Something Worth Doing: Translating "Life Everlasting" into Swedish

  

I'm translating a book called "Life Everlasting" into Swedish. This project is a lot more difficult than I had envisioned when I volunteered for the project.  To be specific, the book is well over 500 pages long, and it's taken me about forty days to translate forty pages.  I do an hour or more each day. But it's something worth doing.  Really worth doing.

The publishing company isn't paying me. They will pay royalties later, if and when anybody actually buys this book in its Swedish language form. But I am quite certain that the number of Swedish readers who have an interest in life after death from the LDS perspective is so small that it is highly unlikely I'll ever be paid even to break even, for my time.  But that's okay.  Money is not why I'm doing this.

The book is powerful. It blesses people's lives who read it at the right time. My husband read it because when his three year old daughter (who would have been 17 today) was killed in an inexplicable boulder-rolling-down-a-hill accident many years ago, he was so devastated and lost that he thought he'd lost all his faith.  It took him time to rebuild from the bottom up. This book was instrumental in that rebuild.

My friend read it this week. I gave her a copy of it because this year, her mother died, her father found out that he's dying of cancer, and she got divorced.  That is a lot to bear in one year. She told me that she stayed up until 3:00 a.m. the day she received the book. She couldn't stop reading it, and when she was too tired to go on, she got on her knees and prayed and cried, feeling so comforted and feeling the rock of anger that had settled in her heart since her mother's death, dissipate.  She understood many things she had not understood before.

I read it just a year or two ago. It enlightened me so much-- even though I'd been raised since age 9 in this faith, there were statements by our latter-day prophets that I'd never read, that thrilled me. They made the afterlife seem more real, more tangible, more wonderful, and more close than I'd ever imagined it.  It made me want to do more temple work for the dead. It made me want to live closer to God and to outwit the devil and his temptations better than I have before, to rely on God and to know that angels are real, are close, and are more powerful than the devils who try so hard to bring us down.

So, I think this translating process will take all of 2012.  But it will be worth it.

Update on me

Hello. I got laid off from my paid blogging job, sadly, because I needed the money.  I only worked for them for three months. But now I have another reason that I never write here anymore!  I am translating a 538 page book from English into Swedish, something I have never attempted to do. It's going to take me about a year, I think. I do about one page per day, and some days, two pages. But it's a beautiful book and even though I know that I can receive royalties for sales of the book someday, I know very few Swedes will actually buy this book, since it's mostly a Latter-day Saint public that would read it, and not many Swedes are LDS! But I've learned so much from this great book that I actually contacted the author and the publisher and asked them if I could do this. I got a contract and it's on its way. Slowly but surely!!!

Happy Songs That Put Me in a Happy Mood

Aren't some songs are just like flipping a switch on an emotion, as if you had a remote control to your heart and soul? 

If I hear certain bands, and certain singers-- for example, if I hear Swedish folk music, oh baby!  The accordion!  The fiddle! 

The tunes from my childhood summers-- living.  I also love Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band and Louis Armstrong and Ragtime for their happy moods.  I love many Abba songs for the same reason (but watch out-- some Abba songs are depressing, too.) 

Best of all, I love funny plus happy at the same time.  Even if it's corny and way out of style-- like Povel Ramel.

So I thought I'd put up a few examples of music that makes me feel happy.

http://youtu.be/1zWTP4Qp-CE

Vreeswijk sjunger Povel Ramel - Måste Vägen Till Curacao Gynga Så

Vi lossa bananas i Göteborg och styra Atlanten förutan sorg men strax därpå titta himmel grå Vi flyta på vågen som tomma korg Det komma en vind putta till oss hit det komma en till putta till oss dit Men så säg gott folk, kan ni svara på är detta normalt, ska det vara så CHORUS: Måste vägen till Curacao gynga så Kapten ursäkta jag sjynga så Puts väck min sömn till sista uns bland utspilld Genever och tummelduns Samblastchibidarra, kränga hit Samblastchibidarra, slänga dit Banan inte vänta så skynda på mot Curacao, låta gyngan gå Repeat Samblast... Ta alla pinaler du komma åt och lägg hela rasket på gammal plåt och skaka sen upp i himmelen just så flyta livet på våran båt Där ingenting hitta sin rätta plats där inte finns skola att sätta mats Lyss till samma undran från alla håll från badkar och pudding och pingpongboll Chorus Från morgon till middag vi sätter i oss rader av godaste rätter vi ack smörgåsbord ifrån höga nord så läckert med massor av fetter i I magarna mötas all denna mat som förut har legat på skilda fat Ut ur rockefortost tittar rädd microbe och frågar passerande aladobe Dock är vi ej först med vårt brydda rop Låt vara vi gynga i nitton knop Berömda män ifrån längesen Jag se dom i andan om, allihop Jag se hur dom svära vid varsin logg Från Whisky da Gama till kapten Grogg Och Columbus röt ur historiens skägg Ge fan i och stör mig, jag staplar ägg Chorus Vår destination är en hemlighet Vart vi far vår herre allenast vet Banan inte vänta så skynda på Sahlen inte vänta så skynda på mot Jamaica, låta gyngan gå mot Honduras, låta gyngan gå mot Baltimore, låta gyngan gå mot Singapore, låta gyngan gå mot Tokyo, låta gyngan gå mot Luleå, låta gyngan gå mot Curacao, låta gyngan gå What a Wonderful World http://youtu.be/Ws8UtHRNd9U  WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD by Louis Armstrong I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom for me and you, And I think to myself, what a wonderful world. I see skies of blue and clouds of white. The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night, And I think to myself, what a wonderful world. The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky Are also on the faces of people going by, I see friends shaking hands, saying, "How do you do?" They're really saying, "I love you." I hear babies cry, I watch them grow, They'll learn much more, than I'll ever know. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world. Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world. Oh yeah NEXT:  Sommar, Sommar, Sommar http://youtu.be/LxVhe6DFRWY  Eric Sandström - Sten Roland Sommar, sommar, sommar, det är dans i folkets park. Sommar, sommar, sommar, hjärtan skär i trädens bark. Jag vill viska i ditt öra, just de orden du vill höra. Sommar, sommar, sommar, då en mild och smeksam vind, fingrar på din bruna kind. Sommar, blåa fjärdar, vita segel, vind och sol, dofter, ljuva dofter, andas hö och nattviol. Broder, glade broder, glöm den snö som föll i fjol, syster, väna syster, dansa, sväng din röda kjol. Sommar, sommar, sommar, det är sol och himmel blå. Sommar, sommar, sommar, då man helst vill vara två. Den försvinner liksom sanden, som vi silar genom handen. Sommar, sommar, sommar, som en dröm du bleknar bort, du är alltför, alltför kort. Barfotavisan http://youtu.be/nyzLCd3qEyM Det finns så mycket att titta på, när sommarn kommer till oss, grodor som hoppar i bäck och damm, och kalvar som nyss kommit loss. Barfota utan strumpor och skor, ska jag vandra med dej, ut till sommarn där vindarna bor, till ros och förgätmigej. Jag plockar smultron vid vägens kant, och trär sen upp dem på strån, det killar så skönt under foten min, jag känner gruset med tån. En svala flyger med svindlande fart, och måsarna skränar i skyn, och hästen gnäggar och andra ljud, som vi hör när vi går genom byn. Barfota utan strumpor och skor, ska jag vandra med dej, ut till sommarn där vindarna bor, till ros och förgätmigej. Jag plockar smultron vid vägens kant, och trär sen upp dem på strån, det killar så skönt under foten min, jag känner gruset med tån. Ett rådjur står där vid skogens kant, det ser oss när vi går förbi, ja, sommarn har mycket mera att ge, åt din och min fantasi. Barfota utan strumpor och skor, ska jag vandra med dej, ut till sommarn där vindarna bor, till ros och förgätmigej. Jag plockar smultron vid vägens kant, och trär sen upp dem på strån, det killar så skönt under foten min, jag känner gruset med tån. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do. -Abba http://youtu.be/AyGmvfJiJ-4 Love me or leave me, make your choice but believe me I love you I do, I do, I do, I do, I do I can't conceal it, don't you see, can't you feel it? Don't you too? I do, I do, I do, I do, I do Oh, I've been dreaming through my lonely past Now I just made it, I found you at last So come on, now let's try it, I love you, can't deny it 'Cos it's true I do, I do, I do, I do, I do Oh, no hard feelings between you and me If we can't make it, but just wait and see So come on, now let's try it, I love you, can't deny it 'Cos it's true I do, I do, I do, I do, I do So love me or leave me, make your choice but believe me I love you I do, I do, I do, I do, I do I can't conceal it, don't you see, can't you feel it? Don't you too? I do, I do, I do, I do, I do

Swedish Mormon Messages

Okay, now I'm so glad I was up late tonight because I stumbled on these wonderful little videos done by Swedish Mormons.  I love them. 

The first one is my favorite: about how a Swedish professor --an athiest-- became converted to God and to the gospel of Jesus Christ through the Book of Mormon and an experience on September 11th in America.

http://www.jesukristikyrka.se/mormoner-beraettar-filmer/dorotea-11-september.html

http://www.jesukristikyrka.se/mormoner-beraettar-filmer/patrik-om-saknad.html

http://www.jesukristikyrka.se/mormoner-beraettar-filmer/erik-om-livets-mening.html

http://www.jesukristikyrka.se/mormoner-beraettar-filmer/sandra-om-livets-mening.html

http://www.jesukristikyrka.se/mormoner-beraettar-filmer/ruth-om-friden-i-jesus-kristus.html

http://www.jesukristikyrka.se/mormoner-beraettar-filmer/miriam-bli-lyft-av-gud.html

Swedish Lessons

I feel like I am constantly, constantly nagging the kids to speak only Swedish.  Sometimes I get energetic about the nagging and attach consequences:  next kid who speaks English has to do ten pushups; next kid who speaks English has to sweep and mop under the baby's high chair.  Sometimes I make A.J., who is the worst "Swenglish" offender, repeat his sentences from the beginning.  If they were 70 percent English, I do that. 

I found some adorable Swedish kid songs on YouTube the other day, and played them over and over for the baby.  The other kids were at school.  I need to keep up the brainwashing or they and I will lose this great language. 

Why do I try so hard?  We are third generation Swedish Americans, now.  My mother was born in Sweden and emigrated at age nineteen as a stewardess hired by an American airline.  I was born in Germany, only because my pilot dad was stationed there at the time.  I got to go to Sweden every summer, and stay all summer, all my growing up years.  But I went to American schools and my most fluent reading language is English.  My kids were born in America and although they've been to Sweden, it was short and long ago and now we can't afford it.  And the language gets more and more diluted.  Even my own mother is guilty of Swenglish.  I ask her what words mean, and she knows them, but she gets lazy or else she thinks we won't know the word, so she throws in an English word mid-Swedish-sentence.

We only speak Swedish, my mother and I, on the phone.  She lives across the country.  My siblings and I also speak Swedish to each other, always, unless a non Swedish spouse is in the room.  But the kids, we all have to nag.  I nag the most persistently and doggedly.  My younger sister has given up, and only speaks Swedish around her children when she visits my mother.  My brother is married to a Czech, so they speak primarily Czech, next English, and their kids only speak a few rare words in Swedish.  My older sister's kids speak as well as mine do, but their Swenglish is huge.  And my older sister does not force her kids to speak in Swedish to each other, like I do.  She just speaks Swedish with them.  Her husband speaks it, too, since he served a mission in Sweden.  My husband only understands a little Swedish, although he is very supportive of us speaking Swedish.  But we only speak it when he's in another room, or at work, for the most part. 

I nag and I will continue to nag because Swedish is the language of great love, to me.  It's the language of so many of my favorite relatives and ancestors.  It's a friendly sounding, cheery and musical language.  It reminds me of childhood, which for me was extremely happy.

I wonder if my kids will ever use this language when they grow up.  I hope so.  It's a warm and living link to the past and to countless beautiful and old traditions.

Swedish Stuff From a Missionary's pov: From a Swedish Mission Website

I read the following list on a Swedish Mission website.  I think it's funny, especially because it's Sweden from the point of view of a non-Swedish LDS missionary.<><> <><> <><> <><><><> <><> <><> <><><><> <><><><> <><>

Things That Are Different in Sweden:  For Missionaries

Completely in the spirit of fun, tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating humor, here is a list of things that are different in Sweden from what we provincial Americans might expect. Be careful. The next door in the uppgång (walk-up) is the backdoor of the last guy who is still not interested. Beer in pop machines. If you guzzle a glass of water on hot day, you are being rude and demanding more NOW! They have an island called "Island land" (Öland). Dog Toilets. Fireworks at christmas, easter and just about every occasion (at least when there's darkness). Traffic lights click or beep so blind pedestrians can tell whether the light is red or green. You can take off the showerhead and rinse the conditioner in 30 seconds instead of five minutes. Also you can wash your hair without washing your body if you're in a hurry. If you're not careful, you will still be knocking on doors in summer at 11:00 pm...and the sun is still out. You turn on bike headlights in the winter at 3:00 pm. Old Swedes go on walks with cats and rodents and use a leash to drag the helpless animal behind. A can of Coke costs USD 2.00 (SEK 15) at a cafe. Everybody has super deluxe baby carriages with heavy duty wheels. No matter how little snow there is, everyone uses studded tires all winter. No salad is complete without grated carrots. Swedish kids learn to cook in elementary school. Girls dress up as witches for Easter and boys dress up as hobos. Kids sell Bingo/Lotto tickets at the grocery store for fund raising projects. What you think is a Ku Klux Klan rally in December is really a Santa Lucia procession. All furniture made of light beechwood or pine. Unedited R-rated movies on regular (non-cable) TV. Windows with Venetian blinds in-between two panes of glass. You can camp, hunt, & pick berries on private property. You attach your phone cord to the wall with something that looks like a 220-V plug. Everybody owns a cellular phone. Red boxes around town you put your used batteries in. Everyone takes the rainiest month off in summer for vacation. Front doors on the back of houses shaped like barns. They claim that wall-to-wall carpeting is why americans get sick, but almost everyone in Sweden has a cold. Americans like fluffy towels, while Swedes like to smash them in a mangler. Pear ice cream. Popular pizza toppings include bananas and curry, or artichoke hearts and roast beef. "Swedish pizza" to missionaries means "thin, flimsy crust made by a middle-eastern person". If you're patriotic, you're probably a racist. Köttfärs is not hamburger as we know it. You can practically step outside your back door and be in a forest, and pick berries that are in season. You've got to squeegee the whole bathroom floor after taking a shower. Cab drivers drive Mercedes Benz. It takes a crew of six Swedes a week to rip up a cobblestone sidewalk, scrape the dirt off the back, and put it back in. (Not counting bad weather, holidays, fikas.) Cops drive Volvos and Saabs. Half naked women answer the door. Swedes don't know what a 'date' is. They always go to dances and parties in a group. The amount of daylight you get at different times of year, light in the summer, dark in the winter. You don't have to lock your bicycle to a lamp post. Just lock the wheel so it doesn't turn, and nobody will take it. You can't buy greeting cards, aspirin, deli sandwiches, develop film, rent videos or bank at the grocery store, but you have to do all that at separate stores. When you order spaghetti, don't forget to ask for sauce and meatballs, or all you'll get is the noodles. Pear-flavored and blood-orange-flavored pop. While Snapple claims to be made from the best stuff on earth, Bob saft is the best stuff on earth. Pregnant women bicycle. More store owners honor the Sabbath day. Plastic grocery bags made to last more than five minutes. You can't tell by looking at what kind of handle a door has whether you should push or pull. "Valentine's Day" decorations at Christmas time Illuminated red buttons to turn the hallway lights on for two minutes. Root beer is not popular. The natives think it tastes like toothpaste. Corn on the cob is not for human consumption. Chocolate soda pop. You can ride a bicycle without getting killed. "Kaviar" (actually smoked cod roe) is a snack food in toothpaste tubes. If an elevator is on the third floor and you are on the first and want to go up, you have to tell the elevator to come down. Elevators with no doors on the cab, just the stationary ones at each floor. You could touch the wall moving past as the elevator moves. Continuously running elevators that you jump on and off of like a ski lift (paternoster?). Licorice can be salty. You'll burn your mouth if you're not careful. Rotten fish in a bulging can is a delicacy (surströmming). Riding a bicycles on a cobblestone street. Shaving not as popular with girls. Rose hip tea (nypon soppa). "Hockey" with curved clubs and a very small ball (bandy). Traffic lights turn yellow on both stop and go. Doorknobs on toilets and toilet handles on doors. Asking for "peanut butter and jelly" is like asking for "rock candy and frosting." You can get by on SEK 5,- in food budget per week. Everybody wants you to come in and "fika." It's not surprising to see a movie theater or a bicycle repair shop closed for a month in the middle of the summer. You go to a health food store to buy maple syrup. If you order a pizza with olives you get a whole unpitted olive rolling around on top of your pizza. A clothes dryer is a luxury (but a drying room isn't). The spin cycle is handled by a different machine than the wash and rinse cycles. If you think a Swede is suffocating she may just be saying yes. You can serve ice cream with a knife. Mayonnaise comes in toothpaste tubes. If it weren't for the engine running you might be able to hear a pin drop on a bus with 75 people on it. When a Swede talks about "the system", he's not talking about beating the establishment; he's talking about buying liquor. A person who speaks only one language is rarer in Sweden than a polyglot is in the USA. Thanks to Donald Einar Asp, Mathew Bone, Ted Boren, Rick Bosler, David Boss, Brian M. Boyd, James Davis, Harold Dozier, Gustav-Eric Engstrom, Erick Hartman, Ric Jensen, Christian Karlsson, Dale Olson, Gary Oviatt, Kenth I. Svensson, Lee Swindlehurst and Chad Woolley.

I love Ilon Wikland Illustrations

Much as I love the books of Astrid Lindgren, sometimes I think it's the illustrations of those books, (most are by Ilon Wikland) that have created much of that loving feeling.

So, here are some Ilon Wikland illustrations.  Enjoy!

Astrid och Agnetha

http://www.agnethaarchives.com/articles/ANonsmokingGeneration.htm

   I thought this was fun to read:  an article (in English, not Swedish!) where both Astrid Lindgren, one of the best writers of children's literature, and Agnetha Faltskog, one of the singers in ABBA, were interviewed about their lives and about why they felt young people should not begin to smoke.    

http://www.agnethaarchives.com/articles/ANonsmokingGeneration.htm

Generations Away From the Old Countries and the Lutfisk

This cracked me up:  my  friend, also a 2nd generation real Swede,  who went to the Scandinavian festival in Ephraim this year,  said:  "My boys kept asking 'Where's all the Swedish stuff?' as we walked around the place. My husband kept saying, 'We must be in the wrong area... there must be a Swedish area...' NOPE!"

---and she laughed at the Viking dinner recipe blunders, like cucumbers pickled with parsley instead of dill, and cranberry sauce as a side instead of lingonberries-- but she said she really enjoyed her  "Swedish" carne asade tacos.

Scandinavian food, music, and merchandise represented maybe 1 or 2% of the whole carnival offerings.  I wondered why they still bothered to call the festival Scandinavian.  There were more Himalayan and Peruvian booths than there are Norwegian or Danish ones.  There was a lot more American merchandise, storytelling, and music than any Swedish, Finnish, or Icelandic. 

Yet, I'm not utterly disappointed in Ephraim's Scandinavian Days' authenticity.  We did find some crocheted and plastic viking helmets, some dalahastar, some meatballs, and some reindeer jewelry. And it's always good to have family time, anywhere, anyplace.

I do understand that time changes things, including the connectedness a group of people feel, or don't feel, for their cultural heritage.  Sanpete County had Scandinavian ancestors, but the locals are no longer Scandinavian.  They are Americans.  It's the same in Midway, with Swiss Days.  They have a hard time even being motivated to want to hold on to old-world traditions.  No one visits the old world anymore.  No one speaks the language.

But in our family, we were able to.  We went to Sweden every summer, and spent months, up until  college age.  We always spoke Swedish, even when we lived in Germany or America.  And so do my kids.  I love, love, love my Swedish heritage!

So, all night, I've been dreaming up even more things to add to the list of 50+ ways to improve Scandinavian Days in Ephraim. 

·         Cute red-and-white outhouses for port-o-potties.

·          Puppet shows and puppet or marionette making, with Scandinavian characters, of course.

·          Fil-mjolk taster's table.

·          Artists-and-writers-event, celebrating Carl Larsson, Anders Zorn, Selma Lagerlof, Ilon Wikland, Astrid Lindgren, Ingmar Bergman, and live Scandinavian-American artists, too.

·          Ceramic and glass blowing demonstrations. 

·         Wild strawberries.

·          Wild mushrooms.

·          Look-alike contests that not only include ABBA, but also Scandinavian royalty, Astrid Lindgren characters, or Moomintrolls.  He-man viking games --that also include the women.

My mom said that I also forgot to mention holiday traditions:

·         Lucia.

·          Dressing up Kids as Nice Easter Witches.

·          Advent candles.

·          Fetisdagsbullar. 

·         Midsummer wreaths in the hair

Fetisdagsbulle

Advent Ljus

Pask Karringar

She emailed me: "Jag tror problemet var att folk helt enkelt inte vet mycket om Sverige och vet inte hur det ska vara. Nasta ar kan jag skicka min svenska klanning om du vill lana den. Man kan ju latt gora midsommarkransar att satta i haret av silkeblommor. Nu ska jag gora en silltallrik med potatis och hart brod till lunch. Jag var till IKEA igar pa vagen hem "

--which translates:  "I think the problem is that people simply don't know much about Sweden [Scandinavia] and don't know how it should be.  Next year I can send you my Swedish traditional dress to borrow.  You can also easily make midsummer wreaths to put on your hair, of flowers.  Now I am making a pickled herring plate with potatoes and hard bread for lunch.  I was at Ikea yesterday on the way home..."

Another friend told me that I should start my own Scandinavian days.  "You SHOULD start your own! The neat thing is you know your heritage & it has been strongly passed down.  A lot of people don't get that. (Most of us are "mutts" so to speak!) I bet in the beginning those festivals were more authentic, yet each generation loses a bit and gets more "Americanized" if it isn't continued to be passed down. "

Generations from now, my grandchildren probably will not understand or be charmed by "Petter och Hans Fyra Getter," "Emil," or "Ronja Rovardotter," nor get the point of dancing around the midsummer pole/ Christmas tree while holding hands, or like the smell of cardamom bread, the melody of the troll lullabye, the sturdiness of a dalahast in the windowsill, the tastes of lingonberry jam, or pickled herring, or liverwurst (for breakfast with pickles, on hard bread, with hot chocolate.) 

But I really hope they will.

Anyway, I have decided with my sister that we'll have our own little Midsummer Fest again this year, here in the back yard, with dancing, singing, Swedish games and lots of good Swedish food.  I will post pictures when we do. 

Anybody want to come?  It will be potluck, and I promise not to complain if you bring Italian Ices or Carne Asada instead of Lutfisk. 

(I have never gotten past the smell to eat any Lutfisk, so my grandchildren probably never will learn to love it, either. ) That's how these things go.