Martha Adriana Muusses was born on 27 September 1894 in Purmerend, the daughter of publisher Jan Muusses (1847–1909) and his second wife, Trijntje Ruardi (1860–1920). She died on 27 October 1981 in Laren, aged 87. Like the classical deity Janus, Martha A. Muusses had two faces. She translated with almost equal ease from Swedish into Dutch as from Dutch into Swedish, making her a fine example of a bilateral cultural mediator. Her contribution to the reception of Dutch literature in Sweden was considerable. For instance, she introduced Dutch authors such as Henriette Roland Holst (1869–1952) to Sweden. Her significance as a cultural mediator for Swedish literature lies in her translations of Swedish modernist poetry in particular. Among others, she translated poems by Karin Boye (1900–1941) and Harry Martinson (1904–1978) into Dutch. Her translations appeared at a time when the image of Scandinavian literature in the Netherlands was coloured by the stereotypical image of ‘Blut und Boden’ literature. This may be why Muusses faded from view as a cultural mediator after the Second World War. She did not translate voluminous peasant novels, but left behind a small body of work consisting of translations of Swedish poetry by the most important poets.