Estonia's earliest known poem performed in Tartu church
"Oh! ma waene Tardo Liin," a landmark 18th-century lament by Puhja teacher and clergyman Käsu Hans, was recently set to music and performed in a Tartu church.
Käsu Hans penned the 32-verse Southern Estonian lament "Ah me! Poor Tartu Town" during the Great Northern War between Russia and Sweden.
Written in 1708 and considered the earliest known poem by an Estonian, it recounts Tartu's proud past and its destruction after Russian Tsar Peter I ordered the city razed that year.
The work survived in a parish register, along with several letters he had written.
On Friday, musicians Lauri Õunapuu and Lauri Sommer performed the piece live at St. John's Church in Tartu, where visitors also had the chance to see the written original up close.
"He writes in the first person: 'Ah me! Poor Tartu Town,'" said historian Aivar Põldvee. This approach, he noted, makes the lament all the more clear and emotional for listeners.
Literary historian August Anniste has described Käsu Hans as something of a chronicler or historian, even comparing him with the likes of the 11th-century Nestor the Hagiographer.
The poem does function much like a historical chronicle in verse, Põldvee acknowledged.
Although originally written down, Käsu Hans' poem later circulated orally as well.
Õunapuu, one its performers Friday, said he wouldn't necessarily call it a lament at all.
"It also spread among the people, and there are other songs like it," he said, pointing to "Estonian Man and His Folk" ("Eesti mees ja tema sugu") as another better known example.
"They're complaints, but these songs also actually carry the tone of protest songs," Õunapuu added.
Friday also marked the 82nd anniversary of the Soviet bombing of Narva in 1944, which was followed by equally devastating bombing campaigns in Tallinn and Tartu.
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Editor: Johanna Alvin, Aili Vahtla
