Now here are three different translations of the same set of verses.
John Martin "MINSTREL" Crawford
In the fire the smith had laid it,
Laid it in his smelting furnace.
Ilmarinen starts the bellows,
Gives three motions of the handle,
And the iron flows in streamlets
From the forge of the magician,
Soon becomes like baker's leaven, (argh blargh "almost" literal translation does not work)
Soft as dough for bread of barley.
Then out-screamed the metal, Iron:
'Wondrous blacksmith, Ilmarinen,
Take, O take me from thy furnace,
From this fire and cruel torture.'
"Ilmarinen thus made answer:
'I will take thee from my furnace,
'Thou art but a little frightened,
Thou shalt be a mighty power,
Thou shalt slay the best of heroes,
Thou shalt wound thy dearest brother.'
"Straightway Iron made this promise,
Vowed and swore in strongest accents,
By the furnace, by the anvil,
By the tongs, and by the hammer,
These the words he vowed and uttered:
'Many trees that I shall injure,
Shall devour the hearts of mountains,
Shall not slay my nearest kindred,
Shall not kill the best of heroes,
Shall not wound my dearest brother;
---
Pros: manages a bit of rhythm here and there, as in
"Straightway Iron made this promise,
Vowed and swore in strongest accents,
By the furnace, by the anvil,
By the tongs, and by the hammer,
Cons:
-Straaange and sometimes very awkward, ludicrous translations (like calling Ilmarinen "magician" and Väinämöinen "a court bard". Ilmarinen is a smith-god.)
-Alliteration destroyed, doesn't even attempt to compensate this with, say, end-rhyming
W. F. Kirby
Then he cast it in the furnace,
And he laid it on the anvil,
Blew a blast, and then a second,
And he blew again a third time,
Till the Iron was fully softened,
And the ore completely melted,
Like to wheaten dough in softness,
Soft as dough for ryebread kneaded,
In the furnace of the smithy,
By the bright flame's softening power.
"Then exclaimed the Iron unhappy,
'O thou smith, O Ilmarinen,
Take me quickly from this furnace,
From the red flames that torment me.'
"Said the smith, said Ilmarinen,
'If I take you from the furnace,
Perhaps you might become outrageous,
And commit some furious action.
Perhaps you might attack your brother,
And your mother's child might injure.'
"Therefore swore the Iron unhappy,
By the oaths of all most solemn,
By the forge and by the anvil,
By the hammer and the mallet,
And it said the words which follow,
And expressed itself in this wise:
'Give me trees that I can bite them,
Give me stones that I may break them,
I will not assault my brother,
Nor my mother's child will injure.
-Some attempts (or accidental) at alliteration here and there
-Some stanzas break the 8-syllable rhythm
-Less "crack" translations
Keith Bosley
The smith thrust it in the fire
down into his forge pushed it.
He puffed once, puffed twice
Puffed a third time too:
Iron as gruel
lolls, as dross it foams;
It stretched as wheat paste
As dough of rye flour
In the smith's great fires
In the power of naked flame.
At that poor iron cried out:
"Smith Ilmarinen!
Ah, take me away from here
out of the pain of red fire!"
The smith Ilmarinen said;
"If I take you from the fire
perhaps you will grow dreadful
and fly quite into a rage
and even carve your brother
chop your mother's child."
Thereupon poor iron swore--
swore a solemn oath
on the forge, on the anvil
on the hammer, the mallets;
it says with this word
it spoke with this speech:
"There is wood for me to bite
a rock's heart for me to eat
so I'll not carve my brother
chop my mother's child.
...
I really hate this one. No rhythm. No rhyming. Altogether too simplistic a vocabulary.
Amazon.com contains other translations, but the quality's a question mark.
Oh...I may have one yet different English version, which I got for the illustrations. No idea where it lurks, however. None of the above capture the original meter or the complexity of the language.
Afraid I don't have time for a more comprehensive translation analysis right now.
* * *
As for translating fantasy to different cultural mind-sets... Well, I've discussed this within other contexts on this very board, but the Finnish mentality is serious, broody, melancholic, and prone to black humor. This affects everything from mythology to literature to music (one of the most significant producers and exporters of metal in Europe). Fantasy literature's very popular here, and I can tell people wouldn't withstand Briny the Pirates. Grant Foamy a thoughtful, solemn name, and you're on the right track. The Giantish naming already follows the Finnish compound word structure (everything gets lumped together into looong queues of öäåöäöäöååå and other gibberish), so it shouldn't pose that huge a problem. Unless the translator's an incompetent berk.
