Ieva Samauska (1969) is a Latvian author of over 20 well received poetry and prose books for children. Her works have earned her several literary prizes and nominations. In 2015, Samauska received the prestigious Pastariņš Prize, and her works have been increasingly gaining popularity both among readers and literary critics. Her heart-warming books often focus on how to create loving and understanding relationships in family and society. Samauska´s collection “The Noisy Classroom” (The Emma Press, UK, 2017) has been translated into English by Žanete Vēvere Pasqualini. The book is based on author´s shocking but inspiring experience about noisy school environment when she visited her daughter´s class on the parents´ day. Poetry Ride has a great pleasure to introduce Samauska ingenious poetry for the first time in Estonian! Samauska´s children poetry has been translated by the well-known poet, translator and poetry rider Contra.

The Noisy Class

Once upon in a time
in a noisy school
was a noisy, noisy class,
and they were all screaming
and yelling like demonds –
as if they´d just escaped from the zoo,
as if they were slightly cuckoo.
And the noisy class had the teacher,
who just stood there and wanted to cry,
to give the class a piece of her mind,
but they all went on screaming and screaming.

Then suddenly the door opened
and a little bird flew in,
a soft and pink as a sunrise –
and what did the bird do then?
Did he tell them all of? No – he sang.
He was quiet at the start,
like a warm, beating heart,
but then he got louder and louder
until suddenly, he caught fire
in a blaze of pink flames,
up by the light of the ceiling
and he sang all the while he burnt.

The teacher listened,
the noisy class listened,
and they suddenly started hearing
each others´s heartbeats; from then on
they all started whispering.

Translated from Latvian by Žanete Vēvere Pasqualini

(photo by Haralds Fiłipovs)