fiction.wikisort.org - Writer

Mati Sirkel (born 12 October 1949) is an Estonian translator and writer.[1]

Career

He was born in Paide. In 1972 he graduated from Tartu State University with a degrees in literary theory and German philology. From 1972 until 1975, he worked as a junior researcher at the Institute of Language and Literature. Beginning in 1975, he worked for a year at the Estonian Literary Museum. From 1976 until 1979, he worked at the publishing house Perioodika. Since 1982 he is a professional translator. In 1989, he joined the Estonian Writers' Union, in 1990, he became the secretary of the union, and from 1995 until 2004, the chairman of the board.[1]

In October 1980, Sirkel was a signatory of the Letter of 40 Intellectuals, a public letter in which forty prominent Estonian intellectuals defended the Estonian language and protested the Russification policies of the Kremlin in Estonia. The signatories also expressed their unease against Republic-level government in harshly dealing with youth protests in Tallinn that were sparked a week earlier due to the banning of a public performance of the punk rock band Propeller.[2]

Sirkel has translated almost half a hundred works from German, English, Modern Greek, Swedish and Dutch. Notable translations have been works by Elias Canetti, Peter Handke, Alfred Kubin, Günter Grass, Rainer Maria Rilke, Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando, Thomas Bernhard, Robert Musil, Friedrich Hölderlin, Ilse Aichinger, and Elfriede Gerstl. He has translated all the literary texts of Franz Kafka into Estonian.[3]

In the early 1980s, he translated a large number of Carl Michael Bellman's songs from Swedish, and together with Ott Arder he translated Bellman's stories into Fredman's Epistles & Songs, as well as the wrote foreword to the book. In addition, Sirkel has also translated scientific literature, including Johan Huizinga's The Task of Cultural History. A Selection of Articles, Essays, Speeches.[3]

Personal life

Sirkel is married to jewelry artist Kadri Mälk.[4]

Selected works

• Orva-aastad (2004)
• Uued orva-aastad (2009)
• Vanad vastuseta küsimused (2014)
• Kuhu me siis läheme? – Eks ikka koju (2016)

Translations

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Awards

• Order of the White Star, V Class (2001) [5]
• Estonian Cultural Endowment Annual Literature Award (2006)
• Order of the National Coat of Arms, IV Class (2006) class[6]
• Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (2009)
• Friedrich-Gundolf-Preis (2013)
• Cultural Prize of the Republic of Estonia (2014)

References

На других языках

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[de] Mati Sirkel

Mati Sirkel (* 12. Oktober 1949 in Paide) ist ein estnischer Literaturübersetzer und Germanist.

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- [en] Mati Sirkel

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