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English to Finnish: Fashion and her Bicycle (an excerpt from an essay by Max Beerbohm) General field: Art/Literary
Source text - English I wish that Fashion's neglect could doom the bicycle. Of course, it cannot. The bicycle, long before it became Fashion's foible, had all the makings of a national institution, and Fashion's patronage has but speeded its triumphal progress through England. Some things were created by Fashion herself, and perished so soon as she was weary of them. Others, merely adopted by her, are more abiding. Golf, for example, as the most perfect expression of national stupidity, has an assured, uncheckered future; and croquet, as the one outdoor game at which people can cheat, will never be in prolonged abeyance; and bicycling, as a symptom of that locomotomania produced by usage of steam, will endure 'till we go back to the old coaches.' The bicycle is complementary to the steam-engine, doing for the horseless individual what the steam-engine does for the community. It was as inevitable as it is unlovely, and I must put up with it. For the proletariat, it is not merely a necessity, but a great luxury, too. It gratifies that instinct which is common to all stupid people, the instinct to potter with machinery. In the hours of his leisure, if he be not riding, the cyclist is oiling his machine, or cleaning it when it is quite clean, or letting the air out of it for the simple pleasure of inflating it, or unscrewing it, or turning it upside down, or tapping it suspiciously with a pair of pincers. The sight of him is instructive. A mother's solicitude is not more tender than his, Observe him!
Translation - Finnish Voisipa Muodin välinpitämättömyys koitua polkupyörän kohtaloksi. Tietenkään se ei voi. Jo kauan ennen kuin siitä tuli Muodin hairahdus, polkupyörällä oli kaikki edellytykset muodostua kansalliseksi instituutioksi, ja Muodin suoma tuki on vain nopeuttanut sen voittokulkua läpi Englannin. Jotkut asiat ovat Muodin luomuksia ja katoavat oitis hänen väsyttyään niihin. Toiset, sellaiset jotka hän vain ottaa hoiviinsa, ovat kestävämpiä. Esimerkiksi golfilla, kaikkein täydellisimpänä kansallisen tyhmyyden ilmauksena, on taattu, esteetön tulevaisuus; ja kroketti, ainoana ulkopelinä, jossa ihmiset voivat huijata, ei koskaan tule olemaan pitkäaikaisessa epävarmuuden tilassa; pyöräilykin, höyryn käyttämisen synnyttämän lokomotomanian oireena, tulee kestämään, ”kunnes palaamme vanhoihin hevosvaunuihin”. Polkupyörä täydentää höyrymoottoria tehden hevosettomalle yksilölle sen, minkä höyrymoottori tekee yhteiskunnalle. Se oli yhtä väistämätön kuin epämiellyttäväkin ja minun on vain siedettävä sitä. Proletariaatille se ei ole pelkästään välttämättömyys, vaan myös suurta ylellisyyttä. Se tyydyttää sitä vaistoa, joka on yhteinen kaikille tyhmille ihmisille: vaistoa näperrellä koneiden kanssa. Vapaa-ajallaan pyöräilijä öljyää konettaan, puhdistaa sitä, vaikka se on aivan puhdas, päästää siitä ilmat saadakseen täyttää sen uudestaan, purkaa sitä osiin, kääntelee sitä ylösalaisin tai naputtelee sitä epäluuloisesti pihdeillään. On opettavaista katsella häntä. Äidinkään hoiva ei ole hellempää kuin hänen. Tarkkailkaa häntä!
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Years of experience: 22. Registered at ProZ.com: Mar 2011.
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I am a Finnish, 30-something freelance translator with a wide range of interests. I am currently a postgraduate student at the University of Oulu, majoring in the history of science and ideas. As minor subjects, I have taken English philology, philosophy, film studies, art history, general linguistics, environmental studies (in the humanities), and the classical languages, among others.
As a translator, I am not a full-time professional, though I hope to become one after I am finished with my university studies. Although my translation work has lately seemed to be heading towards poetry and fiction, I have during my career translated mostly academic papers dealing with, for instance, literary studies and cultural anthropology. My single most extensive job, however, has been the translation of George Berkeley's classic books A New Theory of Vision and The Principles of Human Knowledge into Finnish. I have also subtitled a documentary film, and, being a cinema buff, hope to be doing more of that in the future.
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