List of Kalevala translations

A list of translations of the Finnish national epic Kalevala in chronological order by language.

Based partially on the list made by Rauni Puranen and the article here.

Language	Year	Translator	Remark
Swedish	1841	M. A. Castrén	Full translation of the 1835 Old Kalevala.
	1864–1868	Karl Collan	Full translation of the 1849 Kalevala.
	1884	Rafaël Hertzberg
	1944	Olaf Homén	An abridged edition
	1948	Björn Collinder
	1999	Lars Huldén and Mats Huldén
French	1845 and 1867	Louis Léouzon le Duc	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	Jean Louis Perret	Full translation in metric verse.
	1991	Gabriel Rebourcet	Full translation. In old style French vocabulary.
German	1840	N. Mühlberg	The first 60 lines of the first song, published in: Verhandlungen der gelehrten Esthnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat. Ersten Bandes erstes Heft. 1840, 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 translation used by many other translators to bring Kalevala to their own language.
	1885–1886	H. Paul
	1967	Lore Fromm, Hans Fromm	Full translation directly from Finnish.
	2004[1]	Gisbert Jänicke	Full translation.
English	1868	John Addison Porter	Partial translation (The story of Aino[2]) via Franz Anton Schiefner's translation.
	1869	Edward Taylor Fletcher	Partial translation directly from Finnish (with a lengthy essay).
	1888[3]	John Martin Crawford	Full translation, via Franz Anton Schiefner's translation.
	1893[4][5]	R. Eivind	A complete prose adaptation for children.
	1907[6][7]	William Forsell Kirby	Second full translation. Directly from Finnish. Imitates the Kalevala meter.
	1950[4]	Aili Kolehmainen Johnson	Abridged prose translation.
	1954[4]	Margaret Sperry	Adapted verse translation of song 50.
	1963	Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr.	Scholarly prose translation. Included with detailed essays and background information.
	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.[8] Released to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the original publication.
	1989	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.
	1992	Mauri Kunnas	The "Canine Kalevala" is that of The Kalevala with the characters presented as anthropomorphized dogs, wolves and cats. The story deviates from the full Kalevala, presumably, to make the story more appropriate for children.
Hungarian	1871	Ferdinánd Barna	Full translation via Franz Anton Schiefner's translation.
	1909[9]	Béla Vikár
	1971	Kálmán Nagy
	1976	István Rácz
	1985[10]	Antal Reguly	Old Kalevala songs 1-3 and 29.
	1987	Imre Szente
Russian	1888[11]	Leonid Petrovic Belsky	An important translation used by many other Slavic translators to bring Kalevala to their own language.
	1998[12] & 2006[10]	Eino Kiuru and Armas Hiiri
Estonian	1891–1898	M. J. Eisen
	1938	August Annist
Czech	1894–1895	J. Holeček	Full translation in metric verse.
Ukrainian	1901	Jevhen Tymčenko
Danish	1902	Ferdinand Ohrt	Partial translation.
	1994	Hilkka and Bent Søndergaard
Italian	1909[13]	Igino Cocchi	Verse translation (hendecasyllable)
	1910[14]	Paolo Emilio Pavolini	Verse translation (original metre)
	1912[13]	Francesco Di Silvestri Falconieri	Prose translation
	1980	Liliana Calimeri	Used Ursula Synge's version as a model.
	1988[13]	Gabriella Agrati and Maria Letizia Magini	Prose translation
	2007[13]	Marcello Ganassini	Verse translation (blank verses)
Lithuanian	1922	Adolfas Sabaliauskas
	1972	Justinas Marcinkevičius
Latvian	1924[10]	Linards Laicens
	1965	?	Uses trochaic tetrameter and syllable stress rhythm.
Dutch	1928[10]	Maya Tamminen	Partial prose translation.
	1940[10]	Jan H. Eekhout.	An excerpt in poetic form.
	1969	Jr. Henrik Hartwijk	Translation of song #5. Published in the Yearbook of the Kalevala Society.
	1985[10]	Maria Mies le Nobel	Utilised German as well as English translations in his translation process.
Serbian	1935	Ivan S. Šajković
Japanese	1937	Kakutan Morimoto
	1961[10]	Tsutomu Kuwaki
	1976	Tamotsu Koizumi
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	Juan B. Bergua	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's	Full prose translation.
	1959	Iulian Vesper	Full translation using an eight syllable verse form.
	1985[10]	P. Starostin	Published in Moldovan which is identical to Romanian. Abridged translation.
Hebrew	1954	Saul Tschernichovsky
	1978	Sarah Tubia
Yiddish	1954	Hersh Rosenfeld
Belarusian	1956[10]	M. Mašapa	Prose and poetry excerpts.
Icelandic	1957 & 1962[10]	Karl Ísfeld	This translation utilises the Icelandic "three-par" alliteration method.
Chinese	1962	Shih Hêng	Translated via the Russian translation.
	1981[15]	Sun Yong	Translated via W.F.Kirby's English translation.
	2000[10]	Zhang Hua Wen
Esperanto	1964	Johan Edvard Leppäkoski	Full translation in Kalevala meter, published as trochaic octometers (one for every two Finnish verses) with mandatory central caesura
Turkish	1965[16]	Hilmi Ziya Ülken	Translation of the first 2 songs. Using the Hungarian and French as 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.
Norwegian	1967	Albert Lange Fliflet	Nynorsk language translation. Based on an earlier unpublished translation.
Georgian	1969[10]	M. Macavarian, Š. Tšantladze & G. Dzneladze.
Arabic	1970	Muhamed Said al-Juneid	Abridged translation published in the yearbook of the Kalevala Society.
	1991	Sahban Ahmad Mroueh
Armenian	1972[10]	A. Siras. Proosaa	Abridged prose translation.
Polish	1974	Józef Ozga-Michalski	Full translation based on the work of Karol Laszecki.
	1998	Jerzy Litwiniuk	Full translation
Komi	1980 & 1984[10]	Adolf Turkin	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 to aid in the translation of some parts.
Latin	1986	Tuomo Pekkanen
Vietnamese	1986	Cao Xuân Nghiêp	Full prose translation.
	1991	Hoàng Thái Anh	Full prose translation.
	1994	Búi Viêt Hòa's	Full translation in metrical verse.
Slovak	1986[10]	Marek Svetlik & Jan Petr Velkoborský.
Hindi	1990 & 1997[10]	Vishnu Khare
Slovene	1991	Jelka Ovaska Novak	Partial translation.
	1997	Jelka Ovaska Novak	Full translation.
Swahili	1992	Jan Knappert	Illustrated with Tanzanian Robino Ntila's graphics.
Bulgarian	1992	Nino Nikolov
Greek	1992 [10]	Maria Martzouk	Verse translation of the first 20 poems with prose translation of the rest.
Faroese	1993	Jóhannes av Skarði
Tamil	1994[17]	R. Sivalingam (Uthayanan)	Full translation. Introduction by Asko Parpola.
Catalan	1997	Ramon Garriga i Marquès, Pirkko-Merja Lounavaara	Full translation in metric verse, directly from Finnish.
	1997	Encarna Sant-Celoni i Verger	Abridged prose translation.
Persian	1998	Mahmoud Amir Yar Ahmadi and Mercedeh Khadivar Mohseni	Full translation directly from Finnish.
Kannada	2001	Dr K R Sandhya Reddy	Full translation from English.
Macedonian	1998	Vesna Acevska
Croatian	2001	Stjepan A. Szabo	Partial translation in narrative form.
	2006	Slavko Peleh	Full translation using the German translation partially.
Low German	2001[10]	Herbert Strehmel.
Oriya	2001[10]	Mahendra Kumar Mishra	Prose translation.
Udmurt	2001[10]	Anatoli Uvarov	Summary.
Veps	2003[10]	Nina Zaiceva	Verse summary.
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 & Merja de Mattos-Parreira	Full translation from Finnish; in verse; with critical introduction, and hundreds of footnotes.
Meänkieli	2007[10]	Bengt Pohjanen	Translation of a select four songs.
Urdu	2012[10]	Arshad Farooq
Belarusian	2015[18]	Yakub Lapatka

References

1. "National epic "The Kalevala" reaches the respectable age of 175". Retrieved 23 August 2010.
2. John Martin Crawford. "Kalevala - The national epic of Finland" Preface to the First edition, (1888).
3. "Kalevala: The Epic Poem of Finland". Retrieved August 19, 2010.
4. Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr. "The Kalevala or Poems of the Kaleva district" Appendix (1963).
5. "Finnish Legends for English Children". Retrieved 31 August 2010.
6. "Kalevala: The land of heroes - Vol 1.". Retrieved August 19, 2010.
7. "Kalevala: The land of heroes - Vol 2.". Retrieved August 19, 2010.
8. Eino Friberg. "Kalevala - Epic of the Finnish people" Introduction of the first edition, (1989).
9. "KALEVALA SZEMELVÉNYEK A FINNEK NAIV EPOSZÁBÓL.". Retrieved August 19, 2010.
10. "Kalevalan käännökset ja kääntäjät". Retrieved 23 August 2010.
11. "Leonid Petrovic Belsky - Калевала". Retrieved August 19, 2010.
12. "Eino Kiuru and Armas Hiiri - Калевала". Retrieved August 19, 2010.
13. "Paolo Emilio Pavolini - KALEVALA - Introduzione". Retrieved February 27, 2011.
14. "Paolo Emilio Pavolini - KALEVALA". Retrieved February 27, 2011.
15. "Sun Yong - Kalevala". Retrieved August 19, 2010.
16. Hilmi Ziya Ülken. "Turkish translation of The Kaevala Runos 1 and 2" Yearbook of the Kalevala Society, volume 43 (1963)..
17. "R. Sivalingam - KALEVALA". Retrieved August 19, 2010.
18. "Калевалу" па-беларуску прэзентуюць 10 снежня