August Sang was an Estonian

Estonians

Estonians are a Finnic people closely related to the Finns and inhabiting, primarily, the country of Estonia. They speak a Finnic language known as Estonian...

 poet and literary translator.

Life and work

August Sang graduated from high school in Pärnu in 1932. After his military service he studied from 1934 to 1942 at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Tartu

University of Tartu

The University of Tartu is a classical university in the city of Tartu, Estonia. University of Tartu is the national university of Estonia; it is the biggest and highest-ranked university in Estonia...

. Several times he had to interrupt his studies to earn money.

As early as eight years old August Sang wrote his own poetry. Under the pseudonym Injo, he successfully participated in a literary competition run by the youth magazine Kevad in 1934 with his quick tempoed poem Improvisatsioon. In 1934 he made his debut in the literary arts magazine Looming

Looming (journal)

-Literary journal:Looming was founded in 1923 by the Estonian writer Friedebert Tuglas. Its purpose was the publication and popularization of Estonian contemporary literature...

. His collection of poems Üks noormees otsib õnne was published in 1936, with which he scored his breakthrough. Since that time he also wrote numerous reviews and essays on literature. In the late 1930s, he joined in the literary circle Arbujad

Arbujad

Arbujad was the collective name for a loose group of eight Estonian poets, which represented a new direction in Estonian poetry before the outbreak of World War II...

 which included such prominent early poets and authors as Bernard Kangro

Bernard Kangro

Bernard Kangro was an Estonian writer and poet.-Education:...

, Uku Masing

Uku Masing

Uku Masing was an Estonian philosopher, translator, theologist and folklorist. He developed Estonian analytical philosophy. Masing also wrote poetry, mostly on religious issues...

, Kersti Merilaas

Kersti Merilaas

Kersti Merilaas was an Estonian poet and translator. In addition, she wrote poems and prose for children and plays.-Life and work:...

, Betti Alver

Betti Alver

Betti Alver was the pseudonym of Elisabet Lepik-Talvik, one of Estonia's most notable poets. She was among the first generation to be educated in schools of an independent Estonia. She went to grammar school in Tartu.- Writing :She began as a prose writer...

, Mart Raud

Mart Raud

Mart Raud was an Estonian poet, playwright and writer.-History:Mart Raud attended the village school in Heimtali and the parish schools in Paistu and Viljandi. Later he attended the University of Tartu studying literature. In the 1920s, Raud joined the literary movement Arbujad...

, Heiti Talvik

Heiti Talvik

Heiti Talvik was an Estonian poet.- Life and literary career :...

 and Paul Viiding

Paul Viiding

Paul Viiding was an Estonian poet, author and literary critic.Born in Valga, Estonia, he graduated with a degree in mathematics in Tartu before pursuing a career as an author and poet. He was a member of the influential group of Estonian poets brought together in 1938 by literary scholar Ants Oras...

. Sang's second collection of poems Müürid, was published in 1939.

In 1936 Sang married the Estonian poetess and translator Kersti Merilaas and the couple had a son named Joel Sang in 1950. Sang and Merilaas had both been pivotal members of the Arbujad circle of writers.

After the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Sang joined the Soviet Writers' Union of Estonia

Estonia

Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

 in 1945, but he was expelled in 1950. Only in 1955 was Sang permitted by the Soviet authorities to work as a writer again. A year later he re-joined the Writers' Union.

Alongside his literary activities August Sang translated poetry and prose from the German, Russian, French and Czech into Estonian, by authors such as Goethe, Peter Weiss

Peter Weiss

Peter Ulrich Weiss was a German writer, painter, and artist of adopted Swedish nationality. He is particularly known for his plays Marat/Sade and The Investigation and his novel The Aesthetics of Resistance....

, Maxim Gorky

Maxim Gorky

Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...

, Vladimir Mayakovsky

Vladimir Mayakovsky

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.- Early life :...

, Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...

, Gottfried Keller

Gottfried Keller

Gottfried Keller , a Swiss writer of German-language literature, was best known for his novel Green Henry .- Life and work :...

, Molière, Egon Erwin Kisch

Egon Erwin Kisch

Egon Erwin Kisch was a Czechoslovak writer and journalist, who wrote in German. Known as the The raging reporter from Prague, Kisch was noted for his development of literary reportage and his opposition to Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.- Biography :Kisch was born into a wealthy, German-speaking...

, and Lion Feuchtwanger

Lion Feuchtwanger

Lion Feuchtwanger was a German-Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht....

.

Works

• Üks noormees otsib õnne (1936)
• Arbujad: valimik uusimat eesti lüürikat (compilation 1938)
• Heinrich Heine (Biography, 1938)
• Müürid (1939)
• Võileib suudlusega (1963)
• Sada laulu (Selected collection, 1965)
• Luuletused (Selected collection, 1970)
• Väike luuleraamat (Selected collection, 1971)
• Laenatud laulud (anthology of translations in two volumes, 1973-74)
• Laulud (Selected collection, 1977)
• Emajõe unisel veerel (posthumous anthology, 2003)