“KALEVALA” TRANSLATIONS INTO NEWLY SCRIPTED BALTO-FINNIC LANGUAGES

Abstract

For many years there has been no loss of but even, vice versa, a rising interest in the study of various epics, for they are the phenomena unique not only for the folklore but for the literature, too. Oral epics have preserved the mythical tradition from centuries back. In many cultures, it is the epic that acts as a kind of the basic identity around which the national fine arts, music, theatre have then been coming to life and evolving. Taking written form, the epic turned into a factor that not only united the nation, but also served as the foundation for the formation of its literary language and literature in general. This is the role played in the Karelian and Veps culture by translations of the “Kalevala” epic.

The relevance of this study stems from the demand for publicizing the problems arising around the translation of the archaic Karelian-Finnish epic “Kalevala” into newly scripted Balto-Finnic languages: Veps and Karelian.

The main aim is to study all the available translations and their agreement with the original text. The material for the study is the original Karelian-Finnish epic “Kalevala” as well as its abridged Veps-language translation and two Karelian-language translations. It was analyzed how much the authors of the translations managed (or failed) to preserve the key artistic and stylistic features of the epic text, and the challenges they encountered in this effort. In particular, the search for the vocabulary to adequately render the original text was described. The study employs the structural-semantic analysis, which permits identifying elements of the poetic manner, as well as the method of comparison and collation, which investigates the variation of fragments of the text. The study has vividly demonstrated that for a translator of an archaic epic, various elements of its poetics can be quite challenging even when the translation is into a

Acknowledgements: The financial support for the research was carried out from the federal budget for the fulfillment of the state order (project № AAAA-A18-118030190094-6).

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