VARANDRA
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The Start of VARANDRA
A January afternoon in Luleå, Sweden (Image: Personal archive)
January afternoon, Sweden (Image: Personal archive)
Anchored icebreaker. Luleå harbor, Sweden (Image: Personal archive)
When driving, enable "vision mode"! Luleå, Sweden (Personal archive)
January afternoon. Luleå, Sweden (Image: Personal archive)
In 1990, I gained some experience as free-lancer translator in English and German when I arrived in Sweden, country in which my stay would be temporary only, for no more than a few months. I saw myself enchanted with the country, the people and with the language as soon as I arrived in the capital, Stockholm. The final destination, nevertheless, was still 1,200 km northwards and the region made me feel even more enchanted: the county of Norrbotten and the city of Luleå.
The more I walked around the town and lived the life in the city, the more I wanted to live the cultural moment of being there. In a country where the majority of people speak very good English, it would not even be necessary to learn the local language. Immediately, though, I noticed myself gathering reasons to not have the work to learn Swedish, as if I fought with my inner self to not doing something that I, in the bottom of my heart, already wanted.
The technical stay was prolonged for an additional time. It was when I started feeling that people so spectacular as the Swedes whom we have known in a country as spectacular as Sweden, where multiculturalism is so valued and appreciated increased the already plentiful tenderness ties to the culture. From that moment on, it was not enough to interact in English anymore. Even if I brought Swedish crystals, candles or life style to remember the time in Norrbotten, there was something more Swedish that would be the greatest of the remembrances, which I had to bring inside me at the end of the journey!
Months before coming back to Brazil, I lived Sweden in Swedish! There was one Swedish word that mesmerized me more than any other: “varandra”, which means ‘one another’. At this point, I enjoyed reading Swedish subtitles and closed caption in TV movies: “de kramar varandra” (they embrace each other).
The name of my future translation small business was already chosen deep in my heart even before being back to Brazil.
