Finnish poet and translator, one of the most popular poets of the period between the world wars. Uuno Kailas's life was a prototype of a poor, tragic poet, destined to die at a young age. His work was marked with anguish and feelings of guilt due to all miseries in the world – Kailas saw himself as a suffering, dying fish caught in a net, unable to escape to freedom.

He is being shot. He's the guilty man.
He is looking mutely at us and away from us.
He is now lookig at me and commanding: Look!
And then I perceive who is also a guilty man.

The iron fetter of guilt encircles the wrists
Of all of us, all that my eye can see;
Guilt's debtor slaves are we, and fettered to him,
And our consciences' armies lay siege to us.

But one of us that I see has broken death's fetter.
I see him doffing his dirty attire, I see
From the shade of guilt's wings how he enters the light.

I see his new face; he is the robber on the cross,
He's my brother, the guilty man, who is being shot.

(from 'The Guilty Man,' translated by C. E. T. [Cid Erik Tallqvist], in Voices from Finland: An Anthology of Finland's Verse and Prose in English, Finnish and Swedish, edited by Elli Tompuri, Helsinki: Sanoma Osakeyhtiö, 1947, pp. 200-201; 'Syyllinen mies,' first published in Purjehtija, 1925)

Uuno Kailas was born in Heinola into a farmer family. His mother, Olga (Honkapää) Salonen died when Uuno was two, after giving birth to twins; they did not survive. During the short marriage, she had already given birth to three sons, none of whom lived long. Her death broke the family. Eevert Kailanen (later Salonen, then Salomaa), his father, adopted a bohemian way of life, married again, and disapperared from his son's life. Kailas told his classmates in the secondary school that he was dead. Actually Eevert died in 1952 in poverty and nearly blind.

Kailas grew up in his grandmother's, uncle's, and aunt's families. His grandmother, Maria Fredrika Juhontytär, was very religious. Her Christian set of values had a powerful influence on her foster son's personality. Later Kailas devoted to Maria Fredrika one stanza in his poem 'Synnyinseutu' (Native place): "Nään samoin maassa maatuvan — / myös mummon: laihan selän / ja uskolliset askeleet / ja kädet laihat, hyvät / ja poskikuopat syvät / ja silmät hyvin totiset." (in Punajuova by Uuno Kailas, Porvoo: Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö, 1933, p. 139)

In 1919 Kailas participated in a military operation in Russian Aunus. During this operation, Kailas lost his close friend Bruno Schildt, whom he had persuaded to join the risky adventure. Schildt's body was never found. For the rest of his life, Kailas felt guilty of his death. Kailas was not physically strong, and after endless, hard marching and poor supply he deserted his company, was caught, and punished. In 1933 in his last letter to his friend, the writer Elsa Heporauta, Kailas wrote that he saw a dream of Bruno.

Kailas studied from 1920 to 1926 aesthetics and history of literature at the University of Helsinki. Writing took more and more of his time. He published critics, translation works and contributed to the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and the literary magazine Nuori Voima. In the 1920s Kailas came in contact with expressionism through the works he translated (see: Edith Södergran). The movement influenced his own poetry and he presented it for the wider public in the magazine Suomen Kuvalehti in 1923.

From start to beginning Kailas's writing was based more or less on his inner fears and obsessions. Kailas's debut as a poet with Tuuli ja tähkä (1922, The wind and the corn's ear). The somewhat akwkard collection did not gain critical success, but Kailas did not show his disappointment. "Poetry doesn't starve," he said under the pseudonym of "Defensor" in Suomen Kuvalehti. "In itself there is life, which it carries on its wings into the sky." From the writers and poets connected to the literary association Nuoren Voiman Liitto (NVL), Kailas found kindred souls, among them Katri Vala. However, he did not join the poets who were enthusiastic about the urban, hectic life, speed, and machines – his thought resonated with those of his generation who prophesied the decline of Europe. Kailas was a profoundly pessimistic man.

Beset by feelings of approaching doom, Kailas wrote in the title poem of his second collection: "On syvyys allamme kuin lohikäärmeen suu, / kuin syli Atlantin – me kohta vajoamme" (the depths below us lie like the jaws of a dragon / like the lap of the Atlantic – soon we sink). ('Purjehtijat,' in Purjehtijat, by Uuno Kailas, Porvoo: Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö, 1925, p. 55) Both early works use Christian and mythological symbols.

Kailas's erotic themes and praise of sensual pleasures images in Silmästä silmään (1926, From eye to eye) annoyed the conservative newspaper Kotimaa, edited by Martti Ruuth, professor of theology; the newspaper suggested that the poet be sued. In a love poem, 'Pieni syntinen laulu' (A Small Sinful Song), Kailas said: "My little delight, in my bed / you have been naked. / The memory of our sin in my song / I do not deny: it is beautiful." (English translation quoted from A History of Finnish Literature by Jaakko Ahokas, Bloomington: Indiana University. 1973, p. 298)

Edwin Linkomies gave a good review on the collection in the influential magazine Valvoja-Aika. Linkomies compared Kailas's devoted attitude toward poetry to that of Juhani Siljo  (1888-1918). "Tuskinpa kirjallisuudessamme Koskenniemen jälkeisestä polvesta lienee Siljoa lukuunottamatta esiintynyt ketään lyyrikkoa, joka olisi antanut niin vakuuttavia  näytteitä totisesta runoilijakutsumuksesta kuin Kailas tässä teoksessa." ('Uuno Kailas: Silmästä silmään' by E. F. [Edwin Flinck=Edwin Linkomies], in Valvoja-Aika, N:ot 11-12, Marras-Joulukuu 1926, p. 430) One of Kailas's models was Baudelaire, whose poems he also included in the collection. Moreover, two years earlier Kailas had translated into Finnish Hindu love stories, Rakkauden korkea veisu, which was based on Francis William Bain's work. Bain claimed that he had transtated the tales from Sanskrit into English.

Also Kaarlo Sarkia (1902-1945), who tried to hide his homosexuality, inspired Kailas's work. The two poets shared similar feelings of guilt and loneliness, but their friendship cooled dramatically due to Kailas's both tyrannical and slavish conduct with regard to Sarkia. Other important writers for Kailas were Friedrich Nietzsche, Edith Södergran, Walt Whitman, and Edgar Lee Masters. The macabre fascinated him. Kailas had read Poe and Robert Louis Stevenson and for many years, he planned to write a collection of horror stories.

Although Kailas was not a political writer, 'Rajalla' (On the border), published in Uni ja Kuolema (1931, Sleep and Death), is perhaps the most cited expression of the Finnish nationalist spirit of his day. Like Kipling, Kailas saw that there is an unresolved antagonism between East and West, and Finland was the guardian station of Western culture on the Soviet border: "Raja railona aukeaa. / Edessä Aasia, Itä. / Takana Länttä ja Eurooppaa; / varjelen, vartija, sitä." ("Like a chasm runs the border" . . . ) (Runot 1922-1931 by Uuno Kailas, Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 2002, p. 361)

Basically 'Rajalla' reflected Kailas's Manichean view of the world, but it also speaks of another kind of border: that which separates the living and the dead. As if in a séance, the "I" of the poem addresses the spirits of the forefathers, and promises to defend their land and precious heritage.

Between the years 1923 and 1925 Kailas's served at the Finnish Army. In 1926 he was employed a stylist at Suomen ilmoituskeskus (1926-27) and later he was as a subeditor at the magazine Kuluttajain Lehti (1927-28). In the literary group Tulenkantajat (The fire bearers), which declared "Art is holy. We serve it", Kailas was one of its leading poets. The name of the group, which soon dissolved, was derived from a brochure which appeared in 1924.

Kailas's great love was Lyyli Pajunen, who offered her home for him in 1926. Their relationship ended partly because Kailas already showed signs of increasing mental instability. Moreover, she had an abortion, which shocked him; for Kailas it was unforgivable on her part. Deeply depressed, he wrote the poem 'Poikani' (My son), which begins with the lines Minun poikani – syntymätön / ja uneksittu vain – " (My son – unborn / and only dreamed of – ) (Paljain jaloin: runoja by Uuno Kailas, illustrated by Väinö Kunnas, Helsingissä: Otava, 1928, p. 49)

Kailas was sexually inhibited and suffered from impotence – masturbation became for him a constant source of self-torturing thoughts. Lyyli Pajunen had also experienced a disappointment in her sexual life. (Uuno Kailas hänen elämänsä ja hänen runoutensa by Maunu Niinistö, Porvoo: WSOY, 1956, p. 127, 133) However, Kalle Achté doesn't underline this side in Kailas's life in his psychoanalytical study Uuno Kailas - Runoilija psykiatrian silmin (2001), but connects, in general, tendency to depression with creative personality type, and emphasizes his traumatic childhood experiences and feeling of insecureness.

A perfectionist by nature, Kailas revised his poems tirelessly. Aaro Hellaakoski characterized Kailas as an aesthete, who was poisoned by excessive self-introspection. (Kuntelua: esseitä teoksista ja tekijöistä by Aaro Hellaakoski, Porvoo: Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö, 1950, pp. 215-216) Human destiny appeared to Kailas as a lonesome, futile journey through the desert in the poem 'Karavaani' (Caravan). Although he was perhaps the most admired poet along with V. A. Koskenniemi, Kailas felt that all his energy went into his craft; it was a burden to be a poet.

Due to mental problems, Kailas was admitted to a hospital in 1929 – he was restless, brooded on suicide, and he suffered from a delusion of persecution.  Moreover, he had contracted tuberculosis. Once he imagined he saw his friend, the translator Yrjö Gustafson, who had drowned in Paris a few days earlier, sitting in a restaurant. Kailas visited Gustafson's mother, and begged her forgiveness on his knees. The knowledge of the approaching death shadowed Kailas's later work, where central themes circle around suffering, sin, and efforts to achieve purity of spirit. "— Hei, hepo, hornaa päin!" (Yee haw, horse, toward Hell!) he wrote. ('Ajuri,' in Uni ja Kuolema: runoja by Uuno Kailas, Porvoo: Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö, 1931, p. 16)

Paljain jaloin (On bare feet) expressed Kailas's resignation. His pessimism had turned into a "calm, tragic melancholy, that spreads round him like a waste land." (Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden historia by V. Tarkiainen, Helsingissä: Otava, 1934, p. 312) In Uni ja Kuolema he bid his final farewell to his friends: "Ei ystävän, vieraan tulla / ole ovea laisinkaan. / Vain kaks on ovea mulla, / kaks: uneen ja kuolemaan." (There is no door / for friends or visitors to come. / But two doors have I, / two: to dream and to death..) ('Talo,' in Uni ja Kuolema, p. 21; translaton into English: A History of Finnish Literature, p. 301) Among the central images of the collection are a house, circle, and a strange man.

The last weeks of his life Kailas spent at the Villa Constance in Nice. In a letter to Lauri Viljanen he compared his stick thin legs and bony knee caps to those he had seen in pictures of Indian famine victims. Despite having feelings of being deserted he was not alone, but was taken care of Armas Launis, a Finnish composer, and his family. Kailas was not an easy patient to deal with; both his nurse and Launis got annoyed with him. Kailas died in Nice on March 22, 1933. His ashes were brought to Finland and buried in Helsinki. Kailas's memorial by the sculptor Yrjö Liipola was erected in 1939. The statue of Uuno Kailas, made by the sculptor Essi Renvall, is situated in Heinola. Kailas received the State Literary Award three times: 1926, 1928, 1931. The Danish literary historian and scholar Sven H. Rossel said on Kailas: "His major poems are placed in the twilight zone between vigil and dream and become magnificent projections of the poet's feeling of guilt and fear of death. They belong to the most fascinating artistic achievements of modern European poetry." (A History of Scandinavian Literature, 1870-1980 by Sven H. Rossel, translated by Anne C. Ulmer, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1892, p. 240) 

For further reading: 'Uuno Kailas,' in Uuno Kailaasta Aila Merilutoon: suomalaisten kirjailijain elämäkertoja, edited by Toivo Pekkanen and Reino Rauanheimo (1947); 'Kailaan itsekritiikistä,' in Kuuntelua: esseitä teoksista ja tekijöistä by Aaro Hellaakoski (1950); Uuno Kailas: hänen elämänsä ja hänen runoutensa by Maunu Niinistö (1956); Runoilija ja eksistenssi: eksistentiaalianalyyttinen tutkimus Uuno Kailaan tuotannon teemoista ja niiden yhteyksistä ekspressionismiin by Jenny Lilja (1972); 'Uuno Kailas,' in A History of Finnish Literature by Jaakko Ahokas (1973); A History of Scandinavian Literature, 1870-1980 by Sven H. Rossel (1982); '"Syyllinen mies" Uuno Kailas psykologian näkökulmasta,'  in Kauneus ja kuvotus: luovuuden, kirjallisuuden ja taiteen psykologiasta kirjoitettua by Juhani Ihanus (1987); 'Kailas, Vala, Mustapää' by Markku Envall, in A History of Finland's Literature, edited by George C. Schoolfield (1998); Suomen kirjallisuushistoria 2, toim. Lea Rojola (1999); Uuno Kailas - Runoilija psykiatrin silmin by Kalle Achté (2001); Vapauttava kieli: kirjallisuuden ja taiteen toiseudesta by Juhani Ihanus (2010); 'Uuno Kailas tänään' by Erkki Kiviniemi, in Novelleja by Uuno Kailas (2011); 'Kuoleva runoilija ja tyttö' by Jussi Lehmusvesi, in Helsingin Sanomat (lauantaina 19.5. 2018); 'Uuno Kailas, kauhukirjailija' by Juri Nummelin, in Hauta meren alla: Kauhunovelleja ja -runoja by Uuno Kailas, edited by Juri Nummelin (2019); Älä  koske perhosen siipiin: Uuno Kailaan elämä ja kuolema by Marija Vantti (2021)

Selected works:

• Tuuli ja tähkä: ynnä muita runoja, 1922 [The wind and the corn's ear]
• translator: Stephen Leacock, Pukinsorkka, 1923 (title novel: The Cloven Foot)
• translator: F.W. Bain, Rakkauden korkea veisu: muinaisintialainen runoelma, 1924
• translator: Kaunis Saksa: sarja saksalaista lyriikkaa, 1924
• translator: Rudolf Bruhn, Kuuden kerho, 1924 (original title: De seks)
• translator: Erwin Rosen, Kaikkien valtojen uhalla: saksalaisen kynäniekan elämäntaisteluita, tappioita ja työvoittoja, 1924 (original title: Allen Gewalten zum Trotz)
• Purjehtijat, 1925 [Sailors]
• Silmästä silmään: runoja, 1926 [From eye to eye]
• translator: J.A. Thibaut & Anatole France, Aadamin ensimmäisen vaimon tytär: kertomuksia yliluonnollisista aiheista, 1926
• translator: Arvid Mörne, Meren kasvojen edessä, 1926
• translator: Gabriel Scott, Polku, 1926 (original title: Stien, eller Kristofer med kvisten)
• Alladin, taikalampun prinssi, 1928 (as Unilukkari; illustrated by Ola Fogelberg)
• Paljain jaloin: runoja, 1928 [On bare feet]
• translator: Edith Södergran, Levottomia unia, 1929 (foreword by Hagar Olsson)
• translator: Joseph Kessel, Ruhtinasöitä, 1930 (play; original title: Nuits de princes)
• Uni ja Kuolema: runoja, 1931 [Sleep and Death]
• Runoja, 1932 (ed. by U. Kailas) [Poems]
• translator: Esais Tegnér, Fritjofin taru, 1932 (original title: Frithiofs saga)
• Punajuova: kuoleman jälkeen julkaistu runokokoelma, 1933 (posthumously) [The red streak]
  
• Novelleja, 1936 [Short stories]
  - Rökskuggan: efterlämnade noveller (med inledning och till svenska av Th. Warburton, 1941)
• Isien tie: kokoelma isänmaallisia runoja, 1941
• translator: Edith Södergran, Runoja, 1942 (illustrated by Tapio Tapiovaara)
• Valikoima runoja, 1958
• translator: Max Dauthendey, Keisarinnan kisailut, 1958 (radio play; original title: Die Spielereien einer Kaiserin)
• Uuno Kailaan runoja, 1963 (edited by Maunu Niinistö)
• Suomalainen rukous=Finsk bön, 1968 (övers. av Joel Rundt)
• Ja tomust' alkaa avaruus: valikoima Uuno Kailaan runoja, 1984 (edited by Alpo Salmi)  
• Kodin suuret klassikot: Uuno Kailas, 1985 (edited by Pertti Lassila)
• Unen, kuoleman ja intohimon lauluja, 1987 (edited by Salme Saure)
• Palava laulu: valitut runot, 2000 (edited by Pertti Lassila)
  
• Runot 1922-1931, 2002 (edited by Markku Envall)
  
• Novelleja, 2011 (2nd ed.)
  
• Hauta meren alla: Kauhunovelleja ja -runoja, 2019 (edited by Juri Nummelin)
  
• Nämä kaksi jalkaa eivät kuulu minulle, 2023 (illustrated by Juho Sihvonen)