Keskustelu:Timo K. Mukka

Its amazing that there are no English translations of Mukka on Amazon. I am now reading The Dove and the Poppy in Rami Saari's wonderful Hebrew translation. This is one of the most beautiful pieces of literature I have ever read; Mukka deserved a Nobel Prize. Dear Finns, where is your Ministry of Culture? Mukka must be translated and published in English! RCSB 15:13, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Ministry of culture? Culture issues are under the ministry of education. Here is the wikipedia page of ministry of education (this is just a stub though). However, there is a culture minister. Tanja Karpela currently holds that position. The web page for culture issues under ministry of education is here: kulttuuriministeri
Though it may be a better idea to contact some American or English publisher and give your recommendation for them. --128.214.214.50 27. tammikuuta 2006 kello 15.22 (UTC)

Thankyou. I have written to Serpent's Tail publishers in London, which were first to publish English translations of Kenzaburo Oe and Elfriede Jelinek - both of which were later to receive the Nobel Prize. I have also written to what I hope is the email address of the Minister of Culture (I found it a bit difficult to navigate the Finnish-language site that you suggested :). The address to which I sent my message is: opmkirjaamo@minedu.fi . Is this correct?) RCSB 18:45, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Sorry that I gave that non-english link in a rush. Your e-mail went to the ministry of education. They may either ignore it or then they may send it forwards for somebody at culture minister's office. If you don't get any feedback from them in few days, you could send another message to the secretary of culture minister (Minna Siltanen) or to minister herself (Tanja Karpela). They both have e-mail addresses that follow a form firstname.lastname@minedu.fi

Here is another link you may try. From here you may find some people to communicate with about these matters. Finnish Literature Information Centre. I searched their database and found out that some short stories by T.A.Mukka have been published in English in some short story collections that include stories from several authors. --80.221.30.182 27. tammikuuta 2006 kello 20.21 (UTC)

Letter to Minister of Culture remains unanswered (as of 17 Jul 2006)

The e-mail I sent on 28 January 2006 to Minister of Culture Ms. Tanja Karpela has remained unanswered. This is very disappointing. I don't understand Finn's disinterest in their fellow countryman, the great artist Mukka. Maybe he differs too much from the usual Finnish psyche: "A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house." (Matthew 13:57)

Here is the letter I wrote:

Dear Minister of Culture,

I am amazed that there are no English translations of novels by Timo K. Mukka. I have read some of his works through the wonderful Hebrew translations of Israeli poet Rami Saari. Kyyhky ja unikko is one of the most beautiful pieces of literature I have ever read.

I have written about this to Serpent's Tail publishers in London, which were first to publish English translations of works by Japanese writer Kenzaburo Oe and Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek - both of whom later received the Nobel Prize. I hope that my letter will have an influence on them. I also hope that your ministry will help promote English-language translations of Mukka. For Finland he is a great national treasure.

Yours sincerely,

(Here I signed)