Aila Meriluoto

{{Short description|Finnish poet (1924–2019)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Aila Meriluoto

| image = Aila-Meriluoto.jpg

| birth_date = 10 January 1924

| birth_place = Pieksämäki, Finland

| death_date = 21 October 2019 (aged 95)

| death_place = Helsinki, Finland

| occupation = Poet, Writer, Translator

| spouse = Lauri Viita

}}

Aila Meriluoto (10 January 1924 – 21 October 2019) was a Finnish poet, writer and translator.

Meriluoto was born in Pieksämäki, and published her first collection of poems, Lasimaalaus in age of 22. It was a success among critics and readers.

She became the most celebrated and widely read female poet of post-war Finland. The central themes of her early poems are art and femininity.{{cite web |url=http://nordicwomensliterature.net/writer/meriluoto-aila |title=Leaving War Behind |last1=Hökkä |first1=Tuula |website=The History of Nordic Women's Literature |access-date=24 September 2016 }} Her first collections reflect the influence of Austrian author Rainer Maria Rilke. In collection Pahat unet (1956) some of the poems have a free form. The next collection, Portaat, came five years later, and there Meriluoto had found her own modern style of expression.{{cite web |url=http://www.kansallisbiografia.fi/kb/artikkeli/4885/ |title=Meriluoto, Aila (1924- ) |last1=Polkunen |first1=Miriam |date=2005 |website=The National Biography of Finland. |publisher=Biografiakeskus, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura |access-date=24 September 2016 |language=fi}}

Meriluoto lived in Sweden for 13 years. In 1974 she moved back to Finland, and the language of her poetry changed again to more close to a talking voice.

In addition to poems, Meriluoto wrote novels, and books for young people. She has translated works by Harry Martinson, Rainer Maria Rilke, Shakespeare and Goethe.{{cite web |url=http://www.kirjasampo.fi/fi/kulsa/kauno%253Acharacter_123176027150739#.V-lfkTvRmRs |title=Meriluoto, Aila |website=Kirjasampo |access-date=24 September 2016 |language=fi}}

Meriluoto was married 1948–1956 to another poet, Lauri Viita. She described him and their stormy marriage in a biographical novel.{{cite web |url=http://nordicwomensliterature.net/writer/meriluoto-aila |title=Meriluoto, Aila |last1=Hökkä |first1=Tuula |website=The History of Nordic Women's Literature |access-date=24 September 2016 }}

Meriluoto died in a care home in Helsinki on 21 October 2019, aged 95.{{cite news |title=Runoilija Aila Meriluoto on kuollut |url=https://www.is.fi/viihde/art-2000006281117.html |publisher=Ilta-Sanomat |access-date=2019-10-22 |language=fi |date=2019-10-22}}{{cite news |last1=Kirssi |first1=Elina |title=Runoilija Aila Meriluoto on kuollut 95-vuotiaana – tästä me hänet muistamme |url=https://seura.fi/asiat/ajankohtaista/runoilija-aila-meriluoto-on-kuollut-95-vuotiaana-tasta-me-hanet-muistamme/ |publisher=Seura |access-date=2019-10-22 |language=fi |date=2019-10-22}}