Anything can be made to compete, even words. Suomen Kuvalehti — a illustrated news magazine celebrating its 90th anniversary in November — decided to hold a competition for the most beautiful word in the Finnish language, and as its literary critic I was invited to sit on the jury. The suggestions were sent in by readers.
     The idea is crazy, in a way, considering the sheer number of words recorded in the Finnish dictionary, let alone the fact that old words develop variations and new ones are invented all the time. Because of its highly inflected nature, the Finnish language is particularly flexible.
     Of course, the premise is already problematic. A word's sound and its meaning cannot be separated. If there happened to be beautiful-sounding equivalents to the words racist, fascist or dictator in Finnish, could those words be chosen? Surely not.
     On the other hand, many emotionally important words in Finnish, such as äiti ('mother'), rakas ('beloved') and ystävä ('friend'), do not sound particularly beautiful. Long front vowels sing, but the long back vowels ä and ö are little more than a howl. Aesthetics and content should go hand in hand, but the beauty of an individual word without its context in a sentence is difficult to determine.

In drawing up my own list of favourites, three words spontaneously presented themselves.
     The first is the word maailma ('world'). It is in a way a compound word, made up of two elements, maa ('land') and ilma ('air'), although no one thinks of it that way in ordinary speech.
     The second is aalto ('wave'), beautiful in sound and extended in meaning; it brings to mind the sea and the lakes, and today also the invisible waves that carry communication.
     The third word is taival, a slightly poetic word for a journey; I believe we journey together through life.

The jury selected the world aalto as the winner. The choice was argued by the writer, critic and a member of the jury, Karo Hämäläinen: 'The long, pure initial vowel and the "o" sound at the end, which continues the word in the same spirit, linked by the two vertical masts that split it exactly in two, are simply beautiful.'
     When I recall the past year and the struggle for freedom of speech in China, Belorussia, Russia, different parts of the world, it seems a luxury that I can spend time weighing up the aesthetics of individual words. I can write and speak in Finland without fear of being murdered, tortured, imprisoned or condemned to death.
     All words are beautiful, so long as they are free.

Kristina Carlson
Editor-in-Chief

P.S. Dear readers, I bid you farewell, as I am leaving Books from Finland after five years as Editor-in-Chief. My place will be taken by Soila Lehtonen, currently our journal's editor. Please stay with us!