Annäherung an einen hungrigen Eisbären : Finnische Lyrik im deutschsprachigen Raum

Poetry, poems and other literature written in verses have been translated from Finland (Finnish and Finland-Swedish) into German from the very beginning of the translation of literary texts from Finland into German language. The first Finnish poem was translated and printed in German already in the 17th century. In the 19th century, when Finnish literature gained popularity in Europe, forty percent of the translated texts into German from Finland were written in verses. In the 20th century this number
decreased from twenty percent in the first half of the century continually, so that in the 21st century less than nine percent of all literary texts translated from Finland into German are written in verse. Among these is a considerably large number of texts written by Finland-Swedish authors. Literary texts originally written in the Sami language are very scarce. While in Finland there was a debate about the popularity and readability of modern Finnish poetry in the last decade in Germany there is no public discussion about modern poetry be it German or foreign. Still, the audience for lyrical texts in Germany appears to be rather small. Accordingly, the publishing houses for lyrical texts have become little and rather unknown publishers. This must not necessarily diminish the quality of lyrical translations, as some of the publishers are poets themselves or at least specialised in publishing poetry. Among the translators of lyrical texts one can find renowned professionals as well as unknown names. Several of the modern anthologies of lyrical texts have been translated into German by a collective group of translators.