The Translator’s Drive. Personal Reasons for Translating Finnish Contemporary Poetry into Hungarian

This paper examines the nature of the challenges posed by the translation context when translating Finnish contemporary poetry into Hungarian, thus between two marginal literary canons and between languages of limited diffusion. Its aim is to discover, by means of qualitative research, the motivations of literary translators, their attitude towards translation work, and their position taken in the actual translation situation. All of these aspects will be explored through participant observation of the researcher and in-depth interviews with three translators of Finnish contemporary poetry into Hungarian, conducted as part of a longer project on the translation of Finnish poetry, reaching out to several countries accomplished between 2007 and 2012. All three translators are native Hungarian speakers, taking the mission of translating Finnish poetry on their own initiative. The present study reveals their commonly shared motivations and experiences in the field.