W. F. Kirby 1907

William Forsell Kirby was a highly respected English entomologist, who was specialised in butterflies. W. F. Kirby gained international renown through his research A Synonymic Catalogue of Diurnal Lepidoptera (1871). While working as an editor of the entomology section of the famous zoological publication Zoological Record he got to know the basics of many European languages – an aspect that would be of invaluable use when considering his later translation work.

A Thousand and One Nights and the Kalevala poems

The Oriental narrative traditions had a decisive influence on the literary work by Kirby. A Thousand and One Nights was the object of his lifelong passion. He had an extensive, possibly the most complete collection of editions of the stories and of literature on the subject of A Thousand and One Nights in Europe. He also wrote poems inspired by oriental mysticism.

The stories directed W. F. Kirby more towards folklore also on a more general level and he was an active member of the Folklore Society in London.

Kirby’s extensive knowledge can be seen in letters to Kaarle Krohn, a Finnish folklorist, professor and developer of the geographic-historic method of folklore research. He makes constant remarks of and comparisons to Finnish folk poetry and refers to Oriental and Scandinavian myths as well as to research both in the antiquity and to more recent research.

“If I remember correctly, Gubernatis mentions in his Zoological mythology a Greek poem in which a bird lays eggs in Zeus’ lap who then shakes them off into the sea. And I believe that the story about the maiden of the air who glides along the sea is of Gnostic origin…” (W. F. Kirby to Kaarle Krohn , November 14, 1892. Translated to Finnish by Tiina Räihä.)

F. Kirby also liked to search in his library for universal versions of the stories of the Kalevala and send them to Krohn. Because he already was interested in and had a vast knowledge about the field of the traditions of oral poetry, he was well prepared for translating the Kalevala.

Kalevala, the Land of Heroes

The small and beautiful two-part work Kalevala, the Land of Heroes was published in the affordable publication Everyman´s library in 1907. It had been difficult to find a publisher for the translation. The epic tale of a small nation was considered as a curiosity and it was not expected that it would attract the interest of the masses. However, the new translation turned out to be extraordinary. “I was deeply touched by the feeling that the Kalevala emanates”, J. R. R. Tolkien reminisced in his old days. The translator had managed to capture the unique, archaic spirit of the poems. The work aimed as much as possible to follow the original meter, but what made the translation so unique was that it was the first time that the translation was done directly from the original language of the poems, from Finnish.

Kirby’s goal had been to produce an edition, mainly to meet the needs of researchers, that respected the original poems and included critical comments. Nevertheless, Kalevala, the Land of Heroes was printed in three editions and six reprints and it is still the most read English translation of Finnish literature.

This translation has also been widely used in the 20th century as a source for translating the epic into other languages. It has been very influential in many ways, but also in the sense that the typographical errors and incorrect assumptions in the translation were transferred to versions based upon it. For example, Kirby’s mistakes can be found in the Chinese translation of the Kalevala.

You can see an element of renaissance in W. F. Kirby in the sense that he had a never-ending interest in things that were not close to his original field of expertise. He was talented in everything he did and he was a valued person within his community. Kirby was a highly educated and sophisticated man, even though he, in his later years, was not happy about what he considered as shortcomings in his education: his middle class childhood home did not believe in the educational system and thus, the children were home schooled by their mother. In the Victorian society education was not only seen as a way to learn things, but important also on other levels in the society. In the environment in which Kirby lived, it was a social norm that the people had an educational background from a boys’ school of high quality. It may be that his need to learn more was enhanced by his need to show his capabilities and by an irrevocable feeling of knowing nothing.

 

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Tiina Räihä: “W. F. Kirby: hyönteistutkijan tuhat ja yksi yötä Kalevalan parissa” – Kalevala maailmalla. Helsinki: SKS. 2012.