I am not a Saami speaker so am not in a position to evaluate the faithfulness of the translation. All I can say is the English words upon the page were aspassionate and intensely focused as I've found in the poetry of any native English-speaker.

Valkeapaa's poems also address the shamanic role of the poet: the powerful part anyone who does word magic plays in northern cultures. And I especially liked the few poems in Valkeapaa's specific Saami dialect that were left untranslated so the reader could see their visual arrangement on the page.

I would recommend this book wholeheartedly, and not just to readers interested in Saami culture or to poetry fans. I've let friends and family members who fall into neither category read this book, and its emotional power has hit all of them with equal intensity.