Saara Turunen’s piece Resonanssi (Resonance), translated from Finnish into English by Owen F. Witesman and from Finnish into Arabic by Maria Pakkala, draws on the autobiographical to speak about resonance from two different directions. On one hand, it deals with the impact of feedback on life choices, on the other, it looks at the relationship between resonance and an artwork, how works affect their environment and change the world.
The text was published in the original Finnish and translations into English and Arabic in our print publication Resonance 2, 2020.
Saara Turunen is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning author, playwright and director. Much of her work examines the themes of art, identity and social norms. Turunen is known not only for her two highly acclaimed novels, Love/Monster (2015) and The Bystander (2018), but also for her work in theatre. Her plays have been translated into numerous languages and performed all around the world. Turunen was awarded the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize in 2015, and the Finland Prize in 2016, both high-profile awards given in Finland.
Maria Pakkala is a translator and interpreter. She holds a Master’s Degree in Translation and a PhD in Arabic and Islamic studies from the University of Helsinki, Finland. She has translated several works from Finnish into Arabic, including non-fiction, novels, poetry, plays and children’s books. She is also a lexicographer and has published an Arabic-Finnish Dictionary in 2008. She was awarded the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences for the Best book translated into Arabic in 2012.
With more than forty published titles spanning all genres, Owen F. Witesman is the most prolific literary translator ever of Finnish into English. His translations include eleven novels from the Maria Kallio mystery series by Leena Lehtolainen, Sofi Oksanen’s Norma, Salla Simukka’s Sisterland, and Laura Lindstedt’s Oneiron, winner of the Finlandia Prize for Literature. Owen holds an MA in Finnish and Estonian and a PhD in public affairs from Indiana University. He resides in Springville, Utah, with his wife, three daughters, one son, a dog, a cat, six legal chickens, eight illegal chickens, and twenty-nine fruit trees.
