What if you want to create a whole new fantasy world, and you people it with beings who speak an utterly fantastic language that no mere earthling could understand? Where do you start? You start with Finnish, of course. And…
Blog Archives
Women’s day: translations to last all year
It’s women’s day, and time to look for the women in translation once again, at the Free Word Centre and elsewhere. The statistics are shocking as ever. But there is plenty to read if you look. Rather than lamenting, just go out…
Tagged with: Agnete Friis, Alina Bronsky, Alison Anderson, Annie Holmes, Austrian, Bela Shayevich, Belarusian, Bruce Benderson, Calais, Danish, Elisabeth dyssegaard, Emmanuelle Pagano, Finnish, French, German, Herta Müller, Jamie Bulloch, Jennifer Higgins, Johanna Sinisalo, Jovanka Kalaba, Jovanka Zivanovic, Karen Kovacik, Lene Kaaberbol, Linda Stift, Lola Rogers, Michele Halberstadt, Muriel Barbery, Olumide Popoola, Philip Boehm, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sophie Lewis, Svetlana Alexievich, Tim Mohr, Translation, Women's day
Posted in books, gender, translation
Posted in books, gender, translation
it’s friendship day: don’t miss the train…
In Finland, today is Friends’ Day (ystävänpäivä), and a much more inclusive feast than Valentine’s as it is often celebrated elsewhere. Today can simply be a chance to do something nice with or for a friend, and we need that: There’s…
Tagged with: Adam Zagajewski, Clare Cavanagh, Finnish, friends, Monet, Polish, Translation, Valentine's Day
Posted in books, gender, poetry, translation, Valentine's Day
Posted in books, gender, poetry, translation, Valentine's Day
A personal reading trainer
It’s that time of year when people vow to get fit, lose their bad habits and slough off all the holiday indulgence. And I’ve finally found the kind of personal trainer I’m looking for. How about a personal reading…
Tagged with: Agneta Enkell, Anselm Hollo, David McDuff, Electric Verses, Finnish, Herbert Lomas, Merja Virolainen, Mirkka Rekola, personal reading trainer, Poetry, pubilc libraries, Riina Katajavuori, Swedish, Translation, Tua Försstrom
Posted in poetry, translation
Posted in poetry, translation
‘Jack Finn’s Carols
Finnish Christmas carols are often seen as extraordinarily depressing. That isn’t quite fair. In fact, we have a Finn (Jaakko Suomalainen, Jacobus Finno) to thank for some of the best loved carols worldwide. He was a priest and head of the…
Tagged with: Christmas Carols, Finnish, Jacobus Finno, Latin, Piae Cantiones, Swedish, Translation
Posted in Christmas, history, translation
Posted in Christmas, history, translation
Learn Finnish by Christmas
Finland is 98 today. You can celebrate all the way to Christmas by learning the language. Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as you think. You can learn a new word every day with the Finland emoji Advent calendar. Catch…
Tagged with: advent, emoji, Finnish, Language, Oxford English Dictionary, Santa Claus, Translation
Posted in Illustration, language, translation
Posted in Illustration, language, translation
Thank you for the stories
When I moved to Finland 3 years and 3 months ago, I barely knew the language. All I could read was the free supermarket adverts that came through the door, matching the products to multi-vowelled words underneath ( ääs and…
Tagged with: Aleksis Kivi, British Library, Children's Books, Finnish, Johanna Sinisalo, Maria Turtschaninoff, Mikkeli, Moomins, Nordic Library Week, Roald Dahl, Rosa Liksom, Salla Simukka, Seven Brothers, Tove Jansson, Translation
Posted in books, literature
Posted in books, literature
Happy Birthday translators!
Happy 60th Birthday to us! The Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters (SKTL) is 60 this year. The party has started: a lively exhibition opens tomorrow. The opening tonight was a celebration of linguistic skills and challenges in a multicultural…
Tagged with: Anne Kerhola, Caisa, diaspora, Finnish, Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters, happy birthday, Illustration, Poetry, Sivuvalo, Swedish, Translation
Posted in international, language, literature, poetry, translation, words
Posted in international, language, literature, poetry, translation, words
listen! – auf, wrzzz, shhhh…
It isn’t easy to explain a translator’s work to your nephews when they are just learning to read, but when I heard Saara Pääkkönen, who translates the Donald Duck comics into Finnish, explaining that she drops objects to hear what sound they…
Tagged with: Andrew Shields, Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Finnish, German, Lyrikline, Maria Lyytinen, Poetry, Polish, Risto Oikarinen, Saara Pääkönen, Tadeusz Dąbrowski, Translation, Ulrike Draesner
Posted in poetry
Posted in poetry
Europe on Air: Warsaw, Berlin, Istanbul
Being read to isn’t only for children. If you, like me, work closely with complicated texts all day, however much you love reading, it can feel like an effort on workday evenings. But great world literature is just within earshot.…
Tagged with: Antonia Lloyd-Jones, BBC Radio 4, Berlin, Elif Shafak, Entanglement, Finnish, German, Istanbul, Jamie Bulloch, Look Who's Back, Marja-Leena Jaakkola, Polish, Reading Europe, Svetlana Alexeievich, three percent, Timur Vermes, Warsaw, Zygmunt Miłoszewski
Posted in books, literature, radio, translation
Posted in books, literature, radio, translation
found in translation 