Rahu (1] Rahu; 2] Rahu; 3] Rahu; or 4] Rahk)
Doubly doubly tricky: 1) Two streets: Rahu tänav and Rahu tee, the 1st in Nõmme, an ordinary mind-you-own-business street, the 2nd in Lasnamäe, an intended prospekt, or tree-lined avenue (influenced by St Petersburg’s Nevski Prospekt), now tee, and reduced to a housing-estate’s service road; and 2) various meanings: a) rahu [1] i.e. reef, a geographical feature found in more littoral areas, and rahu [2] means quiet, but given Nõmme’s tänav’s location next to Raudtee, its translation of quiet, tranquility, calm, peace or truce may seem like misleading advertising; on the other hand, Hiiu-Rahu kalmistu (cemetery), a place of quiet, tranquility if ever there was one, is just across the track. Then again, the equally possible translation of shingle, gravel, rubble or scree (rahk [4]) seems quite appropriate too, and despite nearby hospitals, we will exclude kidney or gland (rahu [3]) as too gruesome a street name, even for Tallinn, and, checking Kivi’s TT, find tänav was known as Friedenstrasse in 1922, so peace and quiet it is all round.
Doubly tricky: a) rahu [1] means reef, a geographical feature found in more littoral areas, and rahu [2] means quiet, but given its location next to Raudtee, its translation of quiet, tranquility, calm, peace or truce may seem like misleading advertising. On the other hand, Hiiu-Rahu kalmistu (cemetery), a place of quiet, tranquility if ever there was one, is just across the track. Then again, the equally possible translation (from rahk [4]) of shingle, gravel, rubble or scree seems quite appropriate too. Despite nearby hospitals, we will exclude kidney or gland (from rahu [3]) as too unappetizing a street name, and, checking Kivi’s TT, find it was known as Friedenstrasse in 1922, so quiet it is. Renamed (1987-1991) as Hiiu-Rahu during the Soviet Era; and b) there were two Rahus: a tänav, which is the one just described, and a tee which the Soviet ‘Nomenklatura’ decreed was one peace fits all.