This is Episode 82 of Poems for the Speed of Life.

Today's poem is "The East-West Border" by Jaan Kaplinski.

Jaan Kaplinski was a linguist, anthropologist, researcher of languages and one of Estonia’s leading poets who died in 2021 at the age of 80.

Born to a Polish teacher and an Estonian dancer, he witnessed throughout his life the fragility of boundaries and identities — Estonia was invaded by the Soviet Union a year before his birth and was part of that entity until the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, and later, a decade after its new independence, the country became a member of both the European Union and NATO.

This poem was included in his 1987 collection The Wandering Border. It was translated from the Estonian by the author with Sam Hamill and Riina Tamm.

A few months after Kaplinski’s death in 2021, those fragile borders came into sharp focus once more with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

⁠⁠⁠⁠You can read the poem here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Music Credit:

Once Upon a Time by Alex-Productions | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://onsound.eu/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  | Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com