Tuota otsikkoa ei kannata tulkita kirjaimellisesti; sehän on vain englanninkielistä versiota varten mukaillun otsikon "käännöksen käännös" (jollaisia minulla tuli testailtua käännöstyön aikana Officen kääntäjän avustuksella. Osa meni pahasti pieleen, osa vaikutti toimivan ihan kelvollisesti!). Eikä maailmanvalloituskaan ole kovin osuva termi tässä yhteydessä, koska transgender-asiat ovat monella suunnalla maailmaa suorastaan "pannassa". Voihan olla, ettei kirjaani huolita myyntisivustoille esim. rapakon takana lainkaan, kun kerta joissain osavaltioissa tyhjennetään kirjastoistakin "sopimattomia" kirjoja...
Tarkoitukseni oli kuitenkin ja joka tapauksessa uhmata kansainvälistä epämääräistä ja ennakoimatonta "sensuuria" ja julkaista tässä blogissa "Jalkapuolimielipuolipuolihomojutun" englanninkielisen version esipuhe, jos tänne sattuukin joku englantia ymmärtävä ja haluaa sen lukea ihan vain uteliaisuuttaan. (Eihän sitä suomenkielellä olekaan saatavilla, ymmärrettävistä syistä!) Joten, tässäpä se on:
ONE-LEGGED, WHOLE-MINDED, HALF-GAY (© 2026 T. H. Hukka)
Preface to the English version
When I originally wrote this story, the term "non-binary" was not yet widely used in Finland. Yet there was some discussion about “gender identity” in society, and some transgender people even managed to get into "gender reassignment treatment", as it was called at the time.
In Finland, the situation has changed since then in a positive direction, generally, but unfortunately there is even persecution going on against trans people around the world at the moment, and non-binary people are not legally recognized in many countries yet. That's why I feel that the topic of this story is still relevant, even more so in other parts of the world than in my home country, and I decided to translate this story into English, even though I didn't have a professional translator to help me. I tried my best to bring out the message of the story, despite any grammatical or word errors or clumsiness of expression.
I often had to search for words, which were unfamiliar to me, from internet, and often the AI suggested expressions for me, from which I tried to choose the most suitable one. In addition, I took advantage of the correction reading tool, so that there wouldn’t be a disturbing number of spelling mistakes in the text. However, I didn't do this translation totally with AI. If there are word errors in this translation that make the content obscure, it’s due to my own lack of ability as a translator. I humbly and self-ironically admit this. As I said to myself and my loved ones; I’m not doing this to win any literary prize, but to get the message of the content to spread to a wider audience. I just hope that the imperfection of the translation doesn’t hinder my goal too much.
The characters in the original story live in Eastern Finland and their way of speaking contains nuances of the North Karelian dialect. That’s how I speak, too. It would be impossible to translate that peculiar dialect into any other language, or to reproduce the expressive power of the language I use myself with the vocabulary of another language. The Finnish language is expressive and rich, and I couldn't always find words in English that match the words I would have liked to use. And of course, I don't speak English well enough to play with words and expressions in the way I do when writing in Finnish.
So, I've had to settle for the fact that the characters in the story speak mostly some kind of standard language and not any special dialect or slang. Maybe you can imagine them living in some imaginary northern European country where most of the people speak some kind of English and teenagers study in upper secondary education from the age of about sixteen.
I hope that the thoughts described by the narrator of the story and the conversations of the characters, despite their linguistic simplicity and “inauthenticity “, speak to the reader.
The story is about the right to be who you are, to be loved and to love, as you are, in this world of prejudice-filled, fearful people. It’s the right of all of us, and with this book I wish it especially for all queer, genderqueer and neurodivergent people, and people with disabilities or mental health problems.
T. H. Hukka, a non-binary creature from the periphery
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