Skip to main content
Rainis

Personal Info

Known For

Writing

Gender

Male

Also Known As

Jānis PliekšānsJanis PlieksansJānis RainisJanis RainisЯ. Райнис

Rainis

Writing

Biography

Rainis was the pseudonym of Jānis Pliekšāns (September 11, 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.