Blog Archives

Thanksgiving for native languages

It’s time to give thanks. What for, exactly? This Thanksgiving, give thanks for the 130 endangered native languages in the USA, and the people keeping them alive. Give thanks for Marie Wilcox. Born on Thanksgiving Day 1933, Marie is the last fluent

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Posted in language, poetry, 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

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Posted in books, literature

Another Polish Oscar? Body/Ciało

Małgorzata Szumowska’s Body/Ciało is just out on DVD with English subtitles. It swept the board as Polish film of the year, it’s editor won the European film editor of the year, and it’s director won a Silver Bear in Berlin.

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Posted in film, gender, translation

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

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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

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Posted in poetry

Take the City Home

It’s autumn holiday week here – the sun is retreating, schools are on mid-term break, and summer is starting to seem like a distant memory. It’s time to escape the daily grind if at all possible. But what will you

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Posted in books, literature, poetry

“It is time to speak out”: Svetlana Alexievich, Nobel Laureate 2015

Belarusian journalist Svetlana Alexievich has been awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize for Literature for her “Polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” Born in Ukraine to a Ukrainian mother and a Belarusian father, she worked as

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Posted in books, literature, translation

International Translation Day 2015: Translating for Refugees

Happy International Translation Day! This year’s theme is The changing face of translation and interpreting, celebrating the people “who make it possible for the world to be a global village”. Right now, the need is very concrete: translating and interpreting for

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Posted in international, translation

German Book Prize Shortlisters in Translation

The German Book Prize short list is out today! Three women, three Swiss writers and four with other books published in English in the last three years have made the cut. In my very subjective order of preference, they are:

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Posted in books, literature

Now and at the Hour of our Death

This beautiful book is published by And Other Stories this week. It isn’t easy to write about the dying and their loved ones without falling into clichés and platitudes, especially in such a beautiful setting as rural northern Portugal: “Grass

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Posted in books, Edinburgh Festival
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