On March 28, information appeared in the Russian media that the Finnish company Moomin Characters, which owns the rights to the characters in the Moomin books, is not issuing new licenses to use the characters in Russia and is not renewing existing agreements. We have contacted the owners of the company for a comment, but have not yet received a response. At the same time, Tove Jansson’s books about Moomin trolls, which are published by the Azbuka-Atticus publishing group in Russian, continue to be sold and reprinted, the publisher told DW.
We spoke with Evgenia Tinovitskaya, the author of the latest translation of Tove Jansson’s books into Russian, about why children around the world love Moomin so much, about the peculiarities of the translation and about the possible development of events around the characters in Russia.
DW: What do you think is special about Moomintroll books? Why are they so strange, so different from other children’s literature?
Evgenia Tinovitskaya: These books are not very childish. Although, perhaps, Finnish children are like that, more contemplative or something, more thoughtful, more attentive to trifles. As a child, I had an Estonian book about Pille Riin, now it is already a rarity. I remember this childish feeling when you stare for five minutes at the slow flow of a drop on the glass, and you find it interesting. Or like an ant crawling somewhere for a long, long time. It seems to me that when life around is artificially accelerated, as it is now, there should be a counterweight in the direction of slowing down. I don’t know if a modern child is capable of this, but it’s definitely very useful for him.
However, there are adventures in these books. Only it seems that nothing happens, because these are not external events, but the work of the soul. Here the Moomin trolls go to the island – and nothing happens to them. They come, slowly look around, settle down. But inside everyone at this moment there is polyphony: each character grows morally, develops in his own direction. Or Moominmama, such a classic mother, her handbag, pancakes. And suddenly she begins to draw flowers, and – time! – goes there, into the drawing. Such polyphony, as Bakhtin wrote about Dostoevsky: each character has his own voice, his own story, they intertwine, collide.
– You, together with Maria Lyudkovskaya and Marina Boroditskaya, have become the authors of a new translation of books about Moomintroll. Were you not afraid that the new version would not be accepted by readers who grew up on old books?
– To be afraid of wolves – do not go into the forest. Usually, few people can appreciate the translation. The translator is always scolded. At the same time, the reader often notices only that the names of the characters have changed. And terribly indignant. The average reader is not able to notice more, unfortunately. Some do not even see that this is a different translation, and do not understand why the characters are called differently.
– Did you change something?
– Almost nothing: the same Moominpappa, Moominmother, Moomintroll. But there is a character that has always been called differently: in the original it is Snorkfröken, and it translates as “Snork girl”, “Snork lady”. We were thinking as a team how best to translate, the editor Natasha Koloshina half-jokingly suggested: “Snorochka”. And I said, “Oh!” Even in the book about winter in the first translations there was Belchonok, and in ours – Belochka, then it somehow happened by itself, this is such a character – “what a charm, what a fool.”
What book in the series was the most fun to work on?
– Most of all I liked the book “Sent i november”, in Russian we called it “In the depths of November”. (According to the plot, the Moomintroll family sailed to the island described in the previous book. Lonely and lost creatures try to get along in the deserted Moominhouse. – Approx. ed). I remembered her as terribly depressive, I was even afraid of her. Some kind of book where nothing happens. There are no Moomin trolls, only these strange guys remained – fillyjonks and hemules. They only talk there, something terribly boring. And when I started translating it, it turned out like this! External events are just the tip of the iceberg, and the author shows us what is happening inside the characters. In this book, the characters are even more revealed than in other Moomin books.
– Which character of Tove Jansson is closest to you?
– I’m probably Fillyjonk. In the last book, we observe an amazing process – how a minor character turns into the main character of the book (into one of). She is an anxious person, and suddenly she grabs onto something and grows resilience in herself. And I was proud of her when at the end of the book she becomes completely different – independent, with inner support, standing firmly on her feet.
– Books about Moomins began to appear in the 40s of the last century. Was it difficult to adapt them to a modern language?
– The book is not tied to historical realities, there were only some little things. For example, Moomintroll pasted pictures on the walls. Now there are none, they used to be cut out of paper. We were looking for a modern replacement. But that wasn’t the biggest problem. There is the concept of dynamic equivalence: we do not literally literally translate every word, but convey a feeling, an atmosphere. All that is required of the translator is to do this honestly, nothing else is needed for a successful translation. Before starting work, I already knew the books of Tove Jansson, read them in Russian and Swedish. With some author you coincide, with some – no. There was complete admiration. I just enjoyed how well it was done, how well thought out. A good book translates itself, and you follow it.
– How do you feel about the ban on the use of images of the Moomins in Russia by the heirs of Tove Jansson? How do you think events around this ban will develop?
– It is not yet clear to me what the hype around the Moomins is connected with. The Finnish media write that the license was revoked a long time ago, and the festival is not allowed to be held, because it was not agreed with the heirs at all. They just used character images and didn’t buy the rights. It’s hard for me to say what will happen in the future. The main thing is that there should not be a reverse wave – so that Moomin trolls do not start to withdraw from libraries and burn copies. I hope they don’t start. It’s just that we all have this apocalyptic mindset right now. It seems to me that nothing will happen to Moomintroll. “Who will plant him? He’s a monument!”