If some of these poems feel like song lyrics, that’s because they are. Pentti Saarikoski’s best-loved work was set to music for the sixties folk group, Muksut. You can watch their original videos in the national treasure trove that is…
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Tagged with: books, Dublin Literary Award, Emily Jeremiah, Finland, Finnish, Fleur Jeremiah, Muksut, Norvik Press, Pentti Saarikoski, Poetry, Translation
Posted in books, Dublin Literary Award, poetry
Posted in books, Dublin Literary Award, poetry
The snow banks are high, the snow drifts deep
Christmas is almost here. Deep snow drifts is what we want, but will we get them? At least we can sing about them. My choir sang this carol by Jean Sibelius at our Christmas concert this year. We do not…
Tagged with: Christmas, Christmas Carols, Finland, Finnish, On hanget korkeat nietokset, Sibelius, Translation
Posted in Christmas, music, translation
Posted in Christmas, music, translation
Come into the story
I’m on the way home from Gdańsk, from the choral festival which my choir achieved silver in the equal-voice category yesterday – we are thrilled. For the competition we had to sing two songs in our own language and two…
Tagged with: Finland, Finnish, international, music, Pentti Linkola, Poetry, Sirkka Turkka, Translation, Tule kanssani satuun
Posted in international, music, poetry, translation
Posted in international, music, poetry, translation
Maresi’s Power
Maresi is home from the abbey. She has left her sisters behind. She has left the horror of death behind too, it seems. It isn’t easy coming home. The journey is hard, and long. And when she gets there, the…
Tagged with: Annie Prime, books, Dublin Literary Award, Finland, Finnish, Maresi, Maresi Red Mantle, Maria Kyrö, Maria Turtschaninoff, Swedish, Translation, YA
Posted in books, gender, translation
Posted in books, gender, translation
Oh, to be in Finland, now December’s there
It’s too warm. It should be colder – a lot colder. It’s unseasonable. It’s beautiful, delightful, but it all feels wrong. It’s just all a bit too much, not cosy enough, not delicate enough, perhaps? Things should be the same,…
Tagged with: Christmas Carols, Finland, Finnish, Karl Collan, Poetry, Robert Browning, Swedish, Sylvian joululaulu, Sylvias hälsning från Sicilien, Translation, Zachris Topelius
Posted in Christmas, music, poetry, translation
Posted in Christmas, music, poetry, translation
The True Deceiver
To start Women in Translation Month this year, I return to one of my favourite authors, whose birthday is next week. Tove Jansson never fails to make you think. This is about a woman artist who cannot escape her own…
Tagged with: Finland, Finnish Swedish, The True Deceiver, Thomas Teal, Tove Jansson, Women in Translation Month
Posted in books, Tove Jansson Centenary, translation
Posted in books, Tove Jansson Centenary, translation
They know not what they do
When Jussi Valtonen’s book won the Finlandia Prize for the best novel of 2014, my friend recommended it to me. Her husband had loved it, I would find it really interesting. But it looked so weighty, and back then, my…
Tagged with: books, Finland, Finlandia Prize, Finnish, Jussi Valtonen, Kristian London, Oneworld, They Know Not What They Do, Translation
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Finland 100: Edith Södergran
It is spring. The earth is bare, the snow is melting. The nights are cold, but the sun is getting stronger, the days are getting longer, a lot longer. Takatalvi (“back-winter” – the reverse of an Indian summer) might strike at…
Tagged with: Aale Tynni, David Barrett, Edith Södergran, Finland, Finland 100, Pentti Saaritsa, Poetry, Swedish, Uuno Kaila
Posted in books, Finland 100, poetry, translation
Posted in books, Finland 100, poetry, translation
A bookish birthday for Finland
Finland is 99 today, and counting. Independence Day today marks the start of the centenary year. The celebrations really kick off with the New Year – including Book Finland 2017 which celebrates something Finns do a lot of – reading. The average Finn borrows…
Tagged with: A. A. Prime, Emmi Itäranta, Finland, Finnish, Johanna Sinisalo, Kaija Anttonen, KirjaSuomi, Laura Lindstedt, Lola Rogers, Maria Turtschaninoff, Owen Witesman, Rauni Magga Lukkari, Salla Simukka, Sofi Oksanen, Suomi100, Terhi Ekebom, Thomas Teal, Tove Jansson
Posted in books, gender, history, literature, translation
Posted in books, gender, history, literature, translation
world book day 2014: binge-read or savour?
World Book Day today, and there’s a £1 book for everyone under 18 in the British Isles (discussion of the politics of that short-hand term another time, please). There’s an app, there are trailers for the books, you can win a…
Tagged with: binge-reading, books, Children's literature, Finland, Finnish, Herbert Lomas, Language, Mirkka Rekola, Poetry, slow food movement, words
Posted in books, language, literature, Word of the Year 2013, words, World Book Day
Posted in books, language, literature, Word of the Year 2013, words, World Book Day
found in translation 