Keith Anthony Bosley (16 September 1937 – 24 June 2018) was a British poet, translator, and radio broadcaster. Born in

Bourne End, Buckinghamshire Bourne End is a village mostly in the parish of Wooburn, but partly in that of Little Marlow in Buckinghamshire, England. It is about five miles (8 km) south-east of High Wycombe and three miles (5 km) east of Marlow, near the bo ...

, he studied French at university before starting his career at the BBC, where he worked primarily as a newsreader. Although he published three volumes of original poetry, Bosley is best known for his work as a translator. A

polyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

, he claimed to have translated poetry to English from up to forty languages, and had published collections translated from Finnish, French, Portuguese,

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

, Polish,

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Career

Keith Anthony Bosley was born in

on 16 September 1937. His father was a signalman, and worked on nearby rail-lines. Growing up and beginning school in

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England. It lies on the southwestern bank of the River Thames, which at this point forms the border with Buckinghamshire. In the 2021 Census, ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

, he later attended

Sir William Borlase's Grammar School Sir William Borlase's Grammar School (commonly shortened to Borlase or SWBGS) is a selective state grammar school accepting girls and boys aged 11–18 located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated on West Street, close to the town ...

in Marlow. From 1956, Bosley studied French at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

under

Michael Hamburger Michael Peter Leopold Hamburger (22 March 1924 – 7 June 2007) was a noted German-British translator, poet, critic, memoirist and academic. He was known in particular for his translations of Friedrich Hölderlin, Paul Celan, Gottfried Benn and ...

, continuing at

Sorbonne University Sorbonne University () is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to the Middle Ages in 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sorbon as a constituent college of the Unive ...

and the University of Caen Normandy; he graduated in 1960. Finishing university, Bosley started work with the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

in 1961, as an announcer and newsreader for the World Service at

Bush House Bush House is a Grade II listed building at the southern end of Kingsway between Aldwych and the Strand in London, England. It was conceived as a major new trade centre by American industrialist Irving T. Bush, and commissioned, designed, ...

. There, he wrote many scripts, some comprising series on poetry and literature to be read himself, and also delivered announcements to open and close programmes including "

From Our Own Correspondent ''From Our Own Correspondent'' is a weekly BBC radio programme in which BBC foreign correspondents deliver a sequence of short talks reflecting on current events and topical themes in the countries outside the UK in which they are based. The prog ...

". Bosley did

shift work Shift work is an employment practice designed to keep a service or production line operational at all times. The practice typically sees the day divided into shifts, set periods of time during which different groups of workers perform their ...

with the BBC, working both day and night shifts: this allowed him to spend some time at work translating. Bosley has been praised for his voice, being described as having a "distinctive, resonant and musical voice, much admired by his devoted followers all over the world"; concerning his audio-book work, Finnish folklorist wrote of his "practised enunciation sbeautiful and clear." His career spanned over 30 years with the Corporation: he retired in 1993.

Translations

Finnish

Bosley first encountered the Finnish language when he was given a Finnish-English dictionary by his uncle during his youth. Afterwards, he studied Finnish it with a grammar written in German. Finding William Forsell Kirby's 1907 translation of the ''

Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' () is a 19th-century compilation of epic poetry, compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling a story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and retaliatory ...

'' in a

used bookstore Used bookstores (usually called "second-hand bookshops" in Great Britain) buy and sell used books and out-of-print books. A range of titles is available in used bookstores, including in print and out-of-print books. Book collectors tend to freque ...

, he became irritated by its lack of fluidity, and resolved to read the original Finnish. As a translator, Bosley realised several books of Finnish folk poetry into English, as well as modern works: ''

The Last Temptations ''The Last Temptations'' () is an opera in two acts by Joonas Kokkonen to a libretto by Lauri Kokkonen. Along with Leevi Madetoja's '' Pohjalaisia'' and Aarre Merikanto's '' Juha'', it is considered one of the most important Finnish operas. ...

'' by

Joonas Kokkonen Joonas Kokkonen (; 13 November 1921 – 2 October 1996) was a Finnish composer. He was one of the most internationally famous Finnish composers of the 20th century after Sibelius; his opera ''The Last Temptations'' has received over 500 performa ...

, '' Whitsongs'' by Eino Leino, and work by

Aleksis Kivi Aleksis Kivi (; born Alexis Stenvall; 10 October 1834 – 31 December 1872) was a Finnish writer who wrote the first significant novel in the Finnish language, '' Seitsemän veljestä'' (''Seven Brothers''), published in 1870. He is also known ...

as ''Odes''. Over the course of several decades, Bosley translated and published the ''Kalevala'', a 22,795-verse-long

epic poem In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to ...

compiled and edited by

Elias Lönnrot Elias Lönnrot (; 9 April 1802 – 19 March 1884) was a Finnish polymath, physician, philosopher, poet, musician, linguist, journalist, philologist and collector of traditional Finnish language, Finnish Oral literature, oral poetry. He is best k ...

from the

folk poetry Folk poetry (sometimes referred to as ''poetry in action'') is poetry that is part of a society's folklore, usually part of their oral tradition. When sung, folk poetry becomes a folk song. Description Folk poetry in general has several characteri ...

Karelia Karelia (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; , historically Коре́ла, ''Korela'' []; ) is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Russia (including the Soviet Union, Soviet era), Finland, and Sweden. It is currentl ...

and Finland; the poem is Finland's

national epic A national epic is an epic poem or a literary work of epic scope which seeks to or is believed to capture and express the essence or spirit of a particular nation—not necessarily a nation state, but at least an ethnic or linguistic group wi ...

. In 1966, and again in 1971, Bosley published extracts of it for children, and two years later published the fourth

canto The canto () is a principal form of division in medieval and modern long poetry. Etymology and equivalent terms The word ''canto'' is derived from the Italian word for "song" or "singing", which comes from the Latin ''cantus'', "song", from th ...

under the title ''The Song of Aino''. In 1977, folklorist Matti Kuusi and linguist Michael Branch, having seen these poetry translations, brought him to work together on a bilingual anthology of Finnish verse, which was released in 1977. Bosley published some verses of the ''Kalevala'' in 1985, but a full version only appeared four years later: due to its older style and ideas, the text was more challenging to work on than others. Bosley wrote about his experiences in translating the work and his philosophy of translation in ''Taking the Rough with the Smooth'', and an article, ''Translating the'' Kalevala'': Midway Reflections''. In these, he wrote of his responsibility as translator towards the text, and the importance of not introducing himself into the text, and thereby hindering connection with the original author. Thus, he stood against using more modern free metre and using modern phrasing. Bosley especially had issue with finding an appropriate

metre The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

- Finnish poetry uses metre constructed on a unit of

syllables A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...

, whereas English-language poetry uses multi-syllable

feet The foot (: feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is an organ at the terminal part of the leg made up of ...

. However, he found using feet too flat, and so to find a natural-sounding metre drew on the

cywydd The cywydd (; plural ) is one of the most important metrical forms in traditional Welsh poetry ( cerdd dafod). There are a variety of forms of the cywydd, but the word on its own is generally used to refer to the ("long-lined couplet") as it is ...

Middle Welsh Middle Welsh (, ) is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh (). Literature and history Middle Welsh is ...

poetry he had read as a child:

The work took five years, with Bosley translating one hundred verses every night during shifts at the BBC. When published in the

Oxford World's Classics Oxford World's Classics is an imprint of Oxford University Press. First established in 1901 by Grant Richards and purchased by OUP in 1906, this imprint publishes primarily dramatic and classic literature for students and the general public. ...

series, it attracted praise from reviewers, especially for his metre. The edition saw reprints in 1990 and in 2008; after his wife suggested he make an audio-book version due to his skill in narration and experience with the text, he recorded and released an audio edition with

Naxos Naxos (; , ) is a Greek island belonging to the Cyclades island group. It is the largest island in the group. It was an important centre during the Bronze Age Cycladic Culture and in the Ancient Greek Archaic Period. The island is famous as ...

in 2013. The audio-book spanned 12

CDs CDS, CDs, Cds, etc. may refer to: Finance * Canadian Depository for Securities, Canadian post-trade financial services company * Certificate of deposit (CDs) * Counterfeit Deterrence System, developed by the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence ...

, with a duration of roughly thirteen and a half hours. In addition to the ''Kalevala'', Bosley also rendered much of the '' Kanteletar'', another less widely-known collection of Finnish verse by Lönnrot, into English. Here, he was the first to do so, publishing in 1992. A year later, he again worked with Branch, alongside Lauri Honko and Senni Timonen, to produce a large work of poetry from across the

Finno-Ugric peoples Finno-Ugric () is a traditional linguistic grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except for the Samoyedic languages. Its once commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is based on criteria formulated in the 19th century ...

and languages: this comprised over 30 poets, 450 poems, and 13 languages, including Veps, Mordvin, Udmurt, and Livonian.

Personal life

Bosley was first married to vocalist Helen Sava, and with her had one son. In 1982, several years after concluding his partnership with Sava, he married harpist Satu Salo, and with her had two sons. Bosley played the

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

and

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, particularly enjoying the works of

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...

. Starting public performance on the organ at sixteen, he was organist of his local church of St Laurence's Church, Upton-cum-Chalvey for over forty years, finishing in 2015. Bosley wrote a pamphlet about the location of the churchyard in Thomas Gray's ''

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard ''Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard'' is a poem by Thomas Gray, completed in 1750 and first published in 1751. The poem's origins are unknown, but it was partly inspired by Gray's thoughts following the death of the poet Richard West in 1742 ...

'', in which he hypothesised that the titular location was that of St. Laurence's instead of at the nearby

Church of St Giles, Stoke Poges St Giles' Church is an active Church of England parish church, parish church in the village of Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, England. A Listed building, Grade I listed building, it stands in the grounds of Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire, Stoke Park ...

. On 24 June, 2018, Bosley died in a nursing home in

Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...

, aged 80, after a short illness.

Honours and awards

In 1979, in recognition of the anthology published with Kuusen and Branch the two years before, Bosley was awarded the annual Finnish State Prize for Foreign Translators by FILI, with prize money of €15,000. In 1980, he was invited to become a corresponding member of the Finnish Literature Society, and the next year was made a Knight, First Class of the

Order of the White Rose of Finland The Order of the White Rose of Finland (; ) is one of three official orders in Finland, along with the Order of the Cross of Liberty, and the Order of the Lion of Finland. The President of Finland is the Grand Master of all three orders. The ...

. In the United Kingdom, Bosley won prizes in competitions held by the English Goethe Society and British Comparative Literature Association.

Publications

;Poetry * ''The Possibility of Angels'' (1969) * ''And I Dance: for children'' (1972) * ''Dark Summer'' (1976) * ''Stations'' (1979) * ''A Chiltern Hundred'' (1987) * ''An Upton Hymnal'' (1999) * ''The Wedding-Guest: selected poems'' (ed. Owen Lowery and Anthony Rudolf) (2018) ;Translations * ''Russia's Other Poets'' (1968) * ''An Idiom of Night: Pierre Jean Jouve'' (1968) * ''The War Wife: Vietnamese poetry'' (1972) * ''The Song of Songs'' (1976) * ''Finnish Folk Poetry: Epic'' (1977) * '' Mallarmé: The Poems'' (1977) * ''A Round O: André Frénaud'' (1977) * ''The Last Temptations: opera by

'' (1977) * '' Whitsongs: Eino Leino'' (1978) * ''The Elek Book of Oriental Verse'' (1979) * ''A Reading of Ashes:

Jerzy Ficowski Jerzy Tadeusz Ficowski (; 4 October 1924 in Warsaw – 9 May 2006 in Warsaw) was a Polish poet, writer, ethnographer and translator (from Yiddish, Russian, Romani and Hungarian). Biography and works During the German occupation of Poland in ...

'' (1981) * ''From the Theorems of Master Jean de La Ceppède'' (1983) * ''The

'' (1989) * ''

Luís de Camões Luís Vaz de Camões (; or 1525 – 10 June 1580), sometimes rendered in English as Camoens or Camoëns ( ), is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of William Shakes ...

: Epic and Lyric'' (1990) * ''The Kanteletar: selection'' (1992) * ''The Great Bear: Finno-Ugrian oral poetry'' (1993) * ''Odes:

'' (1994) * ''A Centenary Pessoa'' (1995) * ''Rome the Sorceress: André Frénaud'' (1995) * ''Eve Blossom Has Wheels: German love poetry'' (1997) * ''Skating on the Sea: poetry from Finland'' (1997) ;Audiobooks * ''The

'' (2013) – an audio recording of the 1989 translation

References

External links

Reviews of the ''Kalevala'', as translated by Keith Bosley
– (published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

)
A blog piece by Keith Bosley about his translation of the ''Kalevala''

* ttp://finland.fi/public/default.aspx?contentid=160079&contentlan=2&culture=en-US "The Kanteletar" thisisFINLAND.fi– Finland's treasury of folk lyrics and ballads
Rome the Sorceress
– – by André Frénaud, as translated by Keith Bosley *
Web page for ''The Wedding-Guest'' (2018)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bosley, Keith 1937 births 2018 deaths 20th-century British translators Alumni of the University of Reading British expatriates in France English male non-fiction writers English male poets English translators People from Maidenhead People from Wycombe District Radio and television announcers University of Caen Normandy alumni University of Paris alumni