New translation of '' Kalevala ''

Marina Timasheva: In the St. Petersburg publishing house Vita Nova, a two -volume edition of the Finnish epic “Kalevala” was published - a unique edition in a new translation and with illustrations of the classic of St. Petersburg graphics of Yuri Lyukshin. Says Tatyana Voltskaya.

Tatyana Voltskaya: A two -volume illustrated edition of Kalevala '' is valuable not only because it represents the reader a new translation of the Finnish epic into Russian, made by Karelian researchers Eino Kiura and Armas Mishin. and equipped with vast reference material. In this book, scientists convincingly prove that “Kalevala” is not an epic, but an independent literary work is an epic poem written by Elias Lennrot based on Karelian -Finnish runes. The new edition of Vita Novova is told by the PR-director of the publishing house Natalya Delgjado.

Natalia Delgjado: The publishing house generally turns to classical literature - we release books in collection and, as it seems to us, this execution should correspond to the level of text. Not so long ago we had a series called '' Heroic Hall '' dedicated to the epics of different peoples of the world. And although “Kalevala” is not quite an epic, we naturally turned to her in one of the first lines.

Tatyana Voltskaya: You have a new translation - after all, this is a very serious application.

Natalia Delgjado: We are not quite, one might say, transferred again, but almost. The fact is that the most famous translation in Russian was published in 1878 - this is a wonderful translation of Belsky. By the way, this translation of Belsky was taken as an example of Bunin when he translated '' Songs about Gayavat '', because '' Song about Gayavat '' was translated exactly the same size. The translation of Belsky is poetic, epic, conveying folklore features, but not as accurate as we would like. Therefore, we took the translation of two modern Karelian researchers of Armas Mishin and Aino Kiura, who much more accurately conveys the features of the original and more accurate in relation to ethnography. The story of illustration '' Kalevala '' is very rich. I must say that immediately, upon the release of the book in Finland, several competitions were announced in the illustration of Kalevale, and for 50 years not a single artist received first place and did not win this competition. Only 50 years after the release of the first edition, finally, a person who is worthy to illustrate this book was determined.

Tatyana Voltskaya: And what, they published 50 years without pictures?

Natalya Delgjado: The first edition was not illustrated, and the work of Axeli Gallen Callles were honored to be considered canonical illustrations for this book. And he was instructed to decorate the ceiling of the Finland pavilion at the World Paris Exhibition in 1900. These were frescoes on the topic '' Kalevala ''.

Tatyana Voltskaya: This is a great Finnish artist, simply little -known in Russia, - as the culturologist, literary critic Nikita Eliseev believes.

Nikita Eliseev: Such a symbolist is a little similar to Vrubel. During the war years for the independence of Finland, this artist was adjutant Mannerheim.

Natalya Delgjado: Naturally, many artists turned to the images of '' Kalevala ''. In Russia, the situation was, in general, similar, because after the complete translation of “Kalevala”, the same translation of Belsky, more than 50 years passed, and only in 1933 the “Academy” publishing house ordered Filonov and its students illustrations for this epic. Oddly enough, Filonov almost did not take part in this work, although it is believed that these are the illustrations of Filonov. The main work was performed by Mikhail Tsibasov and Alisa Porut, 14 artists were involved in her, and Filonov only determined the general direction - he suggested that the heroes look at the heroes of Kalevala through the eyes of the heroes themselves. The illustrations themselves were performed by other artists.

Tatyana Voltskaya: But they were all students of Filonova - specifies Nikita Eliseev.

Nikita Eliseev: It was an attempt to realize the idea of collective creative work, strange for us. Here is a case with the Philonist students - this was a good example of collective creativity, because it is a brilliant work. By the way, the father of the famous multiplier Khrzhanovsky, who was a student of Filonov, participated in these illustrations. The Filonovites dared to give out such an order not anyone, but Lev Borisovich Kamenev, who at that time, dilated from all posts, went into culture, became the director of the publishing house '' Academy '' and worked well there, very well. This can be said about illustrations. And, frankly, knowing the nature of the publishing house, Vita Nova '', I expected that it was these illustrations that would be reproduced on the pages of the new edition of Kalevala. ''

Tatyana Voltskaya: But this did not happen, ”says Natalia Delgjado.

Natalya Delgjado: To our great pleasure, we collaborated with the wonderful modern St. Petersburg artists Yuri Lyukshin. This person has been working on the images of Kalevala for 25 years. Moreover, he created not only illustrations, he created the ex -liters on the topic '' Kalevala ''. Especially for the publisher, he created another cycle that had not previously been exhibited anywhere and was not reproduced in books on the topic '' Kalevala ''. But I must say that Lyukshin is a really great master. Here we had no doubt that the work would turn out to be large -scale, worthy of entering the history of the illustrated “Kalevala”, but in general in the history of book graphics, and we are sure that we were not mistaken. Moreover, the point is not in the regalia of Yuri Lyukshin, who are many - the gold medal of the Parisian “Autumn Salon '', the gold medal of the Leipzig“ Biennale graphics '', the silver medal of the Russian Academy of Arts, and so on. Not only his previous works, but also the work on Kalevala '' convinced us that this is really a worthy person, and this work is worthy to be considered one of the classic ones.

Tatyana Voltskaya: When you look at these illustrations, you immediately see: yes, the gamma is Filonovskaya, and the principle of creation of the world, the creation of the myth - in general, is the same. Nikita Eliseev.

Nikita Eliseev: Filonov had the same experiments when several events were taking place in one picture when you need to peer into the picture to see that it actually moves and lives. So this is a general Filonov principle, and, perhaps, the general principle of the myth. It is clear that the myth does not know time, the myth is in eternity.

Natalya Delgjado: But this myth was created by Elias Lennrot. Being a doctor (not a philologist) by education, he was interested in folklore and decided to create on the basis of songs, the runes that were performed by the runopers, a certain common, whole folklore work. That is, one person, in fact, created this very Finnish mythology. Because there were only scattered legends and legends, and he wanted to realize something similar '' Iliad 'and' Odyssey ''. And not in vain, the collection of runes begins as in any mythology with the creation of the Earth, the sky and the luminaries, and the general plot of the poem is, indeed, the creation of Lennrot himself.

Nikita Eliseev: The Lennrot himself, who was naturally a romantic (only romantics do this), would object on this. He would say that '' I did not create the plot '' Kalevala, I recreated it, I realized how these fragments of some previous myth, the previous plot should exist. ''

Tatyana Voltskaya: Puzzle folded such.

Nikita Eliseev: Yes, absolutely true. Here are different pieces of different adventures of mythical heroes, we will lay them up and get a puzzle. I must say that many people have such desires. For example, Ilya Selvinsky wanted to do this with the epics of Russians, but he did not succeed as well as Lennrot, but Lennrot did.

Tatyana Voltskaya: Soon, in the series '' Heroic Hall '', the Song of Nibelungs should appear with the illustrations of the artist Boris Zabirokhin.