Leelo Tungal (1947) is one of the most popular and awarded writer both the children and adults in Estonia. She has written approximately 90 books and a great deal of song lyrics during the last five decades. Her books highly appriciated for the brilliant rhythm and rimes encourage the readers to see the bright side of the life. Last year she published two collections: The poetry book for children called “Halloo!” (Tammerraamat) portrays children´s digital environment today, the collection “Teeleht” (Tammerraamat) contains poems for adult readers from the years 1963-2017. This year Tungal was nominated for Hans Christian Anderssen Awards know also as the “Nobel Prize or children's literature”. Over 20 Tungal´s books have translated into Finnish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, German, English, Armenian and Montenegro languages. Tungal is also very talented and productive translator, who has translated Finnish, Russian, Armenian and Italian poetry into Estonian.

(photo by Dmitri Kotjuh)

Here Comes the Fall

Here comes the fall. The golden fall!

Gusty winds scatter the leaves.

And rustling among them all,

a tiny hedgehog bobs and weaves.

He has no pantry or a plate,

long ago he understood:

Under his skin for winter’s date

summer’s fat will do him good.

Fat these days is not very cool,

we kids don't need a larder.

When fall begins we go to school

to get a whole lot smarter. 

Translated from Estonian by Bruce Firestone