Mirdza Kempe
Encyclopedia
Liepaja
Liepāja ; ), is a republican city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea directly at 21°E. It is the largest city in the Kurzeme Region of Latvia, the third largest city in Latvia after Riga and Daugavpils and an important ice-free port...
- 12 April 1974, Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
) was a noted Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
n poet and translator.
Mirdza Ķempe was born into a working class family in Liepāja
Liepaja
Liepāja ; ), is a republican city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea directly at 21°E. It is the largest city in the Kurzeme Region of Latvia, the third largest city in Latvia after Riga and Daugavpils and an important ice-free port...
, Latvia. From 1914 to 1926 she lived in Tosmare
Tosmare
Tosmare is a district north of Liepāja, Latvia near the Karosta and lake "Tosmare".Tosmare is well known mostly because of its shipyard "Tosmare", currently owned by Rigas Kugubuvetava.-Notable residents:...
at Ģen. Baloža st., 47; later she and her family lived at Bernatu st., 41 in Liepāja. In 1915-1919 she studied at the 1st Liepāja primary school (now the 5th Liepāja school). Ķempe graduated from the 1st Liepāja secondary school in 1925. Her first verse "Ne jums!" was published in the "Kurzemes Vārds" newspaper in 1923. In the same year she translated Pushkin's Mozart and Salieri
Mozart and Salieri
Mozart and Salieri is a one-act opera in two scenes by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, written in 1897 to a Russian libretto taken almost verbatim from Alexander Pushkin's 1830 verse drama of the same name....
into the Latvian language. In 1927 she entered the Latvian University in Riga. Because of lack of money she had to drop out of the university and in 1928 Ķempe started to work as an continuity announcer
Continuity (broadcasting)
'Continuity' or 'presentation' is a term used in broadcasting, especially in the United Kingdom , to refer to announcements, messages and graphics played by the broadcaster between specific programmes...
for Rīgas radiofons. In 1931 she married writer Eriks Ādamsons
Eriks Adamsons
Eriks Ādamsons was a Latvian writer, poet and novelist.- Biography :Eriks Ādamsons was born in Riga on June 22, 1907. In 1926 he started law studies in Latvian University. He made his first publication in 1924. In 1930ties. he fully devoted himself to literature...
.
She translated works from Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. During the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
she was evacuated to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Astrakhan
Astrakhan
Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of below the sea level. Population:...
and Ivanovo
Ivanovo
Ivanovo is a city and the administrative center of Ivanovo Oblast, Russia. Population: Ivanovo has traditionally been called the textile capital of Russia. Since most textile workers are women, it has also been known as the "City of Brides"...
. She wrote plays, lyric miniatures and verses.
She was awarded State Prize of Latvian SSR
State Prizes of the Soviet Republics
The State Prizes of the Soviet Republics were each republic counterpart to the USSR State Prize. Each republic granted several different prizes, generally named after writers or artists from the republic, as well as a blanket Komsomol prize for young artists....
(1958), USSR State Prize
USSR State Prize
The USSR State Prize was the Soviet Union's state honour. It was established on September 9, 1966. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the prize was followed up by the State Prize of the Russian Federation....
(1967) and the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Order of the Red Banner of Labour
The Order of the Red Banner of Labour was an order of the Soviet Union for accomplishments in labour and civil service. It is the labour counterpart of the military Order of the Red Banner. A few institutions and factories, being the pride of Soviet Union, also received the order.-History:The Red...
. In 1971 she received Visva-Bharati University
Visva-Bharati University
Visva Bharati University is a Central University for research and teaching in India, located in the twin towns of Santiniketan and Sriniketan in the Indian state of West Bengal. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it Visva Bharati, which means the communion of the world with India...
honorary doctor diploma for her works on Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
language.
On 9 February 1989 a monument to Mirdza Ķempe was opened in Liepāja
Liepaja
Liepāja ; ), is a republican city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea directly at 21°E. It is the largest city in the Kurzeme Region of Latvia, the third largest city in Latvia after Riga and Daugavpils and an important ice-free port...
(architect Ligita Ulmane), another in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
. A street in Ezerkrasts
Ezerkrasts
Ezerkrasts is one of the largest and most modern neighbourhoods of Liepāja, Latvia. It is located near the southern border of the city, on the western coast of Liepāja lake. Ezerkrasts named so after the naming contest in 1975, in which this name was selected from 108 other variants.Ezerkrasts...
is named after her.
Poetry
Mirdza Ķempe published 15 collections of poetry, including "Rīta vejš" (1946), ""Gaisma akmenī", "Ērkšķuroze" (Dog-rose, 1972), "Mīlestības krāšņais","Dzintara spogulis" (1968), "Mirkļu mužiba" etc.
- Ne jums!
- "Ne jums es vaicāšu: kas grēks, kas kauns?
- Par velti draudiet man ar tumsas baismu!
- Es pati savu dzīvi celšu -
- Vienalga man, kur ceļam reiz būs gals..."
- Manai Liepājai
- "Jūras meita, Zemes māsa.
- Mana Liepāja, ko mīlu.
- Tavām acīm dzelmes krāsa,
- Kurā atspīd debess dzīle."
- Ausma ostā
- ..