It’s around a month since Worldcon (what! how is it only a month; a gazillion things have happened since then…), so this is probably a good time to post the drabble I shared at the “Why Do Finns Love Their Drabbles” panel on Sunday 13 August. <\/p>\n
I wrote a drabble in English, and then, out of a translator’s interest, translated it into Finnish – keeping the drabble definition of 100 words, of course. I discovered – not suprisingly – that I had to add almost a quarter more words to the Finnish version. The bare-bones translation only came to around 75 words. The wonders of an agglutinative language! I can’t see how you’d be able to translate a drabble (adhering to the 100-word format) from English to Finnish without collaborating closely with the original author: to get to 100 Finnish words, there’s so much stuff to add that translating becomes even more like rewriting than usual.<\/p>\n
It’s far harder to write drabbles in English, too, in my opinion: you can get way more of an actual story into 100 words in Finnish. I can see why drabbles are so popular in Finland! Anyway, I thought I’d share both versions. Those of you who know both languages will be able to appreciate the extra details I added to the Finnish version. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Marketing Trick<\/strong><\/p>\n The sign said: \u201cFirst poem free!\u201d. The poems were printed in green ink, sold by a woman on a street corner. Why would anyone want a second poem? But I can never say no to free stuff. <\/p>\n I read the poem that night. It was terrible, but I went back to the street corner the next day. I needed another poem. It cost 50 euros. <\/p>\n I went back the day after. And the day after. <\/p>\n By the time I realised the ink was addictive, it was too late. I needed more poems. Needed them more than my life savings. <\/p>\n Right?<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n TRANSLATION:<\/p>\n Markkinointikikka<\/strong><\/p>\n Kyltiss\u00e4 luki \u201cEnsimm\u00e4inen runo ilmaiseksi!\u201d. Runot oli painettu vihre\u00e4ll\u00e4 musteella; niit\u00e4 myi mit\u00e4\u00e4nsanomattoman oloinen nainen kadunkulmalla ty\u00f6matkani varrella. Miksi ihmeess\u00e4 kukaan edes haluaisi toisen runon? Mutta enh\u00e4n min\u00e4 ikin\u00e4 pysty kielt\u00e4ytym\u00e4\u00e4n ilmaisesta s\u00e4l\u00e4st\u00e4. Nappasin runon mukaani.<\/p>\n Luin runon samana iltana. Se oli j\u00e4rkytt\u00e4v\u00e4n huono ja lis\u00e4ksi paperiarkin muste takertui kummallisesti sormenp\u00e4ihini. Palasin silti takaisin kadunkulmalle seuraavana p\u00e4iv\u00e4n\u00e4. Minun oli pakko saada toinen runo. Se maksoi 50 euroa. Maksoin mukisematta.<\/p>\n Palasin seuraavanakin p\u00e4iv\u00e4n\u00e4. Ja sit\u00e4 seuraavana. <\/p>\n Siin\u00e4 vaiheessa kun tajusin musteen sis\u00e4lt\u00e4v\u00e4n koukuttavia ainesosia, oli jo liian my\u00f6h\u00e4ist\u00e4. Tarvitsin lis\u00e4\u00e4 runoja. Tarvitsin niit\u00e4 paljon enemm\u00e4n kuin pitk\u00e4\u00e4n karttuneita s\u00e4\u00e4st\u00f6j\u00e4ni. <\/p>\n Eik\u00f6 vaan?<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s around a month since Worldcon (what! how is it only a month; a gazillion things have happened since then…), so this is probably a good time to post the drabble I shared at the “Why Do Finns Love Their Drabbles” panel on Sunday 13 August. I wrote a drabble in English, and then, out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,24,51],"tags":[209,208,12],"class_list":["post-992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative-on-the-blog","category-finnish","category-flash-fiction","tag-drabble","tag-worldcon75","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}