Christmas means carols. There are some you have to hear or sing, or it isn’t Christmas. And every year, if it’s a good year, you find a new one you haven’t heard before. Do you know this one? Apo Noponen…
Yearly Archives: 2023
When Christmas comes
Tagged with: Apo Noponen, Christmas Carols, Finnish, Jyväskylän naislaulajat, Kun joulu on, Otto Kotilainen, Translation, When Christmas comes
Posted in Christmas, translation
Posted in Christmas, translation
The Visionaries
These women wrote through the darkest times. As times get darker again, 80 to 90 years later, we need to read them. The Visionaries: Arendt, Beauvoir, Rand, Weil and the Salvation of Philosophy (Allen Lane 2023) in Shaun Whiteside’s English…
Tagged with: Ayn Rand, books, Feuer der Freiheit, French, German, Hannah Arendt, philosophy, Ros Schwarz, Shaun Whiteside, Simone de Beauvoir, Simone Weil, The Vsionaries, Translation, Wolfgang Eilenberger
Posted in books, gender, history
Posted in books, gender, history
What can you see from here?
From here, you can see that dreams can be a nightmare when you wake up. What’s all in your head, and what’s going to happen? From here, you can see everyone you’ve always known. The village is close. From here,…
Tagged with: books, German, Marina Leky, Tess Lewis, Translation, Was man von hier aus sehen kann, What you can see from here
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
In memory of memory
The way you remember your story is important. Your family’s stories and their ways of telling them tell you about who you are. But there is so much missing. Maria Stepanova comes from a long line of Russian Jews, and…
Tagged with: Fitzcarraldo Editions, In Memory of Memory, Maria Stepanova, Russian, Sasha Dugdale, Translation
Posted in books, history, translation
Posted in books, history, translation
Back in the USS
A list led me to this one. Mia Spanberg’s 7 contemporary Finnish novels on Electric Literature, to be precise. It’s translated into English by the author herself, Cristina Sandu, who’s also translated Adichie and Rooney into Finnish. At first, I…
Tagged with: books, Christina Sandu, Finnish, Helsinki Library Reading Challenge, The Union of Synchronized Swimmers, Translation, Vesileikit
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Details
This book has been winning awards ever since it was published in Sweden last year, and today it’s out in English. I read the Finnish translation. My five-year plan to learn Swedish well enough to be “civilized” (not a juntti,…
Tagged with: books, Detjalerna, Finnish, Ia Genberg, Jaana Nikula, Kia Josefsson, Swedish, The Details, Translation, Yksityiskohdat
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Bolla
A mythical creature, she rises from the waters to wreak destruction. Snakelike, dragonlike, unlike anything else you hear in fairytales round here. She’s dangerous. That’s Bolla. But the book is about two men, who love each other, perhaps. Or at…
Tagged with: Bolla, books, David Hackston, Finnish, James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Patjim Statovci, Translation
Posted in books, Queer, translation
Posted in books, Queer, translation
The Little Pike that Swam Out Of Lapland
Some books go far. Some have a vast marketing machine behind them. Others have an adoring aunt that’s always inviting them round for coffee and cake, digging around her own bookshelves for that particular edition that might just help, and…
Tagged with: books, Finnish, Finnish Literature Exchange, Pienen hauen pyydystys, Pushkin Press, Restless Books, Siltala, Summer Fishing in Lapland, Translation
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
The Book of Desire
The Book of Desire is a thing of beauty. It arrived wrapped in white and gold tissue, tied with natural string, packed in cardboard. These things matter. I thought someone had sent me a gift. Opening it was a ceremony.…
Tagged with: Galley Beggar Press, Kāmattu-p-pāl, Meena Kandasamy, Meena Kandasamz, Poetry, Tamil, Tiruvaḷḷuvar, Translation
Posted in poetry, translation
Posted in poetry, translation
The Red Book of Farewells
We’ve waited twenty years for this. To be scrupulously honest, I haven’t, as when it won the Finlandia Prize in 2003, I couldn’t speak a word of Finnish. But Pirkko Saisio’s Punainen erokirja in Mia Spangenberg’s translation as the Red…
Tagged with: books, Finlandia Prize, Finnish, Mia Spangenberg, Pirkko Saisio, Punainen erokirja, Red Book of Farewells, Translation, Two Lines Press
Posted in books, literature, Queer, translation
Posted in books, literature, Queer, translation
found in translation 