I consider myself very lucky that my brand of crazy is recognized so universally that my books have been translated into lots of different languages, and that means I have a whole shelf full of books that I wrote but can’t read a single word of. It’s a weird mix of feeling very accomplished and also completely stupid at the same time.
I just got this copy, which I think is Ukranian (or Bulgarian, maybe?) and the cover is awesome but which of those words is my name? It’s a riddle I cannot solve. If you speak Ukrania (or Bulgarian?) can you help me out?
*******
And now…time for the weekly wrap-up!
Shit I made in my shop (Named “EIGHT POUNDS OF UNCUT COCAINE” so that your credit card bill will be more interesting.):
Shit-you-may-or-may-not-want-to-see:
This week’s wrap-up is brought to you by Myawesomebeauty.com. A little bit about them: “My Awesome Beauty is a website run by beauty addicts that have real experience in the beauty business (formulator, esthetician, beauty advisor etc.) where you will learn how to choose the cosmetics or beauty devices worth your money following specific criteria. The guides and reviews really help because they explain what to look for and what to check, such as the guide about the facial steamers or the guide on microdermabrasion machines for home use.” You should check them out here.
I have no idea, but it is so awesome Jenny that your book is published in so many languages. Now you can start learning them all.
It’s gotta be those letters in the top right-hand corner, cause the second word is 6 letters long (for Lawson). That’s all I got.
I don’t know the language, but I do know that book cover would be the best ever profile FB pic.
I think the top one is your name, just based on the number of letters!
Your name is in the upper right corner.
Upper right corner. The big ^ is L, the C is S.
I find it interesting that they change the cover art. I would have thought that they would have just changed the wording on it.
Upper right corner is your name….down is the title.
According to Google, Джені Лоусон is Ukrainian for Jenny Lawson! 😀
It is the one above the eyebrow, based on my memory of the Cyrillic alphabet from when I studied Russian more than 20 years ago.
Hunter is a bit of an attention hog, isn’t he? Love your books, love that your books are so wide spread. Thank you for putting yourself out there for us!
Guessing the first two, based on length alone… curious though…
According to google translate, your name is at the top, in Hungarian.
Googling shows the second word at the bottom to possibly mean funny.
Hahahaha! That’s amazing. Also, I LOVE the cover.
Showing results for ukrainian for happy
щасливий
I stuck the letters in the Google translator and it’s guessing he language is Czech, but it didn’t translate the words for me, as it’s a different alphabet. Dad did try to teach me Cyrillic, but it didn’t take. If Dad were still alive I would ask him . . . this is why you should listen to your parents.
Look at all those unreadable (by me, at least) books! That’s the dream, right there.
I have no idea about Ukranian, but seeing all those books translated into other languages makes me want to cry! So wonderful.
Heh. I just worked a 5-day, 50-hour week at an Amazon fulfillment center. It’s only my second week on the job. And I’m not sure I recognize my name either, but for entirely different reasons.
What an awesome problem to have! Hopefully, I have that same issue some day! 😉
That’s Ukrainian. The two words at the top are “Dzheni Lovson” and the title is “Nesamovyto shchaslyva” or “unexpectedly happy.”
I don’t see your name anywhere on that cover. Ukrainian for Jenny Lawson is Ennyjay Awsonlay. Everybody knows that.
Definitely the top right on the cover – phonetically it comes out as “Dzhenni Lovson” which is the closest you can get to “Jenny Lawson” in Cyrillic. As far as the actual language, it’s NOT Czech or Hungarian, because they use the Latin alphabet, not Cyrillic. Via Google Translate, “Hесамовито щаслива” is Macedonian for “unsuspectingly friendly,” Bulgarian for “non-sagacious” (literally, I think it means “not very sharp”) and Ukrainian for “frankly happy,” so I’m GUESSING Ukrainian. In other Cyrillic languages, it’s gobbledygook.
Not being familiar with those languages is obviously meant to give the person looking at them the freedom to interpret them any way you want! It probably says “8 Pounds of Uncut Cocaine” in there somewhere.
Vivat is a publishing company out of Ukraine, so yep – definitely Ukrainian!
https://vivat-book.com.ua/foreign-rights
Yep, on the spine, the thing that starts with a D looking shape and then with Lawson starting with the Teepee. It’s Cyrillic and it’s totally more fun to write than Latin Alphabet shapes.
Also, щаслива is Russian for Happy, so are we considering Russian here? It does have a lot of holdover with Ukrainian. I can’t really see the words well enough to tell if it’s Russian.
I am pretty sure next week is going to be a nightmare for me. I am now planning to only say “nope”. All day, every day.
@desertcurmudgeon Comment #23. Lol! It took me a second to see that was “pig Latin!”
What you really want to know is how they messed up the basic idea of the story in the translation and the people in name-the-country are scratching their head, saying, “Huh? What?”
This is why normal languages don’t alter the name.
Upper right and down the spine. Djenni Lovson. They don’t really have a J in Ukrainian so the use a D (first letter)and a jah (looks like the under armor symbol) sound letter together. Also no W – the B is pronounced as a V. Thanks Peace Corps Ukrainian language teachers!
I think it’s Bulgarian because I can actually read it – top right is your name, so your name is Dshenni Lavson.
Clearly you just need to change your name to Aobcoh Hecamobuto, and then the world will all make sense again.
What an impressive collection. Stack them up and make your own literary Tower of Babel!
Now I kind of want a copy in Spanish too!
Clicked on the “nope” link hoping it wasn’t a giant squid, just so you know.
Upper right block. what looks sort of like Lobcon is the equivalent of Lawson, and Jennie is right above that.
A delightful array!
Дженни Ловсон. I’m not sure what language it is, but I’m learning Russian and was able to parse the Cyrillic.
I made an oops because I wasn’t able to get a closeup right away. Jenny is spelled Дженнi.
Sometimes I don’t recognize my own name when it’s written in English. Can’t help you here.
I love how many people know the answer. The tribe maybe crazy (in an amazing way) but their smart as hell.
I think the words on the top right are your name because the top one has two of the same letters in a row (for the “nn” in “Jenny”), and the word below it has six letters for “Lawson”.
Because my name is also Jenny, I’m noting the Cyrillic form of my name for future use. I think it’s funny that they left “Let’s Pretend This Never Happened” in English. 🙂
জেনি লসন, in case you get translated into Bengali!
(Random note: I’d write kids’ names in Bengali for them at every family heritage celebration at my daughters’ school, even though my Bengali writing is that of a first grader.)
Desertcurmudgeon is hilarious!
Damn you people are smart!!
The top one is your name. The spelling is pretty much how it would be in Russian.
珍妮是搖滾明星
Zhēnnī shì yáogǔn míngxīng
Traditional Chinese…Google translator is awesome!
See, if I were you I would totally take this as a challenge to learn every single language your book has been translated into. Also, isn’t it sort of strange that some places keep the cover art either completely, or fairly similar, and some change it a lot? I wonder what that’s based on, how that’s decided.
That’s the coolest cover yet. Rory is so happy. Hunter has a lovely collar on btw.
You need to go have some fun over at https://translate.google.com/#en/uk/Jennifer%20Lawson . Just keep changing the right board language settings. Really, it’s a hoot.
My step daughter used to play sof ball with a girl whose mother was Ukrainian like 4 I years ago. I deleted all the team group texts, so I don’t have her number.
It looks like Russian to me (but it could be Ukrainian–the Ukraine was part of Russia at one time and I assume the languages are very close). Your name is in the upper right corner. There’s no “J” in Russian, so they’ve combined two letters to try to make the “j” sound: a “D” and a letter we don’t have in English that makes a “szh” sound (probably my favorite letter in the entire Russian language–fun to say and to write). The vowels are the same as in English. N in Russian looks like a H, L in Russian is the upside down V, and S looks like a C. I don’t remember what W looks like but it must be the letter that looks like a B. Three years of college-level Russian finally pays off! Now I can say that it was good for something besides just dragging down my GPA.
You’re just showing off now. 🙂
Nice article
I want the one in Ukrainian just because the cover is so dang cool! Oooo, Jenny! That could be a cool t-shirt in your store! Just sayin’! I love that your books are in many languages. I would be interested to know if the humor translates. I’m going to check with a friend to see if he speak Ukrainian. If he does, I’ll figure out how to get a copy of it and seee what he thinks. 🙂
Thanks as always for another great post <3
The top letters дженни. say Dzhenni (there is no letter for J) and the rest ловсон is Lovson. Likewise, there’s no W.
It’s written on the top right part, it’s written as Djeni Lovson (“D” is added to correctly pronounce the “J” sound) 🙂 I find Lovson also weirdly appropriate 😀
Just tp add, I would translate the title “несамовито щаслива” as “frantically/frenetically happy” (like uncontrollable and wild, or something to that meaning) and not really “furiously happy”.
Google Translate is a phenomenal aid for this kind of thing… I wish it had been available when I was shelving books in my university’s grad school library in college.
https://translate.google.com/#en/uk/Jenny%20Lawson
Appropos of nothing except readers might be amused… I was able to visit the Soviet Union in 1984 on a school trip. I was inordinately amused that the Cyrllic version of the Pepsi logo looked like “NENCH” to my English-speaking eyes. So I still sometimes call it Nench.
https://www.terapeak.com/worth/vintage-1990-039-s-russian-russia-nencn-pepsi-bottle-cap-retro-decor-soda/151847208121/
The top is your name, and the title is “Who is Happy” rather than furiously happy.
I started reading and loving your blog before you even uttered a word about mental illness. I remember a blog post (I don’t know if it was the first or not) about your mental illness struggles and you felt so embarrassed and ashamed and worried about what the response would be. But it was just so much support. I think this was before you quit your day job. I think it would be easy for someone to look at your life now and say you have it so easy. But I’ve seen you this whole time and its been work work work. I have mental illness too and I’m just so impressed with how much work you get done because mine paralyzes me and I just can’t function. (Although, now I have an editing business so I did manage to get some shit done).
Anyways, I just saw your piles of books and cried tears of happiness for everything you’ve accomplished.
*side note When I was buying two of your books in Barnes and Noble someone walked by me while I was holding them and said, “I love Jenny Lawson, she’s great!”
My daughter who’s studied Russia and traveled in Ukraine found this: https://glosbe.com/en/uk/furiously
It’s Russian I think – and your name is in the top right corner – I could say it in a Russian accent if I could attach a soundbite to this comment 😉
i’m not sure but “Alucinadamente Feliz” is now my stripper name.
the variety of covers is so cool. I recently befriended an editor from England so I am still months away from finishing my 9th draft.
You are #goals
While up late and searching for stuffed dogs (as in plush ones. For my kids) this popped up. Japan raccoon dog (is that a thing?) dressed for golf with a small sidekick. And what appears to be baby booties.
https://m.ebay.com/itm/stuffed-animals-Japanese-Japan-Real-Raccoon-dog-Mustela-itatsi-taxidermy-golf-/332397129541?hash=item4d6469af45%3Ag%3Ak%7EUAAOSw-0xYQcUB&_trkparms=pageci%253A58d0f781-ad78-11e7-b5a2-74dbd180717f%257Cparentrq%253A04aa876c15f0ab66ef243a79fffd55e5%257Ciid%253A25
I’m Serbian and Croatian, and although these letters look like they are from the Cyrillic alphabet, I don’t have a clue. I love this cover though!!!
I am a part-time author and part-time sunshine and finally committed to a pen name that I have to get used to. I don’t know what my name is either.
Ukrainian – my people!!! It could have been a similar Cyrillic language, but to double-check since the smaller type wasn’t in total focus (story of our lives) I ran the search and found the publisher where they specify the language as Ukrainian “Мова:українська” – http://vivat-publishing.com/knygy/nesamovito-shhasliva/ Super excited about this.
Upper right is your name. They don’t have a “w” or a “j”, sound, so you are Dzhenny Lovson. 😆
how do you translate a name? That seems wrong.
This looks Cyrillic, your name is definitely in the upper right hand corner.
myawesomebeauty . com has really poorly written posts… I tried readying them but…ugh
I’m Russian myself, and I definitely must say that this is absolutely NOT Russian language. It’s Ukrainian. Russian and Ukrainian editions covers are different.
Simply compare.
Russian official title: Безумно счастливые (Bezumno schastlivye)
Ukrainian: Несамовито щаслива (Nesamovyto shchaslyva)
Useful picture! There’s a valuable addition to any German phrase book right there:
Q: Wie gehts?
A: Irre glücklich!
…and “vamos fazer de conta que isso nunca aconteceu” translates as “What happens in São Paulo, stays in São Paulo”
Dear Furiously-fighting-to-be-happy.
THANK you for writing Furiously Happy. Thank you for showing me the bravery to laugh at something that feels un-laughable. I cried and laughed throughout the book, wanted to read it all at once and wanted to save every single page, so it never ended.
Fighting with anxiety for more than 8 years, you gave me a new way of looking at my life and most important of all you gave me a language I could use so my loved ones could understand me! Now my boyfriend can look at me at say “Are you running out of spoons?” and I can say “YES!” and he will know that I have nothing left to give and that I need protection and love.
So many of you pages has been read aloud, some whilst crying, some almost not understandable because i laughed so hard. I have stayed up late at night because I was unable to sleep, all hyped up because I laughed so much.
Know this on a bad, cloudy, miserable day; If you feel like you have accomplished nothing or not enough, remember that you have helped a scared girl from Denmark more that you could ever know, with your words and your bravery. And you have made me want to turn my fear and struggles upside down and try to help other people by openly talk and laugh of- and with my disease. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Does it even matter which letters are your name? I mean really. Look at that cover. It has Jenny Lawson written all over it.
omg there’s one in portuguese there hahaha “Alucinadamente Feliz”
tomorrow does NOT get better. if you reach tomorrow it hurts ust as much or more than now. only ypu’re older more alone more defeated more hopeless still very barely above the poverty line and don’t have a friend or even a computer of your own to whine to. oh, and the people you ever really cared about are dying. and its cold.
I’m sorry I dumped all this stuff yesterday. I don’t mean to bring anyone down.Guess I was just really tired..Sorry.
That horrible feeling, when one of your favourite authors even can not define your lenguage with Bulgarian…😞