People like us / Seļļizt nemē mēg: Poems in Livonian by Valts Ernštreits

Livonian is a critically endangered Finnic language which once was heard in the fishing villages and communities around the Gulf of Riga in modern-day Latvia.

If you travel there today, you would be unlikely to encounter the Livonian language as there are fewer than 20 Livonian speakers remaining in the world. Remarkably, three of those speakers are also poets. So, while Livonian is probably one of the smallest literatures in Europe – the prevalence of poets working in this micro-literary community is vital to its preservation.

In these sometimes political, sometimes personal poems rooted in the Livonian coast, you will find symbols and images important to Livonian culture and venture into the poet’s own borderlands, sometimes dark and turbulent, sometimes calm as the sea on a quiet spring dawn.

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