Greetings from the Land of Happiness by Özge Bauer
Özge Bauer is a Finnish instructor and Finnish-Turkish translator of many books from children’s literature to novels, including books of Selja Ahava and A.M. Ollikainen. She has been living in Finland and has been contributing to cultural collaboration between Finland and Türkiye for over 16 years. She has shared with us her working and living experience in Finland, and her translations.
For over sixteen years, I have studied and worked in Finnish and Turkish language education and literary studies. In both my master’s and doctoral research, I focused on Finnish and Turkish language teaching, deepening my connection with both cultures through my work as a teacher and translator. Finland is one of the rare countries that truly values both professions. What we cherish shapes our identity. Finland’s secret to being the world's happiest country lies in the values it nurtures and the priorities it upholds as a society.
As a Teacher in the World’s Happiest Country
I have been teaching Turkish via Finnish to students from various professional backgrounds, including embassy workers and journalists. Through a private company, I taught Finnish to healthcare professionals, and designed integration programs to help participants seamlessly adapt to the Finnish work culture.
As a Translator in the World’s Happiest Country
The journey of translating a book doesn’t start overnight. Completing a translation project can sometimes take two to three years. With hundreds of new books and thousands of reprints hitting the shelves each year, choosing the right one can be a challenge—after all, no one has a lifetime long enough to read them all. In this process, literary agencies such as Helsinki Literature, Rights & Brands, and Elina Ahlback Literary Agency, along with Finnish Literature Exchange, play a crucial role in making my work easier. Finnish Literature Exchange not only helps with book selection but also supports translators through workshops, events, and grants.
Finnish is a language unlike any other - it has no future tense or reported past tense (also known as the gossip tense). While its syntax resembles that of Indo-European languages, its morphology is agglutinative, much like other Finno-Ugric languages. When translating a language with such a distinct structure and history, the process goes beyond words, meanings, or even the author’s intent. Sometimes, it means translating tenses and suffixes; other times, it means translating nature itself.
Just as the word olive was borrowed from Latin in countries where olives do
I am delighted to introduce a selection of books I have translated, bringing Finnish literature to a wider audience. These works span a variety of genres, including history, crime fiction, contemporary literature, children's books, and cultural reflections.
Ari Turunen’s Don’t You Know Who I Am? is a compelling historical study on arrogance, exploring how power and hubris have shaped societies throughout history. In the realm of crime fiction, Cargo by A.M. Ollikainen is a gripping Nordic noir thriller that begins with a mysterious shipping container and unfolds into a gripping investigation. The suspense was so masterfully crafted that even though, as a translator, I obsessively pored over each sentence, I still didn’t discover the killer’s identity until the end!
In contemporary literature, Selja Ahava’s The Woman Who Loved Insects follows the life of a woman fascinated by insects, blending historical fiction with philosophical reflections on change and transformation. The book, with "alteration," as its central motif begins with a sentence by novelist Vladimir Nabokov, who was also a noted butterfly expert.
During the two-year translation process of this work, I visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York where some of Nabokov’s butterfly collections and research materials are housed. I also travelled to see butterflies at the Armand Bayou Nature Center in Texas, following the recommendation of my spouse, Jared.
As a translator, I sought to grasp the transformation of the novel's protagonist, a 17th-century figure whose life bridged centuries When you translate a work as if you are examining it in a laboratory, you, too, witness that transformation—you learn, grow, connect, understand, feel sorrow, and experience joy.
A translated book is like a butterfly. Some admire or dislike the butterfly without seeing the transformation that came before it. However, as a translator, you know that the true meaning and mystery lie in the metamorphosis before it emerged as a butterfly.
For younger readers, I have translated Hello Ruby: Journey Inside the Computer by Linda Liukas, an engaging and educational book that introduces children to the world of computers and coding through storytelling. Anja Portin’s Radio Popov is a heartwarming tale about a lonely boy who discovers a secret radio network connecting lost children. Additionally, I have worked on several beloved Moomin books, including Muumiperhe talvella and Muumipeikon talo, which bring Tove Jansson’s enchanting world to life for new generations.
Beyond fiction, I also contributed to the translation of the article The land of white lilies and Finland, part of the Finnish Embassy’s centennial project, reflecting on Finland’s cultural and historical connections.