Alice Martin, an editor of translated fiction in the publishing house WSOY, is, and has long been, fascinated by language structure and language history. When she started studying Finnish in the University of Helsinki in 1978, she found answers to many questions she hadn’t even been aware of.

“For example, I thought the Finnish phonology and morphology course was absolutely riveting. It gave an excellent overview of the structure of the language.”

Martin says two people in particular have been highly instrumental in her choice of career and its subsequent development. It was in Kersti Juva’s translation class that Martin realised translation was her calling.

“It was like an awakening. I felt really strongly that I understood what translation was all about and I found the interplay between languages very stimulating. I never cease to be intrigued by how the same ideas can be expressed in different languages, and how best to do it.”

In the middle of her studies Martin did indeed end up translating. After her first translations of children’s books for WSOY, she met the managing editor of foreign fiction, Klaus Taubert (1930-95), in 1985.

“Taubert drew me to the editing side. Thanks to the encouragement and recognition of potential shown by these two, I overcame my lack of confidence and found a purpose in work.”

As a translator, Alice Martin has largely focused on translating poetry and is one of the few Finns who translate poetry written in metre. She recalls professor Pentti Leino’s prosody classes being important here.

“Leino was conducting research on prosody, which involved three in-depth courses to help resolve these questions, even for himself. I attended all of them, and the skills I picked up have been of practical use ever since, unlikely as that may sound.”

The translation and editing work for WSOY took over and her studies were put on hold for quite some time. Getting stuck on her master’s dissertation was long a source of anxiety. She considered various topics in both English philology and the Finnish language, such as ambiguity in the poet Mirkka Rekola’s work.

“I really agonised over the dissertation. My relatives badgered me about my studies and at times I felt completely worthless. But I couldn’t give up.”

Martin graduated in 2008 as Master of Arts in English philology with her dissertation Looking-Glass Reflections. Norms in translating Lewis Carroll.

“I eventually graduated in the summer 2008 degree ceremony, part of a bumper crop. One point of amusement was that a former fellow student of mine was conferring the degrees as the faculty dean! I’m very happy to have finally graduated - it has freed up a lot of energy.”