Dainai Ilvai – 85

Publicēts: 18.05.2023

Dainai Ilvai – 85

Daina Ilva, poet, nurse by profession and nature, was born on May 18, 1938 in "Smildziņās" of Stāmerien parish.
In the words of Mara Čaklas: "Her verses have such a sympathetic, fluffy touch, a resigned, yet defiant undertone, the enduring ethics of the Nordic countries."
Studied at Cēsu medical school, worked as a nurse in Jaunjelgava. During this time, she studied at the Jaunjelgava workers' youth high school, where the literature teacher noticed her talent and encouraged her to work in the field of literature.
"From the age of seventeen I wore a white overcoat and a cap with a red cross every day. Many say that it suits me (no, not externally!). I think so myself." (Flame, No. 6, 1967)
In 1962, Daina Ilva moved to Ventspils, worked in the city polyclinic. Poems were also created while sitting by the patient's bed. In 1966, she returned to her homeland and worked in the anti-tuberculosis dispensary in Gulbene. During this time, she also organized the first collection of poems. In 1967, Daina began her studies at the Faculty of History and Philology of LVU in absentia, actively involved in independent collectives. In 1970, the poet would have celebrated her thirty-second birthday, but she could not wait, because after a difficult illness, her heart began to beat.

In 1971, D. Ilva's 38 poems were published in the collection of young poets "Acis".
Lines of poetry filled with sincerity and the truth of life express the course of her short, active life.

"Sometimes I think that other people have poems
As snails crawl across the grass
Or how mushrooms sprout by themselves after the rain -
Take the salt in the barrels anyway.

But my lines like squirrels
Crouch in the tallest tree.
And this I know - they should not be shot,
You have to get your hands on them alive."