Lost in translation

Having grown up knowing a few essential phrases of Swedish for basic survival when meeting up with family, I've spent much of my adult life trying to improve my linguistic skill. Not for any particular reason - it's not as though I've spent much time in Sweden over the past 25 years - and most of the Swedes in the places we've been to are extremely competent in English - but it's an important part of my heritage and background, and I've wanted to be more proficient. Over the years I've spent a lot of hours on Duolingo learning such helpful phrases as 'if the moose bathed it would become clean', 'the thief has stolen the paintings', and 'the turtle doesn't like strawberries' (not to mention 'is there any good treatment for cancer' - thanks, Duo!), as well as listening to podcasts from swedish radio, and reading books.

No, my book-buying compulsions are not limited to English books. Less than 10 years ago I had half a dozen Swedish novels - I now have 3-4 bookshelves full (depending on which bookcase they're on and if I can find them all!). I started with a couple of translations of books I had read in English, but very quickly moved over to 'properly Swedish' books, buying things by Swedish authors. For all that I'm very happy reading Swedish, I'm still generally nervous about speaking it, so 4 years ago when my beloved and I were in Gothenburg and I was about to go into my fourth bookshop in 3 days, he said I should ask the shop assistant for some recommendations. Safe to say I was not at all convinced! However, I decided to brave it, and managed perfectly well to talk about the kind of books and authors I liked, and to get some suggestions. Some of them have turned out very well, and I've bought more books from the same authors!

biggest frustration I have with reading non-English literature is when I really want to recommend the book to others, but find it hasn't been translated - or at least not into English! It's one thing when I can read the new Fredrick Backman and tell my friend just how much she's going to love it - it's another thing altogether when there's a book which is incredibly powerful, but which just isn't available. Majgull Axelsson's Jag Heter Inte Miriam ('My name isn't Miriam') is the top of my list for this. It's an amazing story about a woman who, on her 85th birthday, tells her family that her name isn't actually Miriam. They start to wonder if she's developed dementia, but it turns out that she has kept a secret from her family about her Romani origins and her experiences in Nazi Germany. For reasons beyond my comprehension, it's been translated into Dutch, German, Italian, Russian, Norwegian and Danish - but not English! Gah!

I was recently offered a challenge by a colleague: to translate a particular passage of Nils Holgersson's wonderful journey - another book which has been on my shelves for more years than I can remember. I honestly can't remember when or where I acquired my copy - but at a daunting 592 pages, I had never even opened it. I read an abridged version in English many many years ago, so had a rough idea of the basic story, but although knowing it was written for schoolchildren back in the first decade of the 20th century, I've been too intimidated. However, I'm not one to back down from a reading challenge, so I braved it - and you know what? It's fine! In less than a week I've got almost halfway through it, and am looking forward to continuing and finding out all about life in different parts of Sweden a century ago! I think reading this book and translating that passage might just qualify as a suitable challenge for the Linguist badge...

For a different approach, I recently bought and read the first two 'Detective Ulf Varg' boos my Alexander McCall Smith. I haven't read any of his other books, having not been taken with the first No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency one I picked up to try many years ago. But relatively gentle crime fiction set in Sweden? Very happy to try that! Having read the first one, I was not sure what I thought of it, so read the second. Still not sure - and not sure I'm uncertain enough to buy the third one! For all that they're set in Sweden, they just don't feel plausible to me. Some of it is that the characters frequently use expressions which just don't translate, but I can't quite put my finger on my main discomfort. Maybe it's just the juxtaposition of the Swedish setting but the very British style, but there's something. The Mord i Falsterbo ('Murder in Falsterbo') series by Christina Olseni and Micke Hansen, on the other hand, is always a fun romp - it's amazing how many times a group of pensioner friends can accidentally find a corpse, worry about how they might get in trouble, and try to dispose of it without the local police officers (one of whom is a nephew to one of the main characters!) discovering their involvement.

My desperation for new books extends beyond the immediate family. Of course I've asked my parents to pick up books for me sometimes when they've been going to Sweden shortly after the paperback release of something which I'm eagerly awaiting. And my beloved went on a work trip there a few years ago, so got sent with a list of the Most Important Books I Needed. But I also have a friendly colleague who had a short holiday in Stockholm a year or so ago, and foolishly offered to pick a couple of books up for me. Fortunately she apparently loves going into bookshops, even in places where she isn't fluent, so was happy to explore and see what she could find from my list of Essentials! This year though it's my turn again - I'll be in Sweden in just over two months (yay!), and am already collating my book list...

Bookshop wrapping paper from the books which Mr B bought me from his trip to Sweden