Finnish Literature

[Eric]

Finland was, until 1917, part of Sweden, then after 1809 of the Russian Empire. Finnish literature didn't get going until about 1880, when the national awareness movement began to make Finnish-speakers realise that their language could also be used for literary purposes. Before that time, most literature in Finland was written in Swedish.

The Wikipedia gives a good overview of Finnish literature:

Finnish literature - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And by Googling the names on the list of Finlandia prizewinners, you can get a good idea of some of the more important names of poets and novelists since 1984:

Finlandia Prize - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

English translations are few and far between, even now that the country has about 5 million inhabitants, and companies such as Nokia are world famous, as well as more cultural matters, such as the music of Sibelius.

The best place to start to get an overview is with the quarterly magazine Books From Finland. There you can also find what is available in English translation:

Books from Finland

This magazine does review Finland-Swedish authors' works as well. But as 96% of Finland speaks Finnish, its clear focus is on literature written in the Finnish language. Their blurb:

Published since 1967, Books from Finland is an illustrated quarterly English-language magazine about books from and about Finland.
We publish work by contemporary Finnish and Finland-Swedish writers ? poetry, prose, fiction, essays and interviews in new translations ? and articles, features and reviews of non-fiction, reflecting the scope of cultural life in the country. We also share with our readers the best choices of classic Finnish prose and poetry.

And, for Books from Finland, life is not just fiction: we also try to portray the society in which literature is born ? Finland at the beginning of the new millennium.

Books from Finland is published by the Finnish Literature Society with financial support from the Finnish Ministry of Education. We have readers in more than 80 countries, and look forward to welcoming you to experience the best Finnish literature in the world!

Recent translations into English include:

Novels:

Anita Konkka: A Fool's Paradise, Dalkey Archive Press (trans. Haun / Witesman), 2006

Review at: A Fool's Paradise - Anita Konkka

Rosa Liksom: Dark Paradise, Dalkey Archive Press (translator: David McDuff), 2007

Review at: A review of Dark Paradise by Rosa Liksom :: The Compulsive Reader :: A Haven for Book Lovers

Marja-Liisa Vartio: The Parson's Widow, Dalkey Archive Press (trans. Aili & Austin Flint), 2008

Description at: http://www.amazon.com/Parsons-Scandinavian-Literature-Dalkey-Archive/dp/1564784835

Poetry:

Gunnar Bj?rling: You Go the Words, Action Books (trans. Fredrik Herzberg), 2007

Description at: Action Books - Catalog

[iiris]

While recent translations are all good, you cannot talk of Finnish literature and forget V?in? Linna and Mika Waltari, or F. E. Sillanp?? and Arvid J?rnefelt.

Of the modern ones Tommy Tabermann deserves to be mentioned, he writes some of the nicest modern poetry I've ever read.

[Stewart]

F. E. Sillanp??

He's someone I'd like to read but he seems to be completely out of print in the UK.

[Eric]

Iiris, the very "ii" in your name suggests that you are Finnish (or Estonian), so you'll know a lot.

The names you mention are very pertinent, but if you Google these names, only Mika Waltari appears to have been translated quite a lot into English, and those translations are getting quite old now.

Only the Kirjasto website and the Wikipedia have anything much in English about them. And the author you mention that seems to suffer most from neglect in English translation is Arvid Järnefelt (1861-1931). I see from the Kirjasto site that he was a Tolstoyan, but I cannot find any record of even one translation into English. I happened to read a bit about him last night, because I'm brushing up my Finnish, and read the entry in Suomen kirjallisuuden vaihteet by Unto Kupiainen, which is the only survey of Finnish literature I possess.

Actually, I sat this afternoon in the sunshine outside the pub, underlining all the words I didn't know in a couple of Finnish-language newspaper articles that I'd printed out from the online Finnish press. My conclusion was that I still have a long way to go before I can read a novel with ease and with not much dictionary work. It's no longer the grammar that bugs me, but the lack of vocabulary. I know a lot more about the Finland-Swedes and their literature, and have even translated a few poems by M?rten West? and Lars Huld?n recently. But I don't know enough yet about literature written in Finnish.

I have never read anything by Tommy Tabermann, though he is a name that I have heard of. I've just found a few of his poems in 70-luvun nuori runo. Obviously, he isn't so nuori any more, but it will be interesting to look at his poems. So thanks for the tip.

But translations, English translations. It's only Books From Finland that gives any clue as to what is available in foreign languages. And the list of translations into English is not impressive. In the New Translations section of some issues during the past few years, the English language doesn't feature at all!

Frans Emil Sillanpää (1888-1964) did win the Nobel Prize, but as Stewart suggests, English translations are but a distant memory. I wonder whether there any plans to translate a series of Finnish classics into English, e.g. Sillanp??, Linna, Volter Kilpi, and a few other prose classics.

[iiris]

Iiris, the very "ii" in your name suggests that you are Finnish (or Estonian), so you'll know a lot.

Only my name is Finnish. Old Dragon (read: grandma) is Finnish by origin (married an American and moved to the East Coast somewhere year pinecone and cow) and insisted on the Finnish spelling of my name. And she's also the reason I speak Finnish, she also insisted that all my nannies were Finnish and taught me the language. (My father had to lear it too as a kid and still reads it fairly well.) In addition, when Old Dragon moved back to Finland, I came with her and did my high school here, and returned to finish my university degree here... So, 8 years of living here, high school literature classes with loads of Finnish texts and a grandma who is very proud of her roots makes me, not maybe an expert, but well-informed, I suppose.

Now, to move on from my very confusing family history to more important and widely appealing issues... I bought two pairs of shoes today. No no, just kidding (well, I did buy two pairs of shoes), the literature...

I know that translations are a problem, especially with Tabermann and Sillanp??. Linna I do believe has been translated (Under the Northern Star and Unknown Soldier) and Waltari doesn't really get old, I suppose. I could see if I can find any info on translations, as, in a weird twist of logic, these things are often published in the original language. (I mean, if you can read the news report about the new translations, what do you need the translations for?!?)

As for your Finnish vocabulary, I'd be happy to help!

[iiris]

He's someone I'd like to read but he seems to be completely out of print in the UK.

I couldn't find him either, after a quick search (okay, one online store), translated. I'll see what I can come up with...

But, The Academic Bookstore delivers outside of Finland too, and they do like to promote Finnish literature. They're trustworthy, the biggest chain in Finland, and I've personally used them (online and old-fashioned way, I spend more time in their store than in the shoe department there) several times and am yet to be disappointed.

[Eric]

Here is an Amazon corner of reality that mentions one Bridgehead book. (Bridgehead? Eh? Well, "silta", genitive "sillan", means bridge; "p??" means head; would that Finnish were always that simple.) Website:

Amazon.co.uk: "Finnish Literature Gems"

I first visited the Academic Bookshop in Helsinki about thirty years ago and marvelled at its sheer size. Those were the days before Heffers, Blackwells, etc., in the UK, were up to their present-day size. And having a caf? in a bookshop was something I first saw there. Although the one in Tallinn is swisher, nowadays, and many in London and Stockholm have copied the idea.

[iiris]

I love the Helsinki Academic (as it's abreviated in Finnish usage, no one bothers to say the "bookstore")!

You missed the 'n' before 'p??', the 'n' of possession, so it's actually 'bridges head', 'head of bridge'. It's the little things in Finnish...

[saliotthomas]

I loved The egytian by Mika Waltari in french("sinou? l'egyptien")and The etrusque.I have discover not long ago that he wrote a lot and that most are available in French.I shall try to grab a load this summer while in France

[Eric]

Iiris, I wrote:

Here is an Amazon corner of reality that mentions one Bridgehead book. (Bridgehead? Eh? Well, "silta", genitive "sillan", means bridge; "p??" means head; would that Finnish were always that simple.)

The word "bridgehead" exists in English meaning "the head of a bridge", especially in military terms. It's just that we construct compound words differently in English than in Finnish. So "bridge's head" (with the necessary apostrophe) is one way of saying it, but I was trying to be witty. It rather deflates the joke if you explain too much at length.

Anyway, you mean "Akateeminen". Yes, I knew that, actually, as I lived for three months in Helsinki during a total of four years living in Finland as a whole. So I've heard it said. I think they do the same in Swedish, i.e. leaving off the "bokhandeln".

I've not been to Helsinki for years. Probably 15 (!), if you discount changing planes at Vantaa on my way to Tallinn. So when I do go, I am eager to see what has changed. I lived for over a year in Tallinn in the 1990s, but never bothered to take the hydrofoil or ferry across to Helsinki.

Does Suomalainen Kirjakauppa still exist? It used to be an alternative, but I always preferred Akateeminen. And the coffee shops and caf?s. What are the names of the most frequented ones, nowadays?

Have you read anything by Sofi Oksanen? Her surname always reminds me of oksentaa (to vomit), but I believe she is good and writes about Estonia, which interests me.

[iiris]

I loved The egytian by Mika Waltari in french("sinou? l'egyptien")and The etrusque.I have discover not long ago that he wrote a lot and that most are available in French.I shall try to grab a load this summer while in France

He has been translated a lot, especially to French. I've never really realised why, but... he's brilliant, though. Also Kalle P??talo has been translated to French, at least judging by the "Finnish literature in French" section (one shelf) in the already-famous Akateeminen.

The word "bridgehead" exists in English meaning "the head of a bridge", especially in military terms. It's just that we construct compound words differently in English than in Finnish. So "bridge's head" (with the necessary apostrophe) is one way of saying it, but I was trying to be witty. It rather deflates the joke if you explain too much at length.

Ooh, you lost me at military (gold star to who gets the reference)... And you were right, I was just trying to be smart. And also, to distinguish "the end of a bridge" from "someone with a bridge in/on their head", as in "airhead"... I blame the bellinis!

Does Suomalainen Kirjakauppa still exist? It used to be an alternative, but I always preferred Akateeminen. And the coffee shops and caf?s. What are the names of the most frequented ones, nowadays?

It does indeed, it's just as good these days, and they too ship abroad. The site, however, is only in Finnish (at www.suomalainen.com) but it did seem to have slightly lower shipping costs. I personally prefer Akateeminen, too, although I do check them both out when ordering something online, as they have slightly different resourses (like, only one has the paperback edition or something like that)... As for caf?s, I'm not really sure. I love Strindberg's and Caf? Esplanad (both near the Akateeminen) but as I don't live in the Helsinki region anymore, I get to go there on more rare occasions and then mostly to see Old Dragon. And she likes the old school places. Stockmann has some really good caf?s and luch restaurants still.

The city centre has changed a lot in recent years. The old bus station is gone and there's a shopping centre in it's place (they had one of my favourite lunch restaurants there, but it quit), the area between Sokos and the railway station is now a bus station (while the long-distance busses go under the new shopping centre in the old bus stations place)... They got a Louis Vuitton! Loads of cheap Swedish chains... It's changed...

Have you read anything by Sofi Oksanen? Her surname always reminds me of oksentaa (to vomit), but I believe she is good and writes about Estonia, which interests me.

Haha, I've never though of her name like that, I've connected it to oksa (branch)... I haven't read her works, I've read of her, though... I should check her out.

[Eric]

Thanks for the review of Helsinki. I remember the bus station on Simonkatu well, and indeed the Kansan-whatever bookshop, where I bought my first 9-volume Estonian encyclop?dia and carried it back to Iso-Roobertinkatu, where I was living, in two plastic carrier bags. But already in the 1990s, when I was in Helsinki, they had built a big swish new shopping centre around there, with lots of escalators.

I suppose the Amos Andersonin Museo is still where it was, in a funny bent street not far from Simonkatu. And the other museums are too big to move.

I spent most of my four years living in Finland either in Turku or Pohjanmaa, with the exception of one year in H?meenlinna. So I sometimes longed to travel down to the only metropolis that Finland's got, though I never met any dragons there.

I'll have a look at the Suomalainen website, as I can read enough Finnish to navigate it.

"Compound words" means ones that are stuck together to form a longer one. The worst one I saw was written right across the gable of a building in H?meenlinna where the Wetterhoff handicrafts school was. Something similar to...

Wetterhoffin
käsiteollisuusammattikorkeakoulu

...which is rather a long compound word. It filled the gable up nicely, though.

[Stewart]

I spent most of my four years living in Finland either in Turku or Pohjanmaa, with the exception of one year in H?meenlinna.

On the subject of Turku, did you know that it's the European Capital of Culture for 2011?

[Eric]

Eric didn't know, or had forgotten, that Turku was Cultural Capital of the Universe in 2011. I'm sorry to say that with most of these years, I never notice they're happening until they are being summed up, when the year has already gone by.

I would much prefer a steady drip of culture to an orgy for one year, after which Turku / ?bo is shoved back into its box, where it belongs.

This echoes the attitude of the satirical songwriter Tom Lehrer to National Brotherhood Week. Read, and digest the satire:

National Brotherhood Week - Tom Lehrer (Lyrics and Chords)

One year of glory, and Turku will again be forgotten. Not by me, who spent a whole year living there during the academic year 1972-73. Nor by the organiser of the event, to be found at:

Turku for the European Capital of Culture 2011

Comrade Eric has a long memory. When a Communist sympathiser in the 1970s, when it was chic for the middle classes to express solidarity with workers they had never mixed with, I remember one Cay Kankaanp??, who belonged to the hardline Stalinist faction of the Finnish Communist Party, and would then have advocated incorporating Finland (including Turku) into the Soviet Union. Cay Sev?n, as she is now called, is running the 2011 show in Turku. She has obviously, like myself, changed allegiances...

[Eric]

While looking for English translations of Paasilinna, I found, quite by accident, the following webpage that usefully lists, with pictures of the cover, books translated from Finnish into English:

North Wind Books: Literature in Translation

I'd never before heard of North Wind Books, or the Finlandia University in Michigan, where the bookshop is housed.

*

I don't know whether anyone has mentioned this before on another thread, but there's a brief overview of Finnish literature in English translation in the Guardian, at:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/worldlit...705306,00.html

[edo]

While recent translations are all good, you cannot talk of Finnish literature and forget [...] Mika Waltari [...]

I read only English, and understand that Naomi Walford's translation of Waltari's _The Egyptian_ was abbreviated. Can someone who has read the original say what sort of content was left out, or why Walford would abbreviate the original? TIA edo

[Eric]

It's called abridgement in the jargon, rather than abbreviation or "cutting out the boring bits". In the early 20th century, it appears to have been common practice, even with quite famous authors. So sometimes you would see notes on the cover of the book which said "complete and unabridged".

I'll leave Iiris to do the research into abridged Waltari, as don't have access to many Finnish books, as the Amsterdam University Library doesn't stock that many. But some publishers in the English-speaking world didn't like authors philosophising too much, or giving long descriptions of nature, having a rather philistine view that the author should "get on with the story" instead. I therefore fear that one of those publishers got hold of The Egyptian. Naomi Walford may well have translated the whole thing, only to have the publisher remove large chunks.

*

Another curious thing that publishers did in days of yore was to have a book translated via a second language. So Naomi Walford was, I think, translating from the Swedish version. Who knows whether that version was complete? If you look on the internet under "Naomi Walford" you tend to find that she translated from Swedish and French, languages which are a doddle compared to Finnish, for a native-speaker of English, I can assure you. With all the Waltari books she translated, you don't see, explicitly, "translated from the Finnish by Naomi Walford", merely "translated by Naomi Walford". She may not have known one word of Finnish. I can't find a biography of her, though. But the Swedish version was translated by Ole Torvalds, a Finland-Swede, and published in 1947 (the original appeared in 1945). See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ole_Torvalds .

As Swedish is the second language of Finland, Finnish classics would be quickly translated into Swedish by almost bilingual Finland-Swedes (like Thomas Warburton, mentioned on another thread). Then the books would find their way into French, German and English via the Swedish version. Most Brits and Yanks don't care a damn which language a book is translated from, but it does matter. Every language between the author and the reader can multiply mistakes.

[Eric]

What are Finns reading this summer? Hard to tell, but one anonymous journalist at Helsingin Sanomat, the biggest and most prestigious Finnish daily, had given a few ideas.

He or she begins by saying that summer is the time for reading but given its shortness (in Scandinavia) you have to make choices. So the paper recommends a few things.

One classic mentioned is Mika Waltari's Sinuhe egyptil?inen, known to us as The Egyptian. The contemporary Finnish author Anja Snellman is quoted as saying:

"This year is the anniversary of the birth of our most international author, and every Finn ought to read at least one Waltari novel! Sinuhe could even captivate fans of Harry Potter."

A bit of a back-handed compliment for Waltari, but still.

The journalist goes on to mention that Waltari often mentioned Fyodor Dostoevsky, and suggests: Crime and Punishment; Poor People; Netotchka Nezvanova. Well I've never heard of this third word (novella, story?). But the journalist clearly states that "older Finnish translations of Dostoevsky are still OK".

Moving on to contemporary literature, the journalist goes on to mention Sofi Oksanen's new novel Puhdistus (Cleansing / Purge / Purification / Pogrom) which is in fact being translated into English by a U.S. translator called Lola Rogers. Oksanen has some Estonian background and deals with that country in her novel.

Original article at: HS.fi

[edo]

Thanks, this is a help. From the little I had been able to gather about Walford, it seemed that she was more conversant with Swedish than Finnish, but your kind reply makes this salient.

From the English text, it seems to me that "Walford's" abridgment (1949) may have been for the sake of bowdlerization. If that's the case it would be fine with me. My interest is in the philosophy and world-view on which Waltari builds the novel. The latest U.S. reprinting appeared in 2002, with a foreword alluding to 9/11, which this American at least sees as having been turned into another world-class disaster by rulers who are as pigheaded and self-absorbed as Akhnaton may have been. So the novel again becomes timely. - edo

[Eric]

There are funny words in English which cloud the issue:

Abridgement = chopping the boring bits out.
Bowdlerisation = censorship of the dirty bits.

Funny how rich one's languages gets when you take all those elegant circumlocutions and euphemisms into account.

As I have never read this Waltari novel in any language, I couldn't possibly guess at which dirty bits Naomi (or the publisher) took exception to.

The problem with roping in current issues to make people buy the book is that these issues may diminish in importance over the years (though I imagine that will take a century in the case of 9/11). Also, that you are already steering the reader in the directions of interpretation which they could perhaps discover for themselves. Will introduction-writers switch over to comparing Akhnaton with Barack when he takes over, I wonder? I wonder whether Waltari had a specific self-absorbed politician, president or king in mind when he wrote the book.