she gives birth to twin boys and changes the lifestyle of the Lapps. They settle down, and the Lapps become reindeer farmers. The story has vague similarities with Aleksis Kivi’ s “The Seven Brothers”, which is an allegoric story of how the Finns became civilized.
The story “Miracle” takes the reader back to old Tallinn, the home city of Asta Willmann. It happens in 1926, the year when the Estonian State Radio was founded. It is also the story of Heinrich Mehrmann, the honorary Sub-Deacon of the Estonian Lutheran Church, who doesn't believe that the human voice can be caught simply from the airwaves. But when his son puts the earphones on him, and he can hear a well known hymn - “Just a closer walk to Thee / help me Jesus hear my plea” then he believes that it can be true.
The final story is about theatermaking in rural Estonia. In this case, in Asta's ancestral region of Hiiumaa. I have read the story in it’s original version and also in the English translation in this book, but the most memorable reading of it was given by Asta herself, when she was here in Toronto. She recited, and acted itout at the same time, to a small audience of 30-40 people. On that occasion she called the piece “The King of the Misty Mountains”. She then received a long lasting ovation.
I have provided here a patchy outline of her stories. You have to read these stories yourself to see how pithy her writing style is. Her lively imagination can weld together polarities in unexpected ways. The plots are united by the theme of personal freedom.
The translators note that Willmann’s characters typically act on impulse, thus disregarding the prejudices of the surrounding society. This lends her stories an easy-going, affectionate and humourous tone. As far as the translation itself is concerned, one notes that many seemingly untranslatable phrases are well expressed by a skillfull handling of English-American slang. Hurley and Linnolt know what the author wanted to say, and have translated it from the original Estonian into English very well indeed.
Spellbound stories
Archived Articles | 07 Jan 2005 | EWR
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