Contra

This One is the Smartest
Review of the English translation of "Kõik on kõige targemad"

This was a delightful collection of poetry for children built around the topic of going to school. The translations by Kätlin Kaldmaa from Estonian flow well and have been given an extra polish by Charlotte Geater and Richard O'Brien in order to make them more user friendly for an English audience i.e. Estonian favorites that might otherwise seem baffling have been converted into English favorites e.g. hakklihakaste (minced meat gravy) becomes Fish and Chips.

Artist Ulla Saar has also made minor edits (usually in drawn words) to Anglicize the drawings which are imaginative and colourful throughout.

Some fun bonus features in the English edition include author interviews, a brief introduction to Estonia, a table of common Estonian words and their pronunciation (although I don't understand how vahetund (breaktime) gets an R in its proposed pronunciation of VAR-had-weend), and a DIY section on writing your own poetry. Richard O'Brien provides an editorial note describing some of the foreign language translation issues.

All in all this is a superbly done translation and presentation that is a model for how I wish Estonian literary classics would be treated in translation where I often find the editions marred by poor copy-editing and lack of footnotes or contextual information. Kudos to all at Emma Press for this outstanding work!… (meer)