Influential first translations
The translations of the Kalevala have not always been based directly on the original text. The Kalevala in Finnish may have been used only as a means of comparison or the translation has been made merely by using an interpretation in another language as the source. It would seem that it is an obvious prerequisite that the translator knows the source language, but mastering the language cannot be a definitive requirement. It is known that Otto Manninen reassured the Italian Paolo Emilio Pavolini that when translating the Kalevala it is more important to master one’s own mother tongue than to know Finnish. This statement is valid on a more general level as well. Also, the verbal expressions of the Kalevala require a language knowledge that is completely unique.
M. A. Castren’s Swedish translation and Anton Schiefner’s German translation
It is not always possible to conclude the source language of the translations. It is likely that the translator has used interpretations in other languages in parallel with the original version. Some translations have been particularly popular. An example of this is the early German version of the Kalevala (1852) by Anton Schiefner. The English translation by John A. Porter that was published in the United States in 1863 was based on it. Several later German interpretations were improved versions of Schiefner’s translation. At that time, it was assumed that it was based upon the Swedish translations by M. A. Castrén and others. According to Gisbert Jänicke this may not necessarily be the case, because the Kullervo-poems were not included in the Swedish translations of the Old Kalevala texts, which Schiefner had used as a means of comparison. The translation by Hans and Lore Fromm from 1967 has been regarded as the first German translation from the original source language. Jänicke’s own translation is from 1999. A new edition of it was printed in 2004 and the recording, which contains a selection, was done a year later.
F. Kirby, who was an English entomologist, started to translate the Kalevala into his mother tongue together with the author Edward Clodd. Their translation was based on the German translation by Anton Schiefner. However, British scholars required the translations to be done based on the original text. The English translation was completed in 1907 and more than ten editions of it have been printed since then. Another edition, that included a preface by Michael Branch, was published in 1985 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Kalevala. The text has not been continuously scrutinised, as has been the case with the German interpretation, but instead several independent parallel translations have come out. On the other hand, the interpretation by Kirby has been the source text for numerous translations into other languages, a means of comparison and a parallel version. A Chinese translation based upon it emerged in 1962. Ursula Synge edited a shortened prose version based on Kirby’s text (1977), which in turn was the source text for Liliana Calimeri’s Italian version (1980).
Leonid Belskij’s Russian translation
The Russian translation by Leonid Petrovitš Belskij (in 1888) is the first full translation into Russian and it has been widely used. It has been published in several editions. The editions differ from each other mainly regarding the illustrations, but linguistic revisions have also been made. The Russian-Jewish poet Šaul Tšernihovsky wrote as early as in 1888 an abridgment in Hebrew based on it. The interpretation by Belskij has since then been the source for several new translations in the former Soviet Union and in its sphere of influence. The shorter version for children written by A. Ljubarskaja (1953) was based on it and this version was, in turn, the source for the translations into the Belarusian language (1956), the Moldovan language (1961), the Slovenian language (1961) and the Armenian language (1972).
French and Italian translations
Hersch Rosenfeld, who has written an abridged version in Yiddish (1954), has used all three influential translations. The same has been done by many translators. Julian Vesper, who has made an interpretation of the Kalevala in the Romanian language (1959), also used the French translation by Jean-Louis Perret (1930) and the Italian translations by Igino Cocchi (1906–1909) and Paolo Emilio Pavolini (1910). (Nurmela 1960, 336.) The translations of the Kalevala into the French language have influenced the Spanish versions, and Orlando Moreira used the Spanish version, in addition to other versions, in his translation to the Portuguese language (2007).
The French translations of the Kalevala by Louis Léouzon Le Duc (1845, 1867) have been the most influential and used ones. The quality of the translations is questionable, but they made the Kalevala known in Europe.
Mistakes repeat themselves
Mistakes in the first translation are easily repeated in later versions. Lauri Posti has compared texts in the German, Russian and Latvian languages and he has found the same misinterpretations in all three translations. Anton Schiefer translated the word “ratsahan” (which means riding by horse) to “ratas” (which means wheel), and this mistake was repeated in both the Russian and Latvian translations. The verses ”Kun lie näissä voitehissa / vian päälle vietävätä” were misinterpreted in the German translation from a question to an assertion Dadurch, dass mit dieser Salbe / Ich den Wunden Fleck bestreiche, and this mistake is repeated both in the translation by Belskij and Laicens. Thus, it can be inferred that both have used the early edition of Schiefner’s translation. Both mistakes have been corrected in later editions: Ist die Salbe dazu tauglich, / Au! die Wunde sie zu streichen. The word Saari in the Chinese translation is, on the other hand, according to Kirby’s interpretation translated to Kronstadt. There are several articles in many of the Yearbooks of the Kalevala Society that discuss the emphasis of the different translations and the quality of the translations is also compared in these articles.
Henni Ilomäki: ”Kalevalan kääntämisestä” – Kalevala maailmalla. 2012.