HS Culture 6.11.2001 - First part of Finnish epic novel finally translated into English

By Tomi Ervamaa

It's all there, including the dash that Finnish author Pentti Saarikoski hated so much: the opening line of the modern classic now translated into English as Under the North Star. The three-part Finnish novel begins: "In the beginning there were the swamp, the hoe - and Jussi."

The opening of Täällä Pohjantähden alla is a sentence in the Finnish language that has grown to be bigger than itself - so much so that it is difficult for a Finn to look at it with fresh eyes. For that reason it is healthy to see the sentence from a distance, in English.

Now the first part of the trilogy is available in English, and all three parts are scheduled for publication in about a year and a half. The translator is Richard Impola, a 78-year-old American of Finnish descent. The publisher is Aspasia Books of Canada, run by the Toronto-based Finns Börje Vähämäki and Varpu Lindström.

The English translation of Linna's epic

is the first to make it into publication. The event marks a major cultural achievement for Impola and his publisher.

The effort has been a success. Under the North Star is quite a reliable translation. It might lack a certain glamour, but it is a solid work without stupid mistakes.

"Nothing has been added and nothing has been taken away", says Professor Yrjö Varpio of the University of Tampere, a foremost expert on the work of Väinö Linna.

However, Varpio adds: "It is obvious that something has been lost. The dialect spoken by the crofters of Pentinkulma is difficult to translate. The effect in the English translation is more even. The dialogues suffer."

Impola has a unique habit

of writing translations of the surnames of his characters in parentheses after the original name. For instance, Koskela becomes "The Rapids", and Kivivuori is "Stone Mountain". A boon for the reader?

Some expressions seem a bit strange. "That's a pretty chick" is the translation for "On siinä nätti natu". In this case, even a Finnish reader can benefit from the translation: few people in Helsinki have any idea that "natu" means young woman in the Häme dialect of the time.

Richard Impola, Professor Emeritus

at New York State University, taught literature for many years. He did not start getting into the Finnish language until he retired 18 years ago at the age of 60.

Under the North Star helped Impola learn Finnish as the translation progressed. He has now completed the translation of the second part of the trilogy, and about 200 pages of the third.

He also has a clear idea about who the likely readers will be: North American immigrants from Finland and their descendants. "This will not spread much beyond them, unless a miracle happens and a literary critic of a large newspaper grabs it", Impola said.

Aspasia books has marketed other works translated by Impola to the same group of readers. Such works include novels by Kalle Päätalo, the 19th century classic The Seven Brothers by Aleksis Kivi, as well as books by Antti Tuuri, translated by Anselm Hollo. The publisher is responding to a real demand. The selection might seem a bit outdated by modern Finnish literary standards, but readers in North America want realistic narratives and great historical epic works.

Börje Vähämäki admits that Päätalo and Under the North Star correspond to the somewhat archaic image of Finland that American Finns tend to nurture in their memories. Nevertheless, the days are past when Finnish immigrants in North America would ask their friends and relatives in the Old Country if Finland already has the electric light.

In any case

Under the North Star is in a completely different league than the most famous - or infamous - Linna translation into English.

Linna's famous war novel, The Unknown Soldier, first appeared in an English translation in 1957. The text rode roughshod over the original: in one scene, the English version has Second Lieutenant Kariluoto shoot a lower-ranking soldier who steps out of line - an event that never happened in Linna's original version. The identity of the translator is not known for sure. According to one theory, the translation was the work of a Finn, Alex Matson, after which it was heavily edited by the American publisher.

If Under the North Star was difficult to translate, The Unknown Soldier with all of its dialects, would be downright painful. Vähämäki has suggested that Impola produce a decent English language version of this other Linna masterpiece.

"I won't do it", Impola says. He admits that with The Unknown Soldier he reached a point where translation really is impossible.

Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 30.10.2001

Translator's note: Of all types of translation, the translation of literature is probably the most challenging and painstaking. One of the greatest difficulties is finding approximate equivalents in the target language for words that are often unique to the culture of the original. These can involve both abstract concepts and concrete objects. The problem becomes apparent already in the first sentence of the book quoted at the beginning of the article above. To translate the Finnish word kuokka, Professor Impola chooses the word "hoe". Indeed, both words are names for agricultural tools with a blade at a right angle to its handle.

However, this choice of words may cause confusion. For most English-speaking gardeners a hoe is a rather lightweight precision tool that might be used for scraping weeds from between tomato plants. A hoe might be translated into Finnish as kuokka, but the primary image that the word conjures up in the mind of a Finn is that of a much more massive instrument, quite unsuitable for the delicate work of a hoe: it is much heavier with a blade about the size of that of an average spade. In appearance and use it is similar (but not quite identical) to a pick axe, or mattock. A skilful user of a hoe is able to eradicate weeds without damaging even the most fragile of garden plants. The kuokka is primarily an implement of destruction and the tool of choice for Finnish farmers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries for turning the tightly-packed and root-laden soil of felled forests and, as is the case in Under the North Star, drained swamps - into arable land. Nowadays it is used mainly for harvesting potatoes. KJW