Piret Saluri

Piret Saluri (née Piret Rõuk; born October 22, 1943) is an Estonian translator and diplomat.

Education Piret Saluri studied at and Tallinn High School No. 21, where she graduated in 1962. In 1962, she entered Tartu State University to study medicine. In 1971, she graduated from the university's Estonian philology program in the journalism track with her thesis Isikuintervjuu mõnedest probleemidest (The Personal Interview about Some Problems), supervised by Helle Tiisväli.

Career From 1964 to 1972, Saluri worked at Estonian Television, first as an editor of children's and youth programs, and later literary programs. From 1972 to 1975 she was part of the editorship of the magazines Pioneer and Täheke. From 1975 to 1990, she was a freelance translator.

From 1991 to 1995, she worked at the Estonian Embassy in Helsinki as first embassy secretary, and from 1995 to 2002 she was the chief of protocol for the president of Estonia.

Creative work Piret Saluri has translated over fifty works into Estonian, mainly from Finnish, and to a lesser extent from English and Russian. Saluri's translations include Finnish and Russian classics (Vasily Aksyonov, Pentti Saarikoski, Paavo Haavikko, Mika Waltari, Marja-Liisa Vartio, Antti Tuuri, Antti Hyry, Olli Jalonen, and Sirpa Kähkönen) as well as top works of children's literature (E. B. White's Charlotte's Web, and Hannu Mäkelä's The Horse Who Lost His Glasses and Mr. Hoo), as well as essays and non-fiction (Olavi Paavolainen's Guest of the Third Reich, 's History of Finnish Literature, Matti Klinge's A Short History of Finland, and 's History of Gastronomy), and audio plays ('s In the Blood, Hannu Mäkelä's Leino Goes to Estonia and The Beginning of His New Life, Paavo Haavikko's King Harald, Farewell, 's The Story of Mr. Clay, 's The Death of Murri-Purri, Pentti Saarikoski's Maria and Methodius and The Field of the Loon . Finland's described Saluri's translations as follows: "Piret Saluri has managed to capture Waltari's style down to the subtleties: in these books, Mika Waltari speaks to us in Estonian!"

Piret Saluri is a corresponding member of the Finnish Literature Society (since 1987), a member of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters (since 1988), and a member of the Estonian Writers' Union (since 1990).

Awards and recognitions 1987: Finnish National Translator of Literature Award 2001: Order of the Lion of Finland 2009: Annual Prize of the Endowment for Literature of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia (fiction translation from a foreign language into Estonian: Mika Waltari's The Egyptian) 2018: Lifetime Achievement Award of the Endowment for Literature of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia 2023: Erkki Wilho Ponkala Award