Biography Aleksis Kivi

Poet Biography

Aleksis Kivi was born into a tailor's family in the province of Uusimaa in Finland, at a village named Palojoki which is in the parish of Nurmijärvi, on October 10th, 1834.

His first Finnish novel Seven Brothers - published when he was thirty-six - has been widely translated, as has his comedy The Country Peddlers, and his tragedy Kullervo is the basis of Aulis Sallinen's opera of the same name.

Among Aleksis Kivi's most famous poems is Sydämeni laulu (Grove of Tuoni, grove of night / Song of my Heart) - a dark and very moving work, in which a woman seems to wish her baby dead.