The poet died a quarter of a century ago. But time has preserved the poems he had written about Estonia and Tallin when living on the sixth floor of an old writers' house not far from Nevsky Prospect. It was there that he read to his friends his poems about an old lane in Tallin he was so fond of, about "the blue of the medieval fog," about "horseshoes nailed over the arches of tower gates," about Estonian girls who were as "fair-haired and lissome as stems of ripe rye." Then, he would take books off the shelves with his translations of Christian Peterson, Frederich Felman, Frederich Kreitsvald, Lydia Koidula, Mihkel Veske and Ado Reinvald. He used to cite from Yuhan Sutiste, Mart Raud, Deborah Vaarandi and Ralph Parve…

      He often remembered his first journey from Tallin to Vilyandi with Mart Raud. He remembered his first meetings on the Estonian land with his colleague-writers, peasants and fishermen. It was soon after the war. After that journey, he used to go there again and again. And his every visit gave him more and more friends in Estonia.

      "I had become interested in Estonia and its culture," Vsevolod Alexandrovich used to say, "long before I had visited Tallin for the first time. I had read and admired Kaalevipoeg and I knew that, with the help of St. Petersburg scholars, Kreitstvald was able to complete the publication of this distinguished epic work. I have always loved Lydia Koidula's poems and I was happy that she wrote many of her charming poems not far from my city – in the town of Kronshtadt. But it was only after I had breathed the air of Estonia that I was inspired by the true love of the land which gave birth to Kreitsvald and Koidula. And, along with the poems about Russian nature, I started writing about the heavily turning troubled sea, which I saw when visiting the fishermen off the coasts of Parnu. I kept writing about the white nights, but now, not only about the ones which I had been watching for dozens of years in our northern capital, but also about the white nights in Tallin."

      Having learned the originality of Estonian poetry, Rozhdestvensky strove to share his discovery with Russian readers. In his room, crammed with books, he translated Peterson's lyrical poem The Moon and The Song of Shepherds. Poems by Felman and Kreitsvald appeared on his desk. He found related motives in Koidula’s poetry and with particular delight he translated her poems Native Home, Mother’s Heart, Songs or At Linda's and Under Venerable Trees.

      Rozhdestvensky, a talented translator and commentator of early Estonian poetry, also showed a growing interest in the art of his contemporaries. He told how, living in Tallin, he translated poems by Mart Raud and especially Pitcher and Vase, which was particularly dear to him because it was based on a Leningrad topic. He also told how later, together with poet Vsevolod Azarov, he prepared for publication the first book by Yuhan Sutiste in Russian translation, how he translated Felix Kott, Ralph Parve, Ellen Niit and Deborah Vaarandi.

      "Not long ago," Rozhdestvensky said, "Russian readers could learn Estonian poetry from only two or three short books. Today, there are many books in our "Estonian library."

      Those books stood on a shelf next to his desk. Rozhdestvensky attached special significance to the books Poets of Estonia in the 19th Century and The Anthology of Estonian Poetry. These books included translations done by Vsevolod Alexandrovich. They preserved the spirit of the original poetry and the peculiarity of poetic voices. To a great extent, this was made possible by the fact that the translator was able to see what was inspiring the artistic imagination of contemporary Estonian poets with his own eyes.