Capturing an Elusive Truth— and Earning Recognition for It, Too By Jill Timbers (with passages by Kersti Juva) workshops, written about the practice A literary translator in of translation, and actively cam- Finland was in the spotlight quite a bit paigned for professional recognition last fall. In September 2008, Kersti and rights for translators. She also Juva of Finland became the first trans- created and moderates a Finnish-lan- lator ever to be appointed Artist guage Internet discussion list for lit- Professor. The Arts Council of erary translators. Finland stated that “appointing trans- Juva was born in 1948 into a world lator Kersti Juva to the position of of books and thinking. Her grandfa- Artist Professor is an excellent way to ther, Einar Juva, was a professor and draw attention to the critical impor- chancellor of the University of Turku. tance translated literature has had and Her father, Mikko Juva, was a history continues to have on the development professor at the universities of Turku of Finnish literature. Literature in and Helsinki, a member of the Finnish translation opens windows onto the parliament, and, from 1978-82, the whole world, onto everything written archbishop of Finland. throughout human history, for all In her speech at the Artist readers, regardless of their foreign Professor induction ceremony, Juva language skills.” explained that in high school she fell On September 1, 2008, Juva and in love with the Finnish language, its two other professionals—an architect grammar, and its literature. She and a choreographer—began five-year longed to write, but discovered that terms as Artist Professors. With the she had nothing to say! Then she three new appointments, there are entered the University of Helsinki, now 11 Artist Professors in Finland. where a friend invited her to a class on During their five-year professorships, translating. “Everything snapped into they will draw a monthly salary place,” Juva remembers. “An art form intended to further the pursuit of cre- exists that matches my talents. A way ative projects and interests. Juva jokes exists to read and write at the same that since she has never held a “real time. I do not need to have something job,” this is the first time she will have of my own to say. I can be part of this the luxury of a monthly salary. group effort as both reader and writer, by saying what others have already Background said in another language.” Juva translates from English into While still in her 20s, Juva was Finnish. In over 35 years as a literary asked by her professor and mentor translator, she has brought many clas- Eila Pennanen, a major Finnish nov- sics into Finnish, as well as contem- elist in her own right, to help translate porary fiction, plays, and radio J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings comedies. She has taught university trilogy into Finnish. Juva and and professional courses, organized Pennanen worked together on the first The ATA Chronicle I March 2009 two volumes, and Juva was the sole covering long distances each day and express, for language and meaning translator for the third. So began a sleeping in a tent. This past summer, cannot really be separated. Although career of dizzying breadth, including she biked 600 miles through Sweden language refers to something, the translation of such works as in two weeks. expresses something, it is not just Winnie the Pooh (A.A. Milne); The symbols or clothing. Language is Wonderful World of Oz (L. Frank Musings on the Art of Translation much more. One could say that we do Baum); Bleak House and Nicholas The following is a scattering of not express ourselves using language, Nickleby (Charles Dickens); excerpts drawn from Juva’s essays and but rather that we live in the language. Watership Down (Richard Adams); thoughts on her personal experience. They My home is the Finnish language.” The Color Purple (Alice Walker); appear here with Juva’s permission. Washington Square (Henry James); as The Essence of Translation well as classics by Tennessee What Does a Translator Do? “When teaching literary transla- Williams, Jayne Anne Philips, Oscar “For one thing, the translator does tion, I have often told my students that Wilde, Nadine Gordimer, Jhumpa not do anything to the original text, as understanding is at the core of it all, Lahiri, Dick Frances, and William we sometimes hear in casual speech: that you cannot translate what you do Shakespeare. Regarding her greatest the translator ‘changed the word’ or not understand. A poorly understood translation achievement, Juva says it ‘altered the word order.’ The original translation is a little like a symphony played on a recorder. But how can a translator understand something that has no single interpretation or static meaning? And even worse, if a work of art is an inexhaustible resource, The award is the result of long campaigning by how can it be frozen into a single translation? Nor is that all. There are literary translators to have their work lots of things the translator does recognized as an art form. understand, but that have no counter- part or perhaps no relevance in the receiving society. I do not mean words but rather realities, culture-bound phe- nomena, from actual objects to social is her translation of Laurence Sterne’s text lives and thrives quite inde- hierarchies. If one sets out from the Tristram Shandy. pendent of the translator’s activity. premise that the translation must be In addition, Juva has been the long- The translator starts out with a blank the equivalent of the original text in time translator of the BBC comedy sheet of paper (a blank screen). The another language, translating is impos- series Men from the Ministry for translator writes target-language text sible. A translation cannot empty the Finnish Radio, a series that has become which has some relationship to the original into a new language. The true a cult classic in its Finnish incarnation. original text.” goal of a translation is not to resemble Juva’s translation of Aphra Behn’s the original text, but to fill its place, or, 1677 play The Rover was performed at The Act of Translation perhaps better, to create a similar place the Finnish National Theatre in 1995. “Translating can be described within the target culture.” (Behn is considered the first profes- more or less like this: I dress myself in sional woman writer in English litera- the original text and start to imitate Is the Translator an Artist? ture.) Last fall, Juva’s translation of the the author’s gestures and movements “If literature is an art form, then Tom Stoppard play Rock ‘n’ Roll ran at in Finnish. If you want a translation to the translator must also be an artist. the Helsinki City Theater. work as well in the target language as The task of a translator into Finnish is Today, Juva divides her time in the original, if you expect the final to produce Finnish-language literature between homes in Finland and the product to be real, living language, that can take its place unashamed U.K. She is a passionate bicyclist, you must look through the language, beside original Finnish literature. A touring different countries by bike, behind it, and inside it. This is hard to plastic spruce has no place in a ¬ The ATA Chronicle I March 2009 21 Capturing an Elusive Truth—and Earning Recognition for It, Too Continued pinewood. I would also like to stress unnecessary effort. This means that I sive and puns are language-bound, that the Finnish product is a different use idiomatic, clear Finnish, unless I and working with Shakespeare and entity; it will have its own life in have reason to be unidiomatic and Wilde, to name but two in addition to Finland, and many things that are rel- unclear on purpose.”1 Sterne, Juva has certainly faced her evant for the English reader will mean share of both. nothing to a Finn, and vice versa.” This also means that Finnish readers can read and enjoy Juva’s “My aim was to produce a literary Balancing Act translation of Sterne’s 18th-century rather than literal translation that Juva stresses that translation is hard classic Tristram Shandy more easily modern Finnish readers could enjoy, work. The translator must approach than modern English readers can read but which would at the same time his or her task with humility for the the original. Juva describes the process convey as much as possible of [the responsibility it carries, but at the of translating Tristram Shandy into author’s] world and style…. I found same time with self-confidence, Finnish, the challenges it posed, and Tristram Shandy one of the funniest, smuttiest, and most hilarious books I have ever read. Surely it was my duty to convey this in Finnish, so when presented with a choice One could say that we do not express between, say, accuracy and a joke, I ourselves using language, but rather that went for the joke every time.”2 we live in the language. A medal created in honor of Juva’s father bears the motto magis amica veritas. This applies well to transla- tion, too: accuracy is important, but truth is a greater friend still. By believing himself or herself the equal the decisions she made, in a paper that “ditching accuracy when necessary,” of the author whose work is to be is available in English on her website as she puts it, and seizing opportuni- recreated in the new language and new at www.turanko.net/kersti/a_bumpy_ ties offered by the target language, context.