(no subject)

[abigailbrady]

covenant ticket arrived today - which is cutting it a bit close. tomorrow gig, then friday up to sheffield for batfink!

started reading the Kalevala (in English translation), which has been kindly lent to me by cyniborg.

this is the Finnish "national epic", which when read in 1911/1912 by a kid called Ronald from the fringes of Birmingham, caused him to say "we've got to get ourselves one of these" and then a few years later to write one, in some cases just lifting things wholesale (compare Túrin with Kullervo.) i started to write a filk about Túrin once, which is not quite of the same level of inspiration, but hey.

Comments

[elfbiter.livejournal.com]

Which translation is that? According to Ian Watson, Keith Bosley's translation (which the Oxford World's Classics edition uses) would be more tolerable to read to the English-speakers althought it does not preserve the original poetic syntax.

[abigailb.livejournal.com]

it's the Bosley translation, yeah (in that edition). i had a brief look at the original and have decided not to read it further, otherwise i might be tempted to learn finnish, and i can't be having with that.

[elfbiter.livejournal.com]

Well, many people who want to read Sagas end up learning Icelandic. And if "mielesi sinun tekevi"... :-)

(At least Foyles used to have good Finnish study books...)

[abigailb.livejournal.com]

What i need to do is find some immediately beautiful poetry in a language that would be actually useful for me to learn: ie chinese, german, or spanish.