Nordic Voices in Print - New URL

The URL of the new blog has changed: it's now

http://nordicvoicesinprint.wordpress.com/

And, after some wrestling with my wp.config file, it's also once again

http://nordicvoices.xtreemhost.com/

So you can take your pick. :-)

I think that for the time being I'll maintain both versions - the wordpress.com one and the wordpress.org/Xtreemhost server-based one - and eventually one of them will be the "winner".

From the WP About page:

The general idea is to provide a space for Nordic texts (Finland-Swedish, Swedish, Icelandic, etc.) that I’ve translated over a number of years. Some have appeared in published book form, others haven’t. I had thought of reviving the old Demon site, as many of its pages are still up on the Web, isolated and unadvertised – but WordPress seemed like a more up-to-date and user-friendly way of dealing with the issue.  In particular, there are some older Bloodaxe titles that are now out of print, and WP might be one channel that could be useful for making these available again, in part or in whole. Another alternative might be to reissue the texts as e-books – but I think I prefer the less formal method of the blog, which also gives more control, potential interactivity and editing flexibility...

The first main posting is my translation of Moln (Clouds), the 1922 collection by Karin Boye.

Abba in Latma's Studio

The video now has 600+ comments.

Nordic Voices Reviewed Again

Blowing our trumpet and banging our drum, we note that we received another favourable review - this time from BiblioBuffet:

Nordic Voices in Translation is a wonderful blog devoted to “the English translation of the literatures of the Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. And also Estonia.” Their translations include not only literature but pieces from new works be they fiction, drama, poetry and criticism. This is a rather impressive site.

Thanks, BiblioBuffet.

See also: Nordic Voices Reviewed

The Digibooks Row

In a new move on a topic that may be of direct interest to readers of this blog, especially translators whose titles frequently go out of print, Google is currently preparing to finalize and fully implement its book digitization program. Having reached a $125m agreement with the US Authors' Guild and the Association of American Publishers aimed at finally settling the class action suit that raised serious charges of copyright infringement in relation to Google's Book Search, the company is now waiting for the court decision which will allow it to go ahead. As The Register notes, not everyone in the world of Web 3.0 (aka the "Data Web") is happy with the likelihood of Google acquiring what they see as a virtual monopoly on international library digitizing:

Having settled with the authors and publishers, it can exploit its financial power from within a protective legal barrier, for the class action suit covers the entire class of authors and publishers," [Harvard University libraries head Robert] Darnton wrote. "No new entrepreneurs will be able to digitize books within that fenced-off territory, even if they could afford it, because they would have to fight the copyright battles all over again. If the settlement is upheld by the court, only Google will be protected from copyright liability."

Since trumpeting Darnton's words hither and yon, the press had been all but quiet on the matter. But then, early last week, Wired tossed up a blog post entitled "Who's Messing With the Google Book Settlement? Hint: They're in Redmond, Washington." The New York Law School recently asked the court for permission to voice its concerns on the matter, and Wired took enormous pleasure in pointing out that the law school's Google Book Settlement project is funded solely by Microsoft.

Old Masters

If you're in the mood for reading older translations of classical Nordic literature, the online Open Library project is a useful port of call. Here it's possible to browse scanned facsimile editions of -the collected works of Ibsen in the translations of William Archer and Edmund Gosse (Scribner's, 1907), John Martin Crawford's 1888 translation of the Kalevala, or the plays of August Strindberg in the versions by Edwin Björkman -- to take just three examples from a voluminous store that's accessible free of charge.

The Open Library differs from the by now widely familiar Project Gutenberg in that it offers a listing of every book, not just text files of out-of-print and out-of-copyright titles. Older books, like the one above, are often scanned in their entirety, while those that are still in copyright are simply listed, usually with a photo of the cover, and the bibliographical details. There are at present 22,845,290 titles, 1,064,822 of which are full-text.

The Moomins and the Great Flood

In the context of Moominland we may as well mention another Finland-published English translation. Tove Jansson's first Moomin book, Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen (The Moomins and the Great Flood) first appeared from Schildts in 1946, and since 2005 has been available from the same publisher in my own translation. A version of this translation is also available online - something that Schildts have never been entirely happy about. And thereby hangs a tale, for future telling, perhaps.

Poking Around

Merete Mazzarella has taken the plunge and joined Facebook. But she has some doubts:

Fast en mycket bestämd misstanke har jag: Facebook handlar egentligen inte om att umgås utan om att slippa umgås. Slippa umgås på riktigt alltså, in real life. Och att vilja umgås så man slipper umgås är inget nytt: för hundra år sen lämnade man visitkort hos varandra. Det måste vara som att 'puffa' på Facebook?

"Att puffa", we are told, is the Swedish Facebook equivalent of "to poke". And if one pokes someone who is not a Facebook "friend", one can't see their profile for a certain number of days. A penalty that's probably indeed reminiscent of visiting card etiquette, and fulfils a similar purpose.

The New Books from Finland

The new Web-based version of Books from Finland, the magazine of translated Finnish fiction, poetry, sociology and criticism which has appeared more or less continuously since 1966, is now online. This reincarnation of the journal replaces the paper version, which will no longer be published.

First impressions are mixed - the selection of material is good and varied, but the visual aspect of the site still looks to be in need of some attention. On my screen, at any rate, the orange lettering of the smaller headings is practically invisible, though I guess it may vary from one graphics card to another.

A note on the site does point out that the new operation is still in beta and won't be fully up and running until April, so perhaps it's better not to be too critical. One major useful innovation is a page that allows the reader to browse the magazine's already existing online archive alphabetically by author. I'm told that this feature is due for expansion, and that when it's completed it will provide links to work by hundreds of Finnish writers.