Shakespeare’s Sonnets in new Finnish translation
|
|
|
A new Finnish translation of William Shakespeare’s Sonnets appeared on Monday under the title Nautintojen ajan aarre (The name is taken from the line "Where all the treasure of thy lusty days" in Sonnet II). The translation is the work of author and scholar Kirsti Simonsuuri, and the volume has been published by Yliopistopaino.
The process of translation took a total of around five years, but Simonsuuri had other research work and some fictional writing going on at the same time, as well as teaching duties at Helsinki University, in England, and in Holland.
"I began by translating my favourite sonnets", said Simonsuuri, "But then I felt I had to translate them all. I was so often writhing at the very prim and proper translation by Aale Tynni. It seems as if she rejected altogether certain levels of Shakespeare’s language because of her own personal inhibitions."
Tynni’s somewhat bowdlerised translation dates from 1965, and she had omitted much of the bard’s ribald references to the many forms of sexual love, something that Shakespeare was never wont to shy away from.
"Shakespeare’s earthy and erotic language register is so broad that the Finnish language does not always manage to open it up. The connotations in Shakespeare’s use of language very often do not operate in the same fashion in Finnish, though there are some exceptions", explains Simonsuuri.
Simonsuuri, who has also served as head of the Finnish Institute in Athens, pointed to the advantages of having an understanding of the classics in reading and parsing Shakespeare.
Despite his not having had an academic education at Oxford or Cambridge, Shakespeare knew and cultivated antique and Italian literature, and he was familiar with the works of Homer. Simonsuuri herself wrote her doctoral thesis on Homer.
Helsingin Sanomat
|
| 1.2.2005 - TODAY |
 Shakespeare’s Sonnets in new Finnish translation |
|
