I'm very sorry that I haven't had opportunity to participate in the Group Read. I intended to do it, but due to health problems I couldn't. (No, nothing dangerous, be assured.)

However, there was an interesting thread about translating the words nice and d__, and I thought that maybe I should make my contribution, little as it may be.

I'm afraid the Finnish translation is as undelicate as the Swedish and Spanish ones. Instead of d__a mild expletive is used. But then again, I cannot think but one Finnish expletive which could be used similarly to d__, and that would sound even worse than a full expletive.

But the word nice! That passage is terrible in Finnish. Nice was translated as lovely, and believe me, it sounded stupid.

All in all, I prefer to read NA (and other JA books as well) in English. I find the translation quite disappointing. True, the translation is from 1950's but still... It is so stiff and the rhythm of the language is very weird. I find it very unlikely that a teenager like Catherine would use such language. Maybe it is just that JA is difficult to translate, but on the other hand, English is not my native language so I don't get the subtle differences of English.