Rainis (1865 - 1929)

Rainis was the pseudonym of Jānis Pliekšāns (September 11 [O.S. August 30] 1865 – September 12, 1929) a Latvian poet, playwright, translator, and politician. Rainis' works include the classic plays Uguns un nakts (Fire and Night, 1905) and Indulis un Ārija (Indulis and Ārija, 1911), and a highly regarded translation of Goethe's Faust. His works had a profound influence on the literary Latvian language, and the ethnic symbolism he employed in his major works has been central to Latvian nationalism.