Debora Vaarandi was born in Võru on 1 October 1916 to Julianus and Tamara Trull (née Ella).

[1] Although not trained as a journalist, she worked as editor in chief of the communist newspaper Sirp ja Vasar.

Her work celebrates values such as the love of nature, the importance of family and the beauty of small things.

[2] After 1977, she focused on translating works by Anna Akhmatova, Georg Trakl, and Edith Södergran into Estonian.

She was awarded the Order of the White Rose of Finland[clarification needed] for her work in translating Finnish poetry into Estonian.