Yrjö Jylhä

author

Yrjö Jylhä

1903–1956

Best remembered as the poet of Finland’s Winter War, he wrote with unusual clarity about fear, duty, and the emotional cost of combat. His poems and translations helped make him a lasting figure in 20th-century Finnish literature.

2 Audiobooks

Hurmioituneet kasvot : Runoja

Hurmioituneet kasvot : Runoja

by Yrjö Jylhä, Olavi Paavolainen, Ilmari Pimiä, Elina Vaara, Katri Vala, Lauri Viljanen

Ruoskanjäljet : Runoja

Ruoskanjäljet : Runoja

by Yrjö Jylhä

About the author

Yrjö Jylhä was a Finnish poet and translator, born in Tampere on July 21, 1903. He is especially associated with Kiirastuli (Purgatory), his 1941 poetry collection shaped by his experiences in the Winter War, which is widely regarded as one of the classics of Finnish lyric poetry.

Alongside his own writing, he also worked as a translator, bringing major literary works into Finnish. Accounts of his life and work describe his writing as marked by seriousness, melancholy, and a close awareness of the pressures of war and modern life.

He received the Pro Finlandia Medal in 1948. Jylhä died in Turku on December 30, 1956, but his reputation has endured through both his war poetry and his contribution to Finnish literary culture.