Release date is 2026-04-14

Tapio Riikonen

Iloisia helkkeitä by Larin-Kyösti is a collection of lyric poems written in the early 20th century. Folk-spirited and songlike, it turns to Finnish village life and the changing seasons, tracing love, courtship, music, work, and festivity in bright, ringing tones.

Across brief, singable pieces, the book moves from spring birds and Pentecost revels to haymaking, markets, lake outings, weddings, and the hush of first snow. A gallery of types steps forward: the fiery fiddler Soitto-Puuska, the drink-prone shoemaker Jussi and his sharp, caring wife, the booming parish clerk Tuuska, the pitiful gatekeeper Veräjän-Mikko, along with kyyti boys, sailors, and flirty inn girls. Rustic humor and lively dance-scenes balance tender laments, including the fiddler’s farewell to an old master and a quiet city vignette where “all is as before.” Birdsongs, bells, oars, horses, polskas, and circle songs bind it into a vivid panorama of work, play, love, and loss over a turning year. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Porvoo: WSOY, 1920