Traduceri din literatura finlandeză în secolul XXI
Finnish literature in Romanian translations in the 21st century

Summary/Abstract: Finnish literature, through its Romanian translations, was never known to be on high demand. Generally speaking, Finnish authors haven’t put on the book market too many best sellers; the evolution was modest, but constant. In Finland, writing is encouraged by the state. Book stores, publishing houses, writers’ associations and libraries are extremely numerous and all equally involved in the promotion of works written in Finnish language. On a scientific level, works in English are also promoted out of the desire to make known to the whole world the achievements of local authors. Going back to the extent in which Romanian society has learned the existence of Finnish literature, we have to say that during the communist era, there have been more translations than after the revolution of 1989. One reason for that might be the influence of soviet ideology, the so called friendship enabled between states having the same regard to Soviet Union. Both Finland and Romania have been, historically, under its umbrella. On the other hand, during the past 20 years, Romanian readers have had the chance of freely discover the authors of the whole world translated into their mother tongue thanks to the growing efforts of the few important publishing houses. As consequence, absorption of Finnish literature decreases dramatically, at least in the ’90s. In the years 2000, finally, Romanians rediscover Scandinavian works and writers due also to the extension of the array of brand new translations made possible by the publishing houses. Most importantly, the list of authors is surprising: Frans Eemil Sillanpää, the only Finnish writer that has been awarded a Nobel Prize, was absent from the list since 1982 up to 2012. Moreover, although the Finnish national epos, Kalevala, has known quite many translations, the last one is dated 12 years ago, in 2001. In the present article, we shell focus on several writers, translated during the last decade, 2003-2013, more precisely Mika Waltari (2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2013), Arto Paasilinna (2010), Sofi Oksanen (2012) and Antti Tuomainen (2012).

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