Editing Rainis (section)

== Foreign exile ==
Rainis was also socially active and politically prominent, being one of the national leaders of the [[Revolution of 1905]] in Latvia and the New Current that foreshadowed it. With the failure of the Revolution, he emigrated to [[Switzerland]] together with his wife Aspazija, settling in [[Castagnola, Switzerland|Castagnola]], a suburb of [[Lugano]]. As an émigré, Rainis wrote:

*plays — ''Zelta Zirgs'' (''The Golden Horse'') (translated to English 2012), ''Jāzeps un viņa brāļi'' (''Joseph and His Brothers''), ''Spēlēju, dancoju'' (''I Played, I Danced''), ''Daugava'' (The Daugava, 1916), and ''Ģirts Vilks'';
*poetry — ''Klusā grāmata'' (''The Quiet Book''), Vēja nesta lapas (''Leaves Upon the Wind''), ''Tie, kas neaizmirst'' (''Those, Who Do Not Forget''), ''Gals un sākums'' (''The End and the Beginning''), ''Ave sol'', and ''Sveika, brīvā Latvija'' (''Hello, Free Latvia'').<ref name="UNAMS" />

His dramatic ballad ''Daugava'' contained the first explicit demand for Latvian sovereignty:

{{blockquote|Land, land, what is that land demanded in our song? Land, that is a state.}}

Those lines were removed by the censor when the work was first published in [[Moscow]]. After the defeat of [[Pavel Bermondt-Avalov|Bermondt-Avalov's]] forces at [[Riga]] in November 1919, the ballad was performed at the National Theater to mark the first anniversary of Latvia's proclamation of independence; many soldiers carried this work into battle.

"Zelta Zirgs" ("The Golden Horse") was translated into English in 2012 by Vilis Inde.

During his exile, Rainis published several more works, such as ''Gals un sākums'' (or "End and Beginning" in English, published 1912). These works used political and revolutionary symbolism and also borrowed ideas from [[Hegelianism|Hegelian philosophy]]. He also penned plays which linked Latvian [[folklore]] to the country's modern, political struggles.<ref>{{cite web |title=Rainis |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rainis |website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref>