Release date is 2026-04-17

Tapio Riikonen

Pilan pippuria ja ivan suolaa by Larin-Kyösti is a collection of satirical poems, epigrams, and brief fables written in the early 20th century. With brisk, rhymed pieces and pointed anecdotes, the book trains its barbed wit on society, the arts, public life, and everyday human folly.

It opens with a playful ars poetica about tending a “vineyard” of wit before unleashing a parade of character sketches: misers, layabouts, drunkards, pompous officials, self-important critics, salon versifiers, and swaggering “overmen.” The poet mocks pose and plagiarism, skewers bureaucracy and patronage, and jabs at the theater world and fickle audiences, while weaving in tart miniatures on love, jealousy, money, and fame. The closing “pilatarinoita” (joke-tales) shift into moral fable: a lion cowed by asses exposes mob cowardice; a devil and a shrew outdo each other in malice; a professor snubs a hungry young poet; a mayor is trapped by his own curfew; pranksters unmask a pastor; and a performer who imitates a pig is devoured by the crowd’s changing taste. Across city salons, taverns, and rural greens, the voice stays sharp, musical, and ironic, building a lively panorama of contemporary life seen through a satirist’s lens. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Jyväskylä: K. J. Gummerus Oy, 1921