A list of translations of the Finnish national epic Kalevala in chronological order by language. The list of translations is being maintained and updated by the Kalevala Society Foundation at the website Kalevala Around the World.
This list is based partially on the lists compiled by Rauni Puranen and Henni Ilomäki.
Language Year Translator Remark German 1840 Nikolai Mühlberg The first 60 lines of the first song translated into German and Estonian, published in 1840 in Verhandlungen der gelehrten Estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat, vol. 1, no. 1. Estonian, pp. 89–94; German, pp. 94–96. 1848 Jacob Grimm A short 38-line reading at a presentation in the Berlin Academy of Sciences. 1852 Franz Anton Schiefner A very important verse translation used by many other translators to bring the Kalevala to their own language and revised by Martin Buber in 1921. 1885–1886 Hermann Paul Verse translation. 1936 Arthur Luther A word-by-word translation that is made based on the revision by Martin Buber of Schiefner's translation. 1967 Lore Fromm and Full translation directly from Finnish. 1978 Prose adaptation based on the translation by Fromm. 2004 Full translation. Estonian 1840 Nikolai Mühlberg The first 60 lines of the first song translated into German and Estonian, published in 1840 in Verhandlungen der gelehrten Estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat, vol. 1, no. 1. Estonian, pp. 89–94; German, pp. 94–96. 1891–1898 Matthias Johann Eisen 1938 August Annist Swedish 1841 M. A. Castrén Full translation of the 1835 Old Kalevala. 1864–1868 Full translation of the 1849 Kalevala. 1884 Rafaël Hertzberg 1944 An abridged edition 1948 Björn Collinder trims about 10% of the text 1999 Lars Huldén and Hungarian 1841 Antal Reguly Old Kalevala songs 1-3 and 29. 1871 Ferdinánd Barna Full translation via Franz Anton Schiefner's translation. 1909 1971 1976 1987 French 1845 and 1867 An important translation used by many other translators to bring Kalevala to their own language. 1926 Charles Guyot Abridged version of Louis Léouzon le Duc's translation. 1927 Full translation in metric verse. 1991 Gabriel Rebourcet Full translation. In old-style French vocabulary. English 1868 John Addison Porter Partial translation (The story of AinoJohn Martin Crawford. "Kalevala – The national epic of Finland" Preface to the First edition, (1888).) via Franz Anton Schiefner's translation. 1869 Edward Taylor Fletcher Partial translation directly from Finnish (with a lengthy essay). 1882Selma Borg. Kalevala: The Finnish National Epic Selma Borg Partial translation (Song I) directly from Finnish. 1888 John Martin Crawford Full translation, via Franz Anton Schiefner's translation. 1893Francis Peabody Magoun Jr. "The Kalevala or Poems of the Kaleva district" Appendix (1963). R. Eivind A complete prose adaptation for children via Crawford's translation. 1907William Forsell Kirby Second full translation. Directly from Finnish. Imitates the Kalevala meter. 1940Heroes of The Kalevala, by Babette Deutsch, with illustrations by Fritz Eichenberg (New York: Julian Messner, Inc., 1940). Babette Deutsch a prose retelling of the epic saga for young readers. 1950 Aili Kolehmainen Johnson Abridged prose translation. 1954 Margaret Sperry Adapted verse translation of song 50. 1963The Kalevala; or, Poems of the Kaleva District, compiled by Elias Lönnrot, trans. by Francis Peabody Magoun Jr. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963). Francis Peabody Magoun Jr. Scholarly prose translation. Included with detailed essays and background information. 1969The Old Kalevala, and Certain Antecedents, compiled by Elias Lönnrot, trans. by Francis Peabody Magoun Jr. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969). Francis Peabody Magoun Jr. Scholarly prose translation of the 1835 Old Kalevala. 1977 Ursula Synge Abridged prose version. Using W. F. Kirby's translation as a reference. 1989 Eino Friberg Editing and introduction by George C. Schoolfield. Imitates the Kalevala meter selectively. The songs in this version are also not of the same length or structure as in the original.Eino Friberg. "Kalevala – Epic of the Finnish people" Introduction of the first edition, (1989). Released to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the original publication. 1989Elias Lönnrot, The Kalevala: An Epic Poem After Oral Tradition, trans. by Keith Bosley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).Keith Bosley Uses a syllabic verse form to allow for accuracy and metrical variety; released to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the original publication, subsequently published as an audiobook read by the translator himself in 2013. 2020 Kaarina BrooksComplete translation of runic version of 1835 Old Kalevala, following the Kalevala meter throughout. 2021 Kaarina BrooksComplete translation of the runic version of the Kalevala, following the Kalevala meter throughout. Russian 1888 An important translation used by many other Slavic translators to bring Kalevala to their own language.1953Retelling for children with poem fragments from Belsky 1998 & 2006 and Czech 1894–1895 Josef Holeček Full translation in metric verse.1941Josef HonzlProse translation1946Prose translation1962Vladislav StanovskýProse translation Ukrainian 1901 Danish 1902 Partial translation. 1994 Hilkka Søndergaard and Bent Søndergaard Full translation of songs 1–22 and 24–50, but excluding song 23, in trochaic tetrameter.2017Hilkka Søndergaard, Bent Søndergaard, and Re-issue of the 1994 translation commemorating the centenary of Finland's independence, with song 23 translated (from the Swedish 1999 translation) by Erik Skyum Nielsen. Italian 1909 Igino Cocchi Verse translation (hendecasyllable) 1910 Verse translation (original metre) 1912 Prose translation 1980 Liliana Calimeri Used Ursula Synge's version as a model. 1988 Gabriella Agrati and Maria Letizia Magini Prose translation 2010 Marcello Ganassini Verse translation (blank verses) Turkish 1918Yüksel, Süheyla (2019). "Kimlik İnşası Bağlamında Ömer Seyfettin'in İlyada ve Kalevala Tercümeleri". Hece 265 Hikâyenin Türkçe Sesi Ömer Seyfettin. Ömer Seyfettin Partial translation. 1965Hilmi Ziya Ülken. "Turkish translation of The Kaevala Runos 1 and 2" Yearbook of the Kalevala Society, volume 43 (1963).. Hilmi Ziya Ülken Translation of the first 2 songs. Using the Hungarian and French as a basis. Published in the Yearbook of the Kalevala Society, volume 43 (1963) 1982 Lale and Muammar Oğuz Full interpreted prose translation. Missing 25% of the original content for artistic purposes. 2017https://kasif.mkutup.gov.tr/SonucDetay.aspx?MakId=2337900 Lithuanian 1922 1972 Justinas Marcinkevičius Latvian 1924 Uses trochaic tetrameter and syllable stress rhythm. Reissued in 1959 with illustrations by Akseli Gallen-Kallela and in 1964 with illustrations by . Dutch 1928 Maya Tamminen Partial verse translation with connecting prose summaries. The only Dutch translation is directly from Finnish. 1938 Wies Moens Abridged prose translation. based on the German adaptation by Arthur Luther.1940 Jan H. Eekhout A shortened adaptation in verse. Based on the German translation by Schiefner and Buber, and the Dutch version of Tamminen. 1969 Henrik Hartwijk Translation of song #5. Published in the Yearbook of the Kalevala Society. 1979 Full prose translation. Based on the German adaptation of Inge Ott. 1985 Mies le Nobel Full verse translation. Based on the German translation by Schiefner and Buber. Serbian 1935 Ivan S. Šajković Japanese 1937 1961 1976 Spanish 1944 Alejandro Casona Abridged prose translation, based on Charles Guyot's version. 1953 María Dolores Arroyo Full metric verse translation via Perret's French and Pavolini's Italian translations 1967 Full prose translation, via French and English translations 1985 Ursula Ojanen and Joaquín Fernández Full translation directly from Finnish. 1995 Carmen Crouzeilles Abridged prose translation. Published in Buenos Aires. Romanian 1946 Barbu B. Brezianu Full prose translation. 1959 Iulian Vesper Full translation using an eight-syllable verse form. 1985 Pavel Starostin Published in Moldovan which is identical to Romanian. Abridged translation. Hebrew 1954 Shaul Tchernichovsky 1964 Sarah Tovia Reissued 1978 in collaboration with The Finnish/Israeli Friendship Society Yiddish 1954 Hersh Rosenfeld Belarusian 1956 Prose and poetry excerpts.2015Full translation directly from Finnish.2024Olga RavchenkoProse translation for children Icelandic 1957 & 1962 This translation utilizes the Icelandic "three-par" alliteration method. Chinese 1962 Translated via the Russian translation. 1981 Translated via W. F. Kirby's English translation. 2000 Zhang Hua Wen Esperanto 1964 Full translation in Kalevala meter, published as trochaic octometers (one for every two Finnish verses) with mandatory central caesuraArabic 1965 Muhamed Said al-Juneid Abridged translation (Poem 50) published in the yearbook of the Kalevala Society. 1991Sahban Ahmed Mroueh, Kaj Öhrnberg, and Jussi Aro, الكاليفالا: ملحمة الشعب الفنلندي [al-Kālīfālā: malhamat al-šaʿb al-finlandī] (Beirut: Dār Dānāy, 1991). Norwegian 1967 Albert Lange Fliflet Nynorsk language translation. Based on an earlier unpublished translation.2017Mikael HolmbergBokmål language retelling in trochaic tetrameter. Georgian 1969 Mukhran Machavariani, and Armenian 1972 Hmayak Siras Abridged prose translation. Polish 1974 Full translation based on the work of Karol Laszecki. 1998 Full translation Komi 1980 & 1984 Partial translation (Väinämöinen's playing and Song 10.) Fulani 1983 Alpha A. Diallo Book was published in Hungary, illustrated with Akseli Gallen-Kallela's artwork. Tulu 1985 Amrith Someshwar Used Keith Bosley's Wanton Loverboy: Kalevala Cantos 11–15 to aid in the translation of some parts. LatinKalevala Latina: Carmen epicum nationis Finnorum in perpetuam memoriam anniversarii centesimi quinquagesimi, trans. by Tuomo Pekkanen, 2nd edn (Helsinki: Societas Kalevalensis, 1996) [first publ. 1986]. 1986 Vietnamese 1986 Nguyễn Xuân Nghiệp Full prose translation. 1991 Hoàng Thái Anh Full prose translation. 1994 Full translation in metrical verse. Slovak 1986 Marek E. Světlík and Hindi 1990 & 1997 Vishnu Khare Slovene 1991 Partial translation. 1997 Jelka Ovaska Novak Full translation. Swahili 1992 Jan Knappert Illustrated with Tanzanian Robino Ntila's graphics. Bulgarian 1992 Greek 1992 Verse translation of the first 20 poems with prose translation of the rest. Faroese 1993 Tamil 1994 Ramalingam Sivalingam Full translation. Introduction by Asko Parpola.Catalan 1994 Encarna Sant-Celoni i Verger Abridged prose translation. 1997 Ramon Garriga i Marquès and Pirkko-Merja Lounavaara Full translation in metric verse, directly from Finnish. Persian 1998 Mahmoud Amir Yar Ahmadi and Mercedeh Khadivar Mohseni Full translation directly from Finnish. 2012 Kiamars Baghbani Retold and translated in Persian directly from Finnish. Macedonian 1998 Uzbek1988Based on Lyubarskaya's Russian version. Kannada 2001 K. R. Sandhya Reddy Full translation from English. Croatian 2001 Stjepan A. Szabó Partial translation in narrative form. 2006 Full translation using the German translation partially. Low German 2001 Herbert Strehmel Oriya 2001 Prose translation. Udmurt 2001 Anatoli Uvarov Summary. Veps 2003 Verse summary. 2022 Nina Zaiceva Full translation. Portuguese 2007 Orlando Moreira Full translation from an English version. 2009 José Bizerril and Álvaro Faleiros Partial translation. Only the first song. 2013 Ana Soares and Merja de Mattos-Parreira Full translation from Finnish; in verse; with critical introduction, and hundreds of footnotes. Meänkieli 2007 Bengt Pohjanen Translation of a select four songs. Urdu 2012 Arshad Farooq Livvi-Karelian 2015 Raisa Remšujeva Karelian Proper 2015 Galician 2018 and Nenets2018Translated from Russian
References
External links The Kalevala Translations since 1835 at Kalevala Around the World