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Article published In: Target
Vol. 13:1 (2001) ► pp.45–70

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Finnish comet in German skies

Translation, retranslation and norms

 | University of Joensuu, Finland
Published online: 27 May 2002
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https://doi.org/10.1075/target.13.1.04kuj
The German comet’s tail of the Finnish Seitsemän veljestä by Aleksis Kivi—eight different translations by six translators—is spread out over the 20th century. As an exceptional case in Finnish-German translation history it provides attractive material for the translation historian interested in the historical dynamics of literary translation. This article sketches briefly the different profiles of these translations, points out the multiplicity of potential translation modes and goes on to explore the reasons for three translators’ actual choices by focusing on the socio-political situation of the translation event with its time-bound normative conditions.
Résumé
Les traductions allemandes de Seitsemän veljestä par Aleksis Kivi ressemblent à une queue decomète: huit versions différentes par six traducteurs, échelonnées sur le XXe siècle. Casexceptionnel dans l’histoire des traductions de l’allemand en finnois, cet exemple de ladynamique historique propre à la traduction littéraire présente un grand intérêt pourl’historien de la traduction. Le présent article esquisse les différents profils des traductions,indique la multiplicité virtuelle des modes de traduction, et enchaîne par une analyse deschoix opérés par les traducteurs; il s’attache en particulier à la situation socio-politique del’événement traductif ainsi qu’aux normes liées au contexte temporel.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Individual translation profiles
  • 3.Three translations in context: Possible selections and norms
    • 3.1Finns as commissioners
    • 3.2 Die sieben Brüder in the Third Reich—Hahm-Blåfield’s translation
    • 3.3 Die sieben Brüder in the Third Reich—Öhquist’s first translation
    • 3.4Öhquist twenty years later
  • 4.In conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (51)
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