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rörde kring; But not yet; let’s drift a while first.
 

      ... Mariana wondered whether she had completely mistaken her mother-in-law’s character from the start, or whether a change had taken place. Perhaps they wore on each other’s nerves through daily association.
      When Mariana came back from the cow barn to finish the other evening chores, her mother-in-law was puttering around the chest of drawers in the vestibule bedroom. The room had never been entirely given over to Sten and her. ..

ex Sally Salminen, Mariana (1939; Barrows Mussey, trans., 1940) : 276 : link (snippet only)
same passage, in Swedish original (Den Långa Våren / The Long Spring, 1939) : 317 —

      ...Mariana undrade om hon från början misstagit sig så fullständigt på svärmoderns rätta karaktär, eller om en ändring inträtt, om de två genom den dagliga samvaron slet varandras nerver.
      När Mariana kom från fähuset för att fullgöra de övriga kvällssysslorna, rörde sig svärmodern kring byrån I farstukammaren.

Rörde kring translates (via google) as “stir around,” “move about.” Puttering brings with it a sense of irritation at the mother-in-law.

—

later, same chapter —

      ...and the fog hid the banks.
      “We were sort of silly even to start,” Sten said.
      “The whole world’s like one great sea; all the shores will be gone in a minute. Rowan Island is like the last, remote coast,” said Mariana dully, wrapping herself in Sten’s heavy coat.
      “That’s the coast we’re steering for.”
      “But not yet; let’s drift a while first.”
      “No. Remember what happened to Captain Nyman?”
      “Oh...”
p276-277

      »Vi var allt lite fåniga när vi gav oss i väge,» sade Sten.
      »Hela världen är som ett enda stort hav, alla stränder är snart försvunna, Rönnskär är som en sista avlägsen kust», sade Mariana slött och svepte in sig i Stens tunga rock.
      »Mot den kusten styr vi.»
      »Men inte ännu, låt oss driva lite först!»
      »Nej. Minns du hur det gick för kapten Nyman?»
      »Ah ——»
p319
 

Sally Salminen (1906-1976)

  1. born in Finland, worked for a while in Sweden before emigrating with an older sister to New York, where she worked (as many young Nordic women did) as a domestic (1930-1936?), wrote her first (and quite successful) novel Katrina (1936), and met other Nordic immigrants. Returned to Finland, later moved to Denmark with her Danish husband, painter Johannes Dührkop.

    Salminen wrote in Swedish, a second language. She was an autodidact, never really at home anywhere, and (according to the lex.dk source, below) somewhat dependent on a dictionary for spelling — “her language became more uncertain over time, shaped as it was by the Danish surroundings...”

  2. wikipedia : link
  3. wikipedia (Finnish/Suomi) : link
  4. lex.dk / Dansk Kvinde-Biografisk Leksikon (Danish Women’s Biographical Lexicon) : link
  5. Ulrika Gustafsson, “Sally Salminen 1906–1976” at nordics.info (Aarhus University) : link
  6. entry at Biografist Leksikon för Finland : link
  7. Rose Feld reviewed Mariana in The New York Times (April 7, 1940) : link (paywall) —
    “This is not a formal novel and it does not tell a stereotyped tale...”
     

aside —
The translator of Mariana, Barrows Mussey (1910-85) was a journalist, best known for his writing about magic and prestidigitation...
wikipedia : link
 

two other putter-ings, same translation —

  1.       Mariana was pacing the floor to pass the time. She had read a little, sewed a little, written a verse or two, and puttered around with a shipment of glassware... (p76)

          Mariana gick och vankade på golvet för att få tiden att gå. Hon hade läst litet, handarbetat litet, skrivit av ett par dikter och stökat en stund med ett parti nyinkomna glasvaror. (p98)

    Chapter 11 / “Christmas” (chapter 12 in Swedish original, no chapter title)
    stökat en stund / messed around for a while

  2.       “Have, I though?” asked Mariana doubtingly. I’ve never felt I was anything but a stranger in your house —”
          “In your house, again!”
          “Yes, in your house. I’ve never been free to putter around and arrange things the way one does in a real home, and your parents have never liked me.”
          “That’s it, there we are!...”
    (p310, Chapter 16 / “In Mariehamn” )

          »Har jag det?» frågade Mariana tvivlande. »Jag har aldrig känt mej vara annat än en främling hos er —»
          »Hos er, igen!»
          »Hos er, ja. Jag har aldrig haft frihet att pyssla om och ordna som man gör i ett hem, och dina föräldrar har aldrig tyekt om mej.»
    (pp352-353, chapter 16, no title)
    frihet att pyssla om och ordna / freedom to tinker and arrange
     

11 October 2023