Keith Bosley

Last updated

Keith Bosley
Keith Bosley - cropped.png
Bosley in 2013
Born
Keith Anthony Bosley

16 September 1937
Died24 June 2018(2018-06-24) (aged 80)
Slough, Berkshire, England
Occupation(s)Poet, translator
HonoursKnight of the Order of the White Rose of Finland

Keith Anthony Bosley (16 September 1937 – 24 June 2018) was a British poet, translator, and radio broadcaster. Born in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, he studied French at university before starting his career at the BBC, where he worked primarily as a newsreader. Although he published three volumes of original poetry, Bosley is best known for his work as a translator. A polyglot, he claimed to have translated poetry to English from up to forty languages, and had published collections translated from Finnish, French, Portuguese, Hebrew, Vietnamese, Polish, Russian, and German.

Contents

Career

Keith Anthony Bosley was born in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire on 16 September 1937. His father was a signalman, and worked on nearby rail-lines. Growing up and beginning school in Maidenhead, Berkshire, he later attended Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow. From 1956, Bosley studied French at the University of Reading under Michael Hamburger, continuing at Sorbonne University and the University of Caen Normandy; he graduated in 1960. [1] [2]

Finishing university, Bosley started work with the BBC in 1961, as an announcer and newsreader for the World Service at Bush House. There, he wrote many scripts, some comprising series on poetry and literature to be read himself, and also delivered announcements to open and close programmes including "From Our Own Correspondent". Bosley did shift work with the BBC, working both day and night shifts: this allowed him to spend some time at work translating. Bosley has been praised for his voice, being described as having a "distinctive, resonant and musical voice, much admired by his devoted followers all over the world"; concerning his audio-book work, Finnish folklorist Henni Ilomäki  [ Wikidata ] wrote of his "practised enunciation [as] beautiful and clear." His career spanned over 30 years with the Corporation: he retired in 1993. [1] [2]

Translations

Finnish

Bosley first encountered the Finnish language when he was given a Finnish-English dictionary by his uncle during his youth. Afterwards, he studied Finnish it with a grammar written in German. Finding William Forsell Kirby's 1907 translation of the Kalevala in a used bookstore, he became irritated by its lack of fluidity, and resolved to read the original Finnish. [2] [3]

As a translator, Bosley realised several books of Finnish folk poetry into English, as well as modern works: The Last Temptations by Joonas Kokkonen, Whitsongs by Eino Leino, and work by Aleksis Kivi as Odes. Over the course of several decades, Bosley translated and published the Kalevala, a 22,795-verse-long epic poem compiled and edited by Elias Lönnrot from the folk poetry of Karelia and Finland; the poem is Finland's national epic. [4] [2] In 1966, and again in 1971, Bosley published extracts of it for children, and two years later published the fourth canto under the title The Song of Aino. In 1977, folklorist Matti Kuusi and linguist Michael Branch, having seen these poetry translations, brought him to work together on a bilingual anthology of Finnish verse, which was released in 1977. [2]

Bosley published some verses of the Kalevala in 1985, but a full version only appeared four years later: due to its older style and ideas, the text was more challenging to work on than others. Bosley wrote about his experiences in translating the work and his philosophy of translation in Taking the Rough with the Smooth, and an article, Translating the Kalevala: Midway Reflections. In these, he wrote of his responsibility as translator towards the text, and the importance of not introducing himself into the text, and thereby hindering connection with the original author. Thus, he stood against using more modern free metre and using modern phrasing. Bosley especially had issue with finding an appropriate metre - Finnish poetry uses metre constructed on a unit of syllables, whereas English-language poetry uses multi-syllable feet. However, he found using feet too flat, and so to find a natural-sounding metre drew on the cywydd of Middle Welsh poetry he had read as a child: [2]

The only way I could devise of reflecting the vitality of Kalevala metre was to invent my own, based on syllables rather than feet… I eventually arrived at seven, five and nine syllables respectively, using the impair[ sic ] (odd number) as a formal device and letting the stresses fall where they would.
Keith Bosley, The Kalevala, preface

The work took five years, with Bosley translating one hundred verses every night during shifts at the BBC. When published in the Oxford World's Classics series, it attracted praise from reviewers, especially for his metre. The edition saw reprints in 1990 and in 2008; [2] after his wife suggested he make an audio-book version due to his skill in narration and experience with the text, he recorded and released an audio edition with Naxos in 2013. The audio-book spanned 12 CDs, with a duration of roughly thirteen and a half hours. [3] In addition to the Kalevala, Bosley also rendered much of the Kanteletar , another less widely-known collection of Finnish verse by Lönnrot, into English. Here, he was the first to do so, publishing in 1992. [5] A year later, he again worked with Branch, alongside Lauri Honko and Senni Timonen, to produce a large work of poetry from across the Finno-Ugric peoples and languages: this comprised over 30 poets, 450 poems, and 13 languages, including Veps, Mordvin, Udmurt, and Livonian. [2] [6]

Personal life

Bosley's church, St Laurence's Church, Upton-cum-Chalvey St. Laurence Upton, Slough - geograph.org.uk - 71130.jpg
Bosley's church, St Laurence's Church, Upton-cum-Chalvey

Bosley was first married to vocalist Helen Sava, and with her had one son. In 1982, several years after concluding his partnership with Sava, he married harpist Satu Salo, and with her had two sons. Bosley played the pipe organ and piano, particularly enjoying the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. [1] [3] Starting public performance on the organ at sixteen, he was organist of his local church of St Laurence's Church, Upton-cum-Chalvey for over forty years, finishing in 2015. Bosley wrote a pamphlet about the location of the churchyard in Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, in which he hypothesised that the titular location was that of St. Laurence's instead of at the nearby Church of St Giles, Stoke Poges. [1] [2] [7]

On 24 June, 2018, Bosley died in a nursing home in Slough, aged 80, after a short illness. [1] [2]

Honours and awards

Ribbon bar of the Knight of the Order of the White Rose FIN Order of the White Rose Ribbon BAR.svg
Ribbon bar of the Knight of the Order of the White Rose

In 1979, in recognition of the anthology published with Kuusen and Branch the two years before, Bosley was awarded the annual Finnish State Prize for Foreign Translators by FILI, with prize money of €15,000. In 1980, he was invited to become a corresponding member of the Finnish Literature Society, and the next year was made a Knight, First Class of the Order of the White Rose of Finland. [7] [8] In the United Kingdom, Bosley won prizes in competitions held by the English Goethe Society and British Comparative Literature Association. [2]

Publications

Poetry
Translations
Audiobooks

Related Research Articles

<i>Kalevala</i> 1835 Finnish epic poem compiled by Elias Lönnrot

The Kalevala is a 19th-century compilation of epic poetry, compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and retaliatory voyages between the peoples of the land of Kalevala called Väinölä and the land of Pohjola and their various protagonists and antagonists, as well as the construction and robbery of the epic mythical wealth-making machine Sampo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sampo</span> Magical artifact in Finnish mythology

In Finnish mythology, the Sampo is a magical device or object described in many different ways that was constructed by the blacksmith Ilmarinen and that brought riches and good fortune to its holder, akin to the horn of plenty (cornucopia) of Greek mythology. When the Sampo was stolen, Ilmarinen's homeland fell upon hard times. He sent an expedition to retrieve it, but in the ensuing battle it was smashed and lost at sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elias Lönnrot</span> Finnish polymath and poet (1802–1884)

Elias Lönnrot was a Finnish polymath, physician, philosopher, poet, musician, linguist, journalist, philologist and collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry. He is best known for synthesizing the Finnish national epic, Kalevala from short ballads and lyric poems he gathered from Finnish oral tradition during several field expeditions in Finland, Russian Karelia, the Kola Peninsula and Baltic countries. In botany, he is remembered as the author of the 1860 Flora Fennica, the first scientific text written in Finnish rather than in Latin.

Finnish mythology commonly refers of the folklore of Finnish paganism, of which a modern revival is practiced by a small percentage of the Finnish people. It has many shared features with Estonian and other Finnic mythologies, but also with neighbouring Baltic, Slavic and, to a lesser extent, Norse mythologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alliterative verse</span> Form of verse

In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal device to indicate the underlying metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of alliterative verse are those found in the oldest literature of the Germanic languages, where scholars use the term 'alliterative poetry' rather broadly to indicate a tradition which not only shares alliteration as its primary ornament but also certain metrical characteristics. The Old English epic Beowulf, as well as most other Old English poetry, the Old High German Muspilli, the Old Saxon Heliand, the Old Norse Poetic Edda, and many Middle English poems such as Piers Plowman, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Layamon's Brut and the Alliterative Morte Arthur all use alliterative verse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ilmarinen</span> A god from the Finnish mythology

Ilmarinen, a blacksmith and inventor in the Kalevala, is a god and archetypal artificer from Finnish mythology. He is immortal and capable of creating practically anything, but is portrayed as being unlucky in love. He is described as working the known metals of the time, including brass, copper, iron, gold, and silver. The great works of Ilmarinen include the crafting of the dome of the sky and the forging of the Sampo. His usual epithet in the Kalevala is seppä or seppo ("smith"), which is the source of the given name Seppo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Väinämöinen</span> Main character in the Finnish national epic Kalevala

Väinämöinen is a demigod, hero and the central character in Finnish folklore and the main character in the national epic Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot. Väinämöinen was described as an old and wise man, and he possessed a potent, magical singing voice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Karelia</span> Historical region in Russia

White Karelia is a historical region in Northern Europe, comprising the northernmost part of Karelia, and of the Republic of Karelia in Russia. It is bordered by the White Sea to the east, Murmansk Oblast to the north, Finland to the west, and the Muyezersky and Segezhsky Districts of the Republic of Karelia to the south.

Finnish poetry is the poetry from Finland. It is usually written in the Finnish language or Swedish language, but can also include poetry written in Northern Sámi or other Sámi languages. It has its roots in the early folk music of the area, and still has a thriving presence today.

In English poetry, trochaic tetrameter is a meter featuring lines composed of four trochaic feet. The etymology of trochaic derives from the Greek trokhaios, from the verb trecho, meaning I run. In modern English poetry, a trochee is a foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. Thus a tetrameter contains four trochees or eight syllables.

<i>Pohjolas Daughter</i> Tone poem by Jean Sibelius

The tone poem Pohjola's Daughter, Op. 49, was composed by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius in 1906. Originally, Sibelius intended to title the work Väinämöinen, after the character in the Kalevala. The publisher Robert Lienau insisted on the German title Tochter des Nordens, which is a literal translation of the work's Finnish title, Pohjolan tytär, traditionally given in English as Pohjola's Daughter. Sibelius then countered with the new title L'aventure d'un héros. He also considered calling the work Luonnotar. However, Lienau's suggestion eventually became the work's published title. This was the first work that Sibelius wrote directly for a German music publisher. Its first performance was given in Saint Petersburg in December 1906, with the composer himself conducting the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larin Paraske</span> Izhorian runic singer (1833–1904)

Larin Paraske was an Izhorian runic singer. She is considered a key figure in Finnish folk poetry and has been called the "Finnish Mnemosyne". Her frequent listeners included several romantic nationalist artists, such as Jean Sibelius, seeking inspiration from her interpretations of Kalevala, an epic poem compiled from Finnish folklore by Elias Lönnrot.

<i>Kanteletar</i> Collection of Finnish folk poetry

Kanteletar is a collection of Finnish folk poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot. It is considered to be a sister collection to the Finnish national epic Kalevala. The poems of Kanteletar are based on the trochaic tetrameter, generally referred to as "Kalevala metre".

Albert Lange Fliflet was a Norwegian philologist and translator. He is best known for translating Kalevala.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Finnish flood myth</span> Part of Finnish folk poetry

The Finnish flood myth is recorded in the Kalevala rune entitled Haava. Väinämöinen attempts a heroic feat that results in a gushing wound, the blood from which covers the entire Earth. This deluge is not emphasized in the Kalevala version redacted by Elias Lönnrot, but the global quality of the flood is evident in original variants of the rune. In one variant collected in Northern Ostrobothnia in 1803/04, the rune tells:

<i>Suomen kansan vanhat runot</i>

Suomen kansan vanhat runot, or SKVR, is an edition of traditional Finnic-language verse containing around 100,000 different songs, and including the majority of the songs that were the sources of the Finnish epic Kalevala and related poetry. The collection is available, free, online.

<i>Synty</i> Mythological, Finnic concept

Synty is an important concept in Finnish mythology. Syntysanat ('origin-words') or syntyloitsut ('origin-charms') provide an explanatory, mythical account of the origin of a phenomenon, material, or species, and were an important part of traditional Finno-Karelian culture, particularly in healing rituals. Although much in the Finnish traditional charms is paralleled elsewhere, 'the role of aetiological and cosmogonic myths' in Finnic tradition 'appears exceptional in Eurasia'. The major study remains that by Kaarle Krohn, published in 1917.

Michael Arthur Branch, CMG was a British linguist and academic administrator.

<i>Elias Lönnrot</i> (monument)

Elias Lönnrot is a monument in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, by a Finnish sculptor Emil Wikström, unveiled in 1902.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Runic song</span> Baltic Finnic oral poetry and national epic

Runic song, also referred to as Rune song, Runo song, or Kalevala song, is a form of oral poetry and national epic historically practiced among the Baltic Finnic peoples. It includes the Finnish epic poems Kalevala and Kanteletar, as well as the Estonian Kalevipoeg. Estonian and Finnish researchers suggest the term runosong for English translation, or local terms, such as Estonian regilaul, Seto leelo or Finnish runolaulu when it is about regional tradition.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Rudolf, Anthony (8 October 2018). "Keith Bosley In Memoriam". The Fortnightly Review . Retrieved 1 September 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Ilomäki, Henni (2 January 2019). "Keith Anthony Bosley (1937–2018)". Folklore. 130 (1): 97–100. doi:10.1080/0015587X.2018.1554376. ISSN   0015-587X.
  3. 1 2 3 Blanco, Eva (28 November 2013). "Listening to The Kalevala". Helsinki Times . Retrieved 1 September 2024.
  4. Asplund, Anneli; Mettomäki, Sirkka-Liisa (20 February 2015). "Kalevala: the Finnish national epic". This is Finland. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  5. Karhio, Anne (19 May 2018). "'These shirts I borrow from the Finnish': the Kanteletar and the fabric of loss in Peter Sirr's 'A Journal'". Review of Irish Studies in Europe: 208–224. doi: 10.32803/rise.2018.03.12 . ISSN   2398-7685.
  6. Darnell, Regna (June 1996). "The Great Bear: A Thematic Anthology of Oral Poetry in the Finno-Ugric Languages". Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. 6 (1): 111–112. doi:10.1525/jlin.1996.6.1.111. ISSN   1055-1360.
  7. 1 2 Immonen, Petri (7 July 2018). "Keith Bosley 1937–2018". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 1 September 2024.
  8. "Finnish state award for foreign translators". FILI. 28 February 2023. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
  9. Scarano, Carla (7 June 2018). "The Wedding-Guest – Keith Bosley". londongrip.co.uk. London Grip Poetry Review. Retrieved 11 August 2019.