Some remarks for the reader: Do not take these as social information but instead as a lesson, as a view of how to accomplish great deeds and learn the skills for things of worth in the world.
In translating this short piece, my attention was in having a view that could maybe fit all climates and tell how to look at the nature and compare it to thoughts, so that the thoughts could have the kind of wisdom as in the first poem's translation. This is at the same time a way to ponder about life and one's picture of the world.
* * *
Second Poem
From there rose Väinämöinen
on his two feet to even forest ground
on an island of the lake'svast space
on a continent without trees.
Stayed there many years
always lived forward
in a wordless island
that was a treeless continent.
Ponders, thinks deeply,
wonders in his head:
who would be suited to plough the land,
to saw the seeds to the ground?
Pellervoinen, son of the farming lands,
Sampsa small boy,
would be eager to saw the lands,
to do the spring time farming work!
Saw lands tentatively,
saw lands, saw swamps,
saw vegetation covered meadows,
put even stony grounds to farming use.
Rocky hills saw to be pine forests,
round hills to thick needle tree forests,
even forest grounds to wooden undergrowth with tiny flowers,
small valleys to young leaf tree forests.
To wet lands saw white trunked leaf trees with black fractures,
...
Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Kalevala, the beginning translated to English
"About Kalevala
Such brings to my mind another old tale: that the world, our lives, are in fact in a Lapplandish "kota" tent made of reindeer skin, and the fire in the middle of the tent has burned small holes to the tent: so are born stars. So it is at the same time somehow comforting, warm, more like life in it's original form that is good to live and better for feelings than physics etc, and less exact, kind of in another language, in another way to look at things, yet something to learn from.
In the beginning of Kalevale there is a piece somewhat like " I wish to sing a hymn about the spirit of our relatives/family, to produce a hymn about our specie's instinctual wisdom..."
My translation from the beginning:
"Kalevala
I would like to,
I think with my brain
to start to sing,
to set my words,
to produce a song about the spirit of our family,
a hymn about the instinctual wisdom of our species.
Words melt into my mouth,
talk drops from my mouth by itself,
hurries to my tongue,
shatters to my teeths.
Dear bother, my fellow,
my beautiful comrade whom I was raised with!
Start to sing with me,
set your words with me,
since we have now met
after having been apart!
Rarely we see each other,
meet each other
on these poor outskirts,
poor northern lands.
Let us set hand in hand,
fingers between fingers,
to sing well,
to produce our best,
for to hear those golden ones,
for t know liked ones,
in the young raising up,
in the growing people:
found words,
tuned hymns
from the belt of old sage Väinämöinen,
from thebuff of smith Ilmarinen,
far away from pale Kaukomieli,
fromJoukahainen's bow's way,
from the farest reachest of the fields of North,
from the lands of Kalevala.
Those sung my papa
while making woodworks;
those taught my mom
while making clothes,
me as a kid on the floor
running around at the level of their knees,
as young kid with a milk beard (mouth dirty from milk).
Sampo money making machine did not lack words,
neither did witch woman Louhi lack threads:
Sampo got old from words,
Louhi disappeared in threads,
Vipunen the competitor died of religious songs,
Lemminkäinen soldier to playful games.
There are also other words,
problems I have learned to solve:
taken from the roadside,
copied from the beauty of the undergrowth,
gotten strenght from the style of fallen tree branches,
leraned from the atmosphere of young tree plants,
from everyday life labour,
from everyday problems solved,
as I was herding cattle
as a kid all the days,
on honey ground,
on golden hills,
after a black cow Muurikki, ("muuri" = wall, "murha" = murder, "murhe" = sorrow, "muu" = other, "-kki" a typical ending in cows' names, "rikki" = broken)
with a multicolour Kimmo cow. ("kimmota" = to bounce from)
Shivering with cold I learned with the help of religion, / Shivering from cold taught me wisdom about ways of living,
the beauty of rain taught me poems.
Another hymn was brought by the winds,
and driven by the waves of the sea.
Bird song joined words together,
tree tops formed sentences.""
http://finnishskills.blogspot.fi/2016/09/about-kalevala.html
I did not quite well understand the following part, but now one and half years later I tried to translate it too:
"Those I tied to a bunch,
fitted to a very airy sphere.
Put the sphere t my sledge,
took it along in my sledge,
took it to my home,
by sledge to my tool shelter,
put it there to the upper storey,
to a metallic pot.
For the week was my hymn in cool,
long time in longing.
Do I pull from the cool the hymns,
shovel songs from freezing,
bring to the living room my can,
the pot to the top of a small chair,
under the famous upmost roof tree trunk,
under a beautiful roof,
open my chest of words,
tune my locked box of hymns,
open the front end of the bunch,
straughten the knot from the round bunch?
So I will sing a good hymn,
hammer a beautiful one too,
by dark wheat food,
by wheaty ale.
Since they don't seem to be bringing me ale,
not offering me needed refreshing drink,
I will sing with a thinner mouth, (rising to meet the situation with skills generally needed in life) (But with eating less, bearing weathers, being without drinking and other questions handled via wisdom in one's ways of living, it is important to know the challenge beforehand, be prepared for it, arrange one's life so that the challenge does not disturb one's life, at least not much.)
from the cold breaze in feet in the room I come to your side,
to bring joy to this evening,
for the honour of this famous day,
or for the fun of tomorrow,
for to begin a new morning.
"
And so begins the Tale:
"
*
So I heard said,
knew a hymn about things to be done:
when we are alone come the nights,
when we are alone lighten the days;
alone was born the sage Väinämöinen,
appeared the poet for forever
from a slender bearer,
from the Maiden of the Air.
There was a young woman, daughter of the air,
woman envying the nature, as if decorated.
Kept on the weeks holiness,
forever womanliness
on the long yards of the air,
on the evenly travelled grounds.
Got bored of her time there,
it made her feel alienated from her life,
to be always alone,
living as a young woman
on the long yards of the air,
spacy, without any people there.
Already stepped lower,
to the waves,
to the clear open space of the sea.
There came a short strong wind,
from the east angry weather;
lifted the sea to bubbles,
splashed it to waves.
The wind was a lullaby for the young maiden,
waves drove the woman
around the blue sea,
it's hat headed waves:
wind blew her with womb,
the sea made pregnant.
Carried a hard womb,
a difficult stomach
for seven (hundred?) years,
for nine times the age of a man;
but the childbirth is not coming yet,
the baby is not yet created.
The woman rolled as water's mother.
Swam eastern places, and swam western places,
swam north-western, sotuhern,
swam all costs of the air
in pain of the firery birth
in stomach trouble;
but the chilbirth is not yet coming,
the baby is not yet created.
Cried humming;
said a word, this way named:
"Oh poor, my days,
poor child, my travel!
I have already come to some place:
for all my age to under the air,
to be lullabied by the wind,
to be driven by the waves
on these spacious waters,
on the topof the waves!
It would have been better
to live as a woman of the air,
tha nowadays roll as a mother of the waters:
I shiver from cold here,
it is a burden tp be here in the cold,
to live in the waves,
to roll in the water.
"Oh Old Man, upmost god,
carrier of all air!
Come here when needed,
come here when called!
Let help worker girl from trouble,
woman from stomach cramps!
Come quickly, to the space in between,
to the more spacious needed1"
A small time elapsed,
cried a little.
Came ancient duck, straight bird;
flew slowly flapping it's wings
trying to find a place for it's nest,
guessing at the place to live in.
Flew eastern places,flew western places,
flew north-western places, southern places.
Does not find that room,
not even in worst places,
to which it would make it's nest,
take it's site to live in.
Glides, flies,
guesses, thinks:
"Will I make my house to the air,
to the waves my home?
The wind will fall my house,
the waves will carry away my home."
Just then the mother of the water,
mother of the water, air's young woman,
lifted her knee from the sea,
back bone from the waves
for ancient duck to build it's nest in,
for it's living ground loved.
This ancient duck, bird slender as if decorated,
glides, flies.
Noticed the knee of water's mother
on the bluish open sea;
thought it was grass,
fresh humus.
Flies, glides,
sets itself on top of the knee.
There makes it's nest,
makes it's golden eggs:
six golden eggs,
the seventh one an iron egg. (Six loved, eggs of happiness, the seventh of rationality to make them all of good quality and so strong and enduring.)
"
That was about giving birth. And the following is about the origins of the world.
"Began to lay on the eggs,
warm the top of the knee.
Warmed a day, warmed another,
warmed soon a third day.
Already from that mother of the waters,
water's mother, air's young woman,
felt firery,
her skin transforming to coal like;
thought her knee was burning,
all her veins melting.
Shaked her knee,
her limbs were shaken:
eggs rolled to the water,
to the waves of the sea they got driven;
the eggs were brokento pieces,
broken to pieces.
It aren't a good place for the eggs to be in mud,
for pieces to be in the middle of water.
The pieces changed to good ones,
pieces to beautiful ones:
lower half of the egg
to be mother ground,
egg's upper half
to be sky above;
upper half of brownish
to be the day shining,
upper part of white,
that to be the moon shining;
what there was colourful in the egg,
that to be stars in the sky,
what there was blackish in the egg,
those to be clouds of the air.
Timen pass,
years go further
while new day is shining,
new moon is shining.
Always swiums the mother of the waters
water's mother, woman of the air,
on thise slight waters,
misty waves,
in her front watery water,
behind her sky clear.
Aaalready on the ninth year,
on the tenth summer
lift her head from the sea,
lifted her eagle.
Started to create her creations,
achieve what she had gotten,
on the clear open space of the sea,
won the wide space on the sea.
Where turned her hand,
to that place tidied the headlands of the shore;
where touched the bottom with her feet,
dug deeps for the fishes there;
where caused bubbles,
to there lowered deepest places.
Her sides touhed the earth,
to there straight even shores;
her feet touched the earth:
to there created lax fishing spots;
her head touched theshore:
to there put bays.
Swam further away from the shore,
stopped at the open sea:
creates stony small islands to the sea,
secret places
for the ships to get stuck in,
for the death of sailors.
"
"There were islands tidied,
created stony little islands to the sea,
corners of the air poked,
lands and continents said,
written to stones the books,
drawn lines to rocky ground.
Not yet is Väinämöinen born,
appear the poet for forever.
"
"Steady old Väinämöinen
travelled in her mother's womb
thirty summers,
once as many winters too,
on these atmospheric waters,
on misty waves.
Guesses, thinks,
how to be, how to live
in his dark hiding place,
in a living place that has not enough room,
where he never could see the moon
and not notice the day.
Said with that word,
uttered with that sentence:
"Moon, stio already, day, let me go,
star figure, still teach
a man from strange doors,
unkown gates,
from these small nests,
from too narrow palces lived in!
Walk with traveller to the ground,
to the air the child of human,
to look at the moon of the sky,
to feel the day on one's skin,
to learn from the star figure,
to gaze at the stars!"
Since the moon did not stop
and the day did not let him go,
he felt alienated about hiw time,
in pain about his life:
moved the gate of a castle
by the not named finger,
from a bony lock slipped
by left toe;
came by grasping with nails from by the door,
on his knees from the door of the hall.
From there falled to the sea mouth first,
with hands turned to the wave;
and so the man is left carried by the sea,
soldier like man in the middle of waves.
Was there for five years,
both five and six,
seven years, eight.
Stopped at the open space of the sea at last,
to a headland not named,
to a continent without trees.
By his knees rose from the ground,
by his hands turned.
Rose to see the moon,
to feel teh day on his skin,
to learn from the star figure,
to gaze at the stars.
That was the birth of Väinämöinen,
race of brave poet
from a thin bearer,
from maiden of the air mother."
End of the first poem of Kalevala
Kalevala and skills, the aim of this translation
Finns have wisdom that most other nationalities lack. Part of that wisdom comes from reading Kalevala, but Kalevala is a difficult book to translate. This wisdom comes from learning via close relationship with the nature and living with the four seasons, in ever varying weathers. There is wisdom that one can learn from the challenges of one's life, wisdom about doing one's very best and learning new skills, and getting strenght to other things done from what one has so learned, so that it was not just one experience but way to learn for all of one's life.Also when one encounters something concretical and ages old, one can learn about the basic nature of humans, about the wisdom encoded in our nature, about wise ways of living, about profound ages old way to live and be social, kind of basic form of life, something which is at the core of every human deed adn fate, even in these modern times. So my intentipn has not been to translate Kalevala as poems or fine words but only to translate some things of what it teaches skills for life, wisdom about the human nature and about ways to learn about life, about what is profound in the world. But Kalevala is a long book and this is just a beginning of the ephos.
The Finnish relationship to the Finnish nature is essential in understanding Kalevala. But of course foreigners seldom know the Finnish nature. So I have tried to translate the nature contact in a general level that would apply in other climates too, even if there are less possibilites of wandering in the nature. It is a big problem in Finland for foreigners that they tend to get a flu and it just lasts and lasts and so they are just ill and dizzy and don't learn anything much while in thius climate. So what they need to learn, they ought to learn in their original climate, even if things there are very different from Finland. The nature is of course different too, but in this way of learning the point isn't mostly in what the animal or plant does, except that it is ages old, but instead on it having a varying rythm (courses twinding in a structured way), on it having wisdom in it's ways of doing, in encoded in it's atmosphere, in it touching our ages old nature. And on the other hand it learning, especially at quite young age, about what it does also other skills needed for life, like from watching beauty of nature one learns to look at landscapes and observe a lot, understand life in the living and gain wisdom of life.
* * *
My other texts offer suport for this endeavour: I have written about:
* living wisely the seasons http://finnishskills.blogspot.fi/2014/11/living-with-seasons.html
* healthy ways of living and doing http://finnishskills.blogspot.fi/2015/11/healthy-ways-of-living.html
* learning thinking skills http://pikakoulu.blogspot.fi , http://quickerlearning.blogspot.fi
* learning other skills http://learntalents.blogspot.fi
* working life and feelings http://workandfreetime.blogspot.fi
I have also translated some famous Finnish poems:
http://EinoLeinopoems.blogspot.fi
* * *
February 28th is the time of the year when winter skills are at their
highest, and so it is also Kalevala's day in Finland, day of the
Finnish culture.
* * *
June 2018 (In the Finnish summer)
About the translator of this translation:
My name is Kaisa Hannele Tervola and I am a 46 years old Finnish woman, originally from the capital and now live in Savonlinna in Southern Savo.
* * *
20. August 2018
If you find Kalevala's viewpoint and level of skill and fracturelessness hard to understand, please read my blog http://EinoLeinopoems.blogspot.fi and read the texts on links from that blog: maybe first my paradise theory ( you see the basics on this link http://2013paradise.blogspot.com/2017/08/basics-of-my-paradise-theory.html but need to add the part about feelings: the book at the beginning of the blog http://workandfreetime.blogspot.fi ), then increasing thinking skills and intelligence and then abut healthy ways of living and doing things (http://finnishskills.blogspot.fi/2015/11/healthy-ways-of-living.html and http://finnishskills.blogspot.com/2018/01/healthy-ways-of-living-and-doing.html ), but those are all big bunches of texts.
* * *
8. September 2018
"I am not sure of this, but my impression
is that each weather, also in widely different climates, is best lived
in a way which you find when you pay central attention to some fine
whole of the nature, like an atmospheric branch in nature, that is
especially spirited in it's view of how to live such wetaher and to
which heights one's wisdom of life, skill, virtues of character and
enjoyment of life could so rise,for example on some animal of the
wilderness, and from siuch viewpoint pay attention to it's view on the
ways of living: that is what is the way of living such wetahers and such
temperatures, maybe such days, evenings, nights & mornings. Follow
that advice and search for a new advice when the weather is clearly
different."
http://talesfromforest.blogspot.com/2018/08/quotations-from-texts-about-contact.html
* * *
29th January 2019
Kalevala isn't and hasn't been the only source of wisdom for Finns. Finns are a nation that values highly civilized wisdom and lives through it, via it. In the old times before school the Finnish and Kalevala's way of looking at landscapes observing clearly their structures offered good quality objective rationality that when used by the group and society bring lots of wisdom of civilized type.
In other climates one could maybe learn Kalevala's type of nature contact from a farm or scout hut of kids in one's own climate, in Asia most likely a Buddhist farm, but those need to have at least some trees. The Finnish way of looking at the nature resembles the way light shining through the branches of trees is beautiful in also other climates.
* * *
1st of Fenruary 2019
It is my impression from news that people in most countries have appeared sleepy this year January. I wonder can reading Kalevala cause such, since learning fracturelessness and wisdom is like starting a holiday: you need holiday level things from the media and your surroundings, like maybe changing the newspaper from Washington Post to New York Times, or listening to some religious program,or reading more articles written by the elderly, watching from tv some nature documentary from Alaska or somewhere else in the cold climate zone where ways of living need to be healthy because of the climate, maybe something about the Finnish culture too, from countryside and nature and weather centered life in your own climate, etc. Please notice that hymns that Kalevala mentions are a Christian hymns and Kalevala is not a religion but wisdom to teach to the younger generations. Music with wisdom of life and civilized wisdom are very important.
8th February 2019
Since this translation of Kalevala is climate-free, it
does not teach Finnish climate skills. So in questions
of ways of living it seeks to have many different
versions: at least oe for each country and climate
area, but of course those are born from the skills and
lives of the readers. Likewise, Kalevala teaches skills
for many different types of people with different
levels of understanding. So one person's or country's
idea of Kalevala isn't like that of the others. The
Finnish culture values the original Finnish Kalevala
especially much.
So the type of thinking one learns with the help of
this translation varies from climate to climate and
from type of vegetation to another, and mostly depends
on the local culture too.
If you on this translation of Kalevala pay attention to my own view, I have already written very many advices about learning skills and also some about large scale issues in the world: please see here recommended links to my texts or click my name and go to my profile where there is a list of my blogs.
11th February 2019 At least now I think that I will not translate Kalevala longer than the this far translated first poem fully and the beginning of the second poem ending to the part of sewing trees. This is because a short piece that already teaches quite much is easier for all to read than a longer one, and if some would read longer and tell about the text's contents to others, that would most likely not teach them as much as them themselves reading this much. Kalevala has a view of it's own, si it is better to read by oneself.
27.8.2019 One can learn climate skills well from tree species originally from the climate one is in, not from planted foreign tree species of different climates.
6th of February 2020 As far as I know, you do not need to read kalevala several times. You can read it againif it is your hobby, but if you read it once like a part of your civiliced wisdom, you stay wiser for tens of years. You do not need to copy it or the like. You just have a better idea of what wisdom is like, and so you are often wiser than before. So it ought to be useful to read Kalevala also in widely different climates.
25th of July 2020 Kalevala as a word brings to mind the word "kalavale"= a lie about how enermously big fish(achievement) you have managed to catch, and the words "kalliit valat" = valuable loved oaths, which is something that kalevala's wisdommakes possible or more possible.
20.12.2020 If my translation of Kalevala's beginning makes people sleepy for a long time, maybe they would like some more skills of living the daily life in a much more fractureless way. Maybe my long Christmas gnome skills text http://learntalents.blogspot.com with it's links could help to that, but remember that it is not an as good quality subject as Kalevala.
24.2.2021 In connection with Kalevala, some would be interested in a kind of school (thinking & fitting into the society) for animals, so for it see https://kokonaiskuvat2.blogspot.com/2020/09/elaimille-koulu.html .
10.11.2023 Advices about a natural way of giving birth, see https://learntalents.blogspot.com/2023/10/miracle-healing-advices.html
9th of January 2024 https://learntalents.blogspot.com/2024/01/unconceptualized-nature-as-source-of.html
9th of April 2024 in Espoo my new book, free downliad at https://miraclelikenature.blogspot.com/2024/04/magnifient-views.html
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Some remarks for the reader: Do not take these as social information but instead as a lesson, as a view of how to accomplish great deeds a...
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Finns have wisdom that most other nationalities lack. Part of that wisdom comes from reading Kalevala, but Kalevala is a difficult book to t... -
"About Kalevala The Finnish national ephos Kalevala, a collection of old poems, has a profound touch in the form of myths like ...