Ilus oled, emapind, Enne nagu praegu, Kus ma, veike künnilind, Laulsin oma aegu! Tarretanud laulud suus Elukülma kätte – Tagasi ei laenetus Iial pööra lätte!
Lydia Emilie Florentine Jannsen, known by her pen name Lydia Koidula, was an Estonian poet. Her sobriquet means 'Lydia of the Dawn' in Estonian. It was given to her by the writer Carl Robert Jakobson.
Lydia Jannsen was born in Vändra, Pärnu County, Governorate of Livonia (now in central Estonia). The family moved to the nearby county town of Pärnu in 1850 where, in 1857, her father started the first local Estonian language newspaper and where Lydia attended the German grammar school. The Jannsens moved to the university town of Tartu, the most progressive town in Estonia, in 1864. Nationalism, including publication in indigenous languages, was a very touchy subject in the Russian Empire but the rule of Czar Alexander II (1855 - 1881) was relatively liberal and Jannsen managed to persuade the imperial censorship to allow him to publish the first national Estonian language newspaper in 1864. Both the Pärnu local and the national newspaper were called Postimees (The Courier). Lydia wrote for her father on both papers besides publishing her own work. In 1873 she married Eduard Michelson, a Latvian army physician, and moved to Kronstadt, the headquarters of the Russian navy near St. Petersburg. In 1876–78 the Michelsons visited Breslau, Strasbourg and Vienna. Koidula lived in Kronstadt for 13 years but despite spending her summers in Estonia, she never stopped feeling inconsolably homesick. Lydia Koidula was the mother of three children. She died on August 11, 1886 after a long and painful illness. Her last poem was Enne surma- Eestimaale! (Before Death, To Estonia!).
Võtsin raamatu täitsa huupi ja ei kahetse valikut. Oleme harjunud Koidulat pidama isamaaliseks luuletajaks, kuid siin on terve raamatutäis loodusluulet. Küll ka kodumaa pinnast, kuid palju ilmast, aastaajast, lihtsalt floorast ja faunast. Päris tore vaheldus "põletavatele päevakajalistele ühiskonnaprobleemidele".