Quick Facts
Biography
Aila Meriluoto (born 10 January 1924) is a poet, writer and translator from Finland.
Meriluoto published her first collection of poems, Lasimaalaus in age of 22. It was a success among critics and readers. She became the most celebrated and widely read female poet of post-war Finland. The central themes of her early poems are art and femininity. Her first collections reflect the influence of Austrian opera Rainer Maria Rilke. In collection Pahat unet (1956) some of the poems have a free form. The next collection, Portaat, came five years later, and there Meriluoto has found her own modern style of expression.
Meriluoto lived for 13 years in Sweden. In 1974 she moved back to Finland, and the language of her poetry changed again to more close to a talking voice.
In addition to poems, Meriluoto has written novels, and books for young people. She has translated works by Harry Martinson, Rainer Maria Rilke, Shakespeare and Goethe.
Meriluoto was married 1948-1956 to another poet, Lauri Viita. She described him and their stormy marriage in a biographical novel.
