At this time, Sarkia was already seriously ill. His fourth book, "Kohtalon vaaka" (″The Scale of Fate″) came out the same year, in the middle of the World War II, when Finland was fighting as an ally of Nazi Germany. Sarkia did not join the writers who produced patriotic propaganda. Instead, the collection featured several pacifist and anti-war poems. As a result, Sarkia was criticized for being unpatriotic. In 1944 Sarkia edited his collections into a single volume "Runot" (″The Poems″). As the war ended, Sarkia travelled to Sweden for a period at a local sanatorium. Sarkia never made it to the hospital, but spent his time in a Stockholm hotel. When Sarkia returned Finland, he went to Sysmä to the care of two sisters with whom he had become acquainted. Sarkia died there of tuberculosis in November 1945 at the age of 43. He was buried to the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki. According to the Finnish writer Tuomas Anhava, Sarkia occupies same position in the history of Finnish poetry that John Keats has in English and Alfred de Musset in French poetry. Sarkia has been described as a ″composer of words″ as his poems are known of their euphony and rhythm. Many of Sarkia's poems have been set to music, by composers like Erik Bergman and Kaj Chydenius. His poetry has even influenced on the lyrics of the Finnish death metal group Insomnium. Among the poets he translated were Arthur Rimbaud, François Villon, Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire and Gabriele D’Annunzio. Sarkia's translation of Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du mal" has been praised of its rich imagery and rhythmical experimentations. Another famous translation is the Finnish version of Rimbaud's "Le Bateau ivre", which is considered ″brilliant″. Sarkia's poems have never been published as a separate book in English. In 2008, the literary magazine "Poetry Salzburg Review" published some English translations by Pentti M. Rautaharju, a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota. The literary society "Sarkia-Seura" was established in 1952. The Sarkia museum was opened in 1959 in the house where Sarkia lived with his godmother after his mother had died.