Tiiu Kokla

Tiiu Kokla (surname Mälksoo until 1955, born 29 January 1932) is a translator and editor.

Kokla was born in Tallinn as teachers’ daughter. She completed Tartu Secondary School No. 2 in 1950 and graduated from Tartu State University in 1955, majoring in Finno-Ugric languages. She was a freelance translator and then worked as a senior assistant in the Finno-Ugric sector of the Institute of Language and Literature, later as a proofreader in editorial offices of periodicals. In 1965–1991, she was an editor and senior editor at the Eesti Raamat publishing house. Kokla’s first translation of fiction was published in 1956. She has been a member of the Estonian Writers’ Union from 1988.

Kokla has translated from Hungarian, Finnish and German. She has had an opportunity to stay in Hungary, Finland and Germany for a longer time. In Hungary, she lived for more than three years. In 1958, the masterpiece of Hungarian literature, Géza Gárdonyi’s novel The Stars of Eger was published in Estonian in Tiiu Kokla’s translation as Egeri tähed. Kokla is a foreign member of the Hungarian Writers’ Union. In 2004, she received an order from the Hungarian state for promoting Hungarian literature, culture and values in Estonia. She has translated modern prose from Finnish and German, poetry from Finnish and Hungarian.

Kokla has published poems in periodicals. Her voluminous collection of poems Päevade vahele (‘Between the Days’) was published in 1988.

L. P. (Translated by I. A.)

Books in Estonian

Poems
Päevade vahele. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1988, 125 lk.