Richard Aarre Impola (1923 – March 18, 2015) was a Finnish–American professor and translator. A retired professor of English language and literature at the State University of New York, college at New Paltz, he translated
Finnish poetry and prose into the English language, including
Väinö Linna's ''
Under the North Star
''Under the North Star'' ( fi, Täällä Pohjantähden alla) is a trilogy published between 1959 and 1962 by Finnish author Väinö Linna. The novel follows the life of a Finnish family from 1880, through the First World War, the Finnish Civil ...
'' trilogy, of which the third part was published on the same day he was presented with the medal of
Knight First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland in 2003.
Biography
Impola was born in
Ahmeek, Michigan
Ahmeek is a village in Keweenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The village is located within Allouez Township. The population was 127 at the 2020 census.
At , it is the smallest municipality by land area in the state and is the only ...
.
Impola's father moved to Michigan from
Siikajoki,
Ostrobothnia, Finland, and his mother was born in the US to parents who had emigrated from
Pudasjärvi, Northern Ostrobothnia. Richard Impola was the ninth of the ten children in the family. In his childhood he did not speak Finnish, despite living in a community where Finnish was widely spoken.
Impola studied English language and literature at Columbia University, New York. He met his future wife Helvi at a Finnish
community hall in New York. Impola taught at SUNY until 1983, when he retired. After that, he started translating Finnish works into English. Among his translations are Linna's ''North Star'' trilogy, several works by
Kalle Päätalo
Kaarlo (Kalle) Alvar Päätalo (11 November 1919 – 20 November 2000) was a Finnish novelist, the most popular Finnish writer in the 20th century. His ''Iijoki'' series, comprising 26 novels, is one of the longest autobiographical works ever ...
, and
Aleksis Kivi
Aleksis Kivi (; born Alexis Stenvall; 10 October 1834 – 31 December 1872) was a Finnish author who wrote the first significant novel in the Finnish language, ''Seitsemän veljestä'' ("Seven Brothers") in 1870. He is also known for his 1864 p ...
's ''
Seven Brothers
7 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
7 or seven may also refer to:
* AD 7, the seventh year of the AD era
* 7 BC, the seventh year before the AD era
* The month of
July
Music Artists
* Seven (Swiss singer) (born 1978), a Swiss recording artist ...
''.
After his retirement, he founded the
Finnish American Translators Association
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language
Finnish ( endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic bra ...
(FATA).
Richard Impola.
Finnish North American Literature Association
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language
Finnish ( endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic bra ...
Impola died at the age of 91 in Poughkeepsie.[Daily Freeman](_blank)
Obituaries in Legacy.com
References
1923 births
2015 deaths
American people of Finnish descent
Columbia College (New York) alumni
New York University faculty
20th-century American translators
{{US-translator-stub