translations – Page 16 – Living in FIN

Got the Matra Blues

September 1, 2015September 1, 2015 hecksinductionhourLeave a comment

Imatra ranked at the tail end of Finnish municipalities in a happiness study by newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, in 243rd place. [Neighboring] Ruokalahti, on the contrary, did fairly well, coming in as Finland’s fifty-eighth happiest municipality. [Neighboring] Rautjärvi ended up in 199th place. At the moment there are a total of 317 municipalities in Finland, sixteen of which are in the [autonomous] Åland Islands.

[…]

In Imatra, use of anti-depression medications is slightly above the national average. Nine percent of residents take anti-depressants, while the average is 8.4 percent among Finnish municipalities. Child welfare clients among minors residing in Imatra is as much as ten percent, while the average is 6.5 percent among Finnish municipalities.

Also, the number of offenses committed while drunk or under the influence of drugs is relatively high. Two people per every thousand Imatrans are charged with having committed a crime while intoxicated, whereas the average in Finland is 1.2 person per thousand residents.

[…]

—Mari Lääperi, “Imatra Did Not Fare Well in Happiness Comparison,” Uutisvuoksi, September 1, 2015

Photo and translation by Living in FIN

Pentti Saarikoski: Trotsky Says

August 28, 2015August 28, 2015 hecksinductionhourLeave a comment

kuuluisassa vallankumouksen historiassaan Trotski kertoo
kun Leninillä
oli silmälasit ja tekotukka
kun Pietarissa satoi
äiti Venäjä synnytti lasta
josta oli tuleva

kun tarjoilu on loppunut
asiakkkaat hätistelty pois
tuolit nostettu pöytien päälle
ja kassa laskee rahoja
kun katsoo tätä ulkoa
ja kaikki on niin kuin tavallisesti
ja jatkuu ja on jatkunut

auto näyttää omaisuuden arvoiselta minä olen pelkkää
pimeyttä niinkuin enkeli
joka lentää omaa valoaan nopeammin

—Pentti Saarikoski, Mitä tapahtuu todella? (1962)

in his famous history of the Revolution Trotsky says
when Lenin
had glasses and a wig
when it was raining in Petersburg
Mother Russia gave birth to a child
from which the future emerged

when service is over
the customers shooed out
the chairs put on the tables
and the cashier is counting the money
when one looks at this from outside
and everything is as usual
and goes on and has been going on

the car looks like it is worth a fortune I am mere
darkness like an angel
who flies faster than its own light

—Pentti Saarikoski, What Is Really Happening? (1962)

Translation and collage by Living In FIN

Hannu Salakka, “I Go Swimming”

August 20, 2015October 31, 2016 hecksinductionhour1 Comment

Menen uimaan,
mutta ensin seison hiljaa vedessä
että kalat tulevat näykkimään jalkojeni ihokarvoja.
Saunan savu leviää rannan ylle.
En ole minkään ikäinen.

—Hannu Salakka, Ennen kaipasin tähän (Helsinki: Otava, 1983)

I go swimming,
but first I stand quietly in the water
so the fish come and nibble the hair on my legs.
Sauna smoke spreads over the shore.
I am no age at all.

—Hannu Salakka, I Missed This Before (Helsinki: Otava, 1983)

Translated by Living in FIN