Jussi Hyvärinen’s work is fuelled by science and art

“When writing a scientific text, its building blocks are left in place and in plain sight, so that everyone can see how the text has been constructed. In poetry, however, these building blocks are removed when the text is finished, with only the outcome remaining visible,” Jussi Hyvärinen says metaphorically, comparing the similarities and differences between the languages of science and art.

Working as an information specialist at the University of Eastern Finland Library on the Joensuu Campus, Hyvärinen supervises and teaches information retrieval in the humanities, theology and philosophy. He holds a doctorate in Russian language and literature and is also a distinguished poet: his latest poetry collection, Olduvain rotko (‘The Olduvai Gorge’, Kulttuurivihkot, 2022) was recognised with the Einari Vuorela Poetry Prize in September 2023.

Hyvärinen’s building block metaphor is apt and convenient. The structure of a scientific text with its introduction, analysis and conclusion is also useful when compiling a poetry collection; the outcome is just evaluated differently.

“Having done both scientific and artistic writing, I feel the evaluation of scientific texts is fairer and more transparent, as it examines the material, analysis and conclusion. But when art is found unpleasant or it doesn’t speak to its audience, anyone can say that they don’t like it, and that is perfectly acceptable,” Hyvärinen says.

According to Hyvärinen, both text types require background research. An author of a scientific text seeks information and familiarises themselves with previous research. Fiction isn’t born in a vacuum either, but from intertextuality.

“Many poets want to start from scratch without being subject to any influences, but it is essential to know the literary tradition.”

Scientific language strives for unambiguity and its terminology is defined so that it is understood similarly by everyone. Poetry, too, needs to be rooted in language that can be understood, but alongside it runs the demand for freshness and innovation.

“If a poem uses a cliché, it is disturbing and needs to be replaced by an expression that is more relevant. Poetry also creates associations and analogies between things that are unrelated. I’m interested in the etymology of words and use it as a tool in my poetry,” Hyvärinen says.

In Hyvärinen’s latest collection of poetry, a chain of associations goes back and forth for millennia, from the roots, myths and cultural history of humanity to familiar and everyday experiences of nature and Finnishness. The name of the collection refers to the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, known as the cradle of mankind in East Africa. Hyvärinen hopes that one day, he will get to see the Olduvai Gorge and Mount Kilimanjaro with his own eyes.

A memorable first encounter with poetry

In the late 1970s, the occupations of Hyvärinen’s parents could be seen on the bookshelves of his childhood home: the family’s father was a priest and the mother a lecturer in religion and psychology. Not surprisingly then, the family library contained not only children’s books, but also plenty of non-fiction such as series of general encyclopaedia and medical encyclopaedia, books on Finnish nature and psychological literature.

“We children were never forbidden to read these fine non-fiction books. When I came across with an interesting picture in an encyclopaedia, I would also read the accompanying article. The topics would range from cellular biology to ancient history. An encyclopaedia is not limited to any one discipline; is a universal source of knowledge.”

Besides non-fiction, Hyvärinen also enjoyed adventure series in young adult fiction, such as Edgar Rice Burroughs’s The Mars Series and Enid Blyton’s The Secret Series. Hyvärinen remembers getting his first feel of poetry in family day-care with the popular children’s poetry book Tiitiäisen satupuu (‘Tumpkin’s Wonder Tree’) by Kirsi Kunnas. His early experiences of poetry stuck with him.

“My big brother’s history book had an article about Crete, which began with a quote by Homer: ‘There is a land called Crete, in the midst of the wine-dark sea, a fair, rich land, begirt with water.’ The hexameter impressed me. Another memorable experience was seeing a picture of a foetus in the womb in an encyclopaedia, accompanied by a quote from Robert Frost: ‘But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.’ It was both scary, strange and fascinating at the same time.”

As a young boy, Hyvärinen was quite ambitious when it came to poetry: he used to ride his bike to the library to learn the poems in Runeberg’s The Tales of Ensign Stål, because the book couldn’t be borrowed home. His persistency paid off, as he eventually learnt most of the poems by heart. Runeberg, who is the national poet of Finland, used a variety of classical meters in his classic work, and the lessons learnt by Hyvärinen then are still visible in his poetry today.

A doctoral researcher turned into poet and information specialist

Hyvärinen became interested in Russian literature after managing to read War and Peace, a massive work by Tolstoy, in the last grade of primary school. In lower secondary school, Hyvärinen expanded his repertoire to Dostoyevsky and Gogol, and in general upper secondary school to Solzhenitsyn and Pasternak, whose Doctor Zhivago novel’s poetry appendix led Hyvärinen into the realms of Russian poetry.

After matriculation, Hyvärinen began studying Russian language and literature at the University of Helsinki in 1992. He also spent one semester in St. Petersburg in 1996, at a time when Russia was undergoing liberation following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thanks to his studies of literature and observations of everyday life in North Karelia, Hyvärinen realised that the two cultures had things in common. 

“The mentality of people eastern Finland resembles life and culture in northern Russia. We both enjoy spending time in the woods, fishing, picking mushrooms and bathing in a sauna. When I learnt Russian, I noticed that the eastern Finnish dialects share features with the Russian language. Interaction between the cultures has been deeper than we think.”

Hyvärinen embarked on postgraduate studies in Helsinki in the early 2000s. His poetry was first recognised on a national level in 2003, when he won the J.H. Erkko Award. The first poetry book, Kurkistan kaivoon, was published by Tammi in 2006.

“Just like my latest poetry collection, also my first collection peered into the layers of history, but it was more of an introduction that is typical of debut books, showing that I can write poetry and have read such literature,” says Hyvärinen.

After stating a family, Hyvärinen felt that a career as an author and a researcher was uncertain, so he opted for a permanent job as an information specialist at the University of Joensuu Library in 2007 and continued his doctoral research on the side. Hyvärinen’s dissertation on music as part of the worldview of Osip Mandelstam’s poems from 1908 to 1925 was completed in 2015.

Sixteen years passed between the publication of Hyvärinen’s first and second poetry collections. The next poetry collection may not have to wait that long: at the beginning of next year, Hyvärinen will head for a six-month leave to focus on writing.

“I have always written poetry alongside work, but now I will have time for myself.”