A Glance on The Kalevala through the Eyes of an Arab Reader

An ordinary Arab citizen in any of the twenty-two Arab states containing approximately three hundred million souls does not know anything about Kalevala, the epic of the Finnish people. That citizen may in best cases recall some of the following names whenever ‘Finland’ is mentioned and often can be confused with Holland: Jari Litmanen, Mika Hä-;-kkinen, Lasse Virén, Paaavo Nurmi, Helsinki, Sauna, Santa Claus, Selasvou. In addition, an ordinary Arab may know that the present president of Finland is a lady. No great wonder! Finland is far from the Arab World, the connections between the two parties were only economic, and the Arabic library has almost nothing about Finland. Published in 1991 in Beirut an Arabic translation of the Kalevala was prepared by Saḥ-;-bā-;-n Aḥ-;-mad Mroueh, a Lebanese poet who has lived in Finland since the 1970s. Kaj Ö-;-hrnberg has rendered the first twenty-five songs into Arabic-;- the rest twenty-five have been translated into Arabic too by Jussi Taneli Aro. These two texts were modified and revised by Mroueh (see Studia Orientalia 114, Helsinki 2013, p. 4 ). 
Generally speaking, the Kalevala in Arabic in its fifty sections is an interesting book to read and understand. Many of its themes are universal, music and song, bravery and heroism, tragedy, good and evil, revenge, animals, raids, marriage and family, incantation and magic, courting dramas, homeland, hunting and fishing, wisdom, nature, myths, joy, goodness, work, knowledge and sword, profession and agriculture, daily life. Besides, there is a major role for imagination and action. The epic begins like the Bible with creation made out of broken eggs and ends with a strange interpretation of virgin birth and the death of the god, Vä-;-inä-;-mö-;-inen. Between these two points, a lively dialogue between the Finnish people and their especial environment and affairs is given. One of the points accepted and enjoyed by Arab readers would be the attempt to utilise various words to express almost the same thing. 
The heroes Vä-;-inä-;-mö-;-inen, Ilmarinen, Ahti, Kullervo, and Ilmarinen may resemble to some extent, ancient Arab poets, the lords of word. Vä-;-inä-;-mö-;-inen is a wise singer who plays the Kantele the ˓-;-ū-;-d of the Arabs. Ilmarinen is an amazing smith who makes the Sampo a kind of miracle, a mill made of a feather and a grain of corn to be given as dowry to the lady of the north to give her daughter as a wife to him. This story ends by smashing the Sampo on the shore. Ahti, known as Kaukkomieli is an elegant, silly, and joyful young man fond of women, wine, good food, and raids. Kollervo is an orphan who slept with his sister and both commit suicide. Finally, Ilmarinen is a sort of Don Juan. 
Among the strange and obscure components in this epic one may indicate the strange names of the characters, some de-script-ions, and images. Ordinary Arabic -script- lacks P, V, and especially some vowels and diphthongs found in Finnish. Accordingly, the Kalevala is “al-Kā-;-lī-;-fā-;-lā-;--;- Vä-;-inä-;-mö-;-inen is Fā-;-ynā-;--;- Pohjola is Bō-;-hyā-;-lā-;--;- and Vä-;-inö-;-lä-;- is “Fā-;-ynō-;-ā-;-”. Ice, snow, forests, and lakes are not familiar in the Arab World. Until now our children use often jä-;-ä-;-, lumi, metsä-;-t, jä-;-rvet instead of Arabic equivalents. Among the curious de-script-ions and metaphors we may point at ‘black soil is productive’, ‘the Labonaite boy’ (runo 3, Lappish boy), ‘the inverted lips and the closeness of mouth to nose” (runo 3), “I shall mourn the splendor of the Sun” (ibid.), “collecting strawberry in the forest’ (runo 4), ‘luffa, path sponge’ is vasta (ibid.),‘to stumble by a piece of wood (ibid. rather than a “stone”), ‘honey-bread’ (runo 5/120), ‘during the white golden months of life’ (runo 6), the bear plays a similar role to the camel in old Arabic culture, back of the room as a place of honour, shaman poetry.
The following are the first lines of Kalevala in Arabic translation:


يخطر لي
وفي ذهني أفكّر
بالذهاب لأنشد
بالذهاب لأغنّي
لأقرأ صلات الرحم
لأغنّي الأنساب
الكلمات تذوب في حلقي
والعبارات تسقط
إلى لساني تأتي
على أسناني تنفجر
أخي أيها الغالي يا أخي
يا من لم يتصل برحم أيها الوسيم
تعال معي للنشد
هلمّ معي لنغنّي
بعد أن تعارفنا
إثر قدومنا من مكانين مختلفين
فمن النادر أن نلتقي
أن يأتي واحدنا إلى حيث الآخر
في تلك الحدود التعسة
في بوهيولا البائسة

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