Ilmar Laaban, (11 December 1921,

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

– 29 November 2000,

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

) was an Estonian poet and literary critic.

Early life and education

Laaban attended the first Tallinn Boys' Gymnasium from 1934 to 1940. In 1939–1940 and 1941–1942 he studied

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

and

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

at the Tallinn Conservatory. In 1940–1943 Laaban studied

Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

. In 1943, he went to Sweden, fleeing the

Occupation of the Baltic states The occupation of the Baltic states was a period of annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by the Soviet Union from 1940 until its Dissolution of the Soviet Union, dissolution in 1991. For a period of several years during World War II, Naz ...

, and continued studying Romance languages and philosophy (1943–1949).

Career

Laaban worked as a lecturer in

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

and was a member of

International Association of Art Critics The International Association of Art Critics (French: ''Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art'', AICA) was founded in 1950 to revitalize critical discourse, which suffered under Fascism during World War II. Affiliated with UNESCO AICA wa ...

. Laaban mainly wrote

surrealistic Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

poetry and was one of the first poets in Estonia to practice that genre. He also made recordings with poetry and sound, known as "text-sound-compositions", a genre much developed in Sweden during the 60:s and 70:s. He was a prolific creator of palindromes and wrote in both Estonian (4000), Swedish (300), German (300), French (80) and some in Spanish, Italian, and Latin. He has written essays and articles on art and literature. Also, he has translated many Estonian poet's works into Swedish (e.g.

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) and German (e.g.

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, Jaan Oks,

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). He has written critiques and literary works of artists such as Frederic Iriarte, Endre Nemes, Franco Leidi, Rafael Bellange and Lech Rzewuski.

Works

*"Ankruketi lõpp on laulu algus" (1946) *"Rroosi Selaviste" (1957) *"Oma luulet ja võõrast" (1990) *"Marsyase nahk" (1997) *"Magneetiline jõgi" (2001) *"Sõnade sülemid ja sülemite süsteemid" (2004)

Art critic

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Laaban, Ilmar Estonian male poets 1921 births 2000 deaths Translators to Swedish Estonian emigrants to Sweden Estonian World War II refugees Writers from Tallinn 20th-century Estonian translators 20th-century Estonian poets 20th-century Estonian male writers