Johan Edvard Leppäkoski 1964
Johan Edvard Leppäkoski (1901–1984) was born in Kaukola, and was, according to Irja Klemola “someone who belonged to the Karelian tribe with an inherent poetic singer inside him”. Already as a youngster he was interested in Esperanto, a language that has been created and developed in order to make it easier to communicate universally. As early as in the 1920’s Leppäkoski published Finnish poems translated into Esperanto in the magazine Esperanta Finnlando.
The Kalevala in Esperanto by Leppäkoski was published in 1964.
The translation of the Kalevala into Esperanto has been published in a series by UNESCO and Universala Esperanto-Asocio. The series presents significant world literature and aims at bringing different cultural communities together. The Kalevala was published as the fourth work in the series Serio Oriento-Okcidento. Previous published works in the series were a collection of short stories by Tagore, a collection of stories by the Japanese author Mori Ōgai and Dante’s The Divine Comedy.
Leppäkosken esperantonkielinen Kalevala ilmestyi vuonna 1964.
Because of the war, this work of peace and the translation was delayed possibly by two decades. When Sortavala was evacuated during the Winter War, the almost completely translated manuscript was lost. Leppäkoski survived the war and moved to Jyväskylä where he again started to translate the Kalevala alongside his day job. He worked as a reporter.
Irja Klemola writes that “Leppäkoski used almost all of his free time to this work and it gave him many moments of inspiration, but he also endured hardships and worked relentlessly”. It was the first time that the Kalevala was translated into this language that was created in the 1880’s and it was constantly developing. The people who knew this language were living in different cultural surroundings all over the world. Vilho Setälä and the Esperanto-foundation supported Leppäkoski in his work. The funding of the work came from pre orders and donations. Among others, the Ministry of Education, the Karelian Suoja-foundation, a legacy by Taito Lippahinen and the Esperanto society in Falun supported the work financially.
The Kalevala crosses boundaries
The Kalevala in Esperanto has, according to Irja Klemola, a positive impact in two ways:
At this point, when there are people on all continents who know Esperanto (today in more than 80 countries), the Kalevala that is translated into Esperanto has a chance to continue reaching new countries and people and at the same time convey the ever so wonderful nature poetry and life wisdom of Finnish folk poetry to people who may not be able to learn about these things otherwise. At the same time the remote country of poetic singers becomes known to people.
The Kalevala in Esperanto is also even more important and significant in ways that we cannot imagine. It shows unquestionably that the Esperanto language by L. L. Zamenhof is a language of culture, it is alive and it is useful, it has the ability to express things and it is full of nuances. The Kalevala, that is included in the East-West series shows us in a remarkably beautiful way the importance of Esperanto in today’s world when we aim at building cultural connections between different continents and races. It also conveys influences across boundaries, especially boundaries that have been formed as a result of numerous different languages.
Irja Klemola: “Esperantonkielinen Kalevala” – Kalevalaseuran vuosikirja 45. Helsinki: WSOY. 1965.