Swedish Rosa Kalevala

[Stefan Diös]

Warning: Most, if not all, of this message could be skipped by non-Swedes
and non-Finns!


BROR in DCML #7, regarding Stefan Persson's nice words about the Swedish
translation of Don Rosa's Kalevala story:

> Hehe... Stefan, did you get that? You *are* very good. ;-)

Well... did you ever hear me say I'm *not* the world's biggest genius?
Oddly enough, I haven't yet heard from the Swedish Academy or the Nobel
Prize Committee about this piece of work. My phone must be out of order. At
the very least, I expect Sweden to abolish the monarchy any day now, so
that I can be elected president.

Seriously, I enjoyed working with this story as much as any other that I
can remember, or more. I found it excellent in its own right, rich and
strong in atmosphere, character, adventure, and suspense. Another beautiful
labor of love from Don Rosa! On top of that, its poetic, mythical and
literary theme appeals strongly to me. When working with Don's scientific
or technical stories, I often feel I can't understand the underlying basics
fully enough to bring home the finer points of the dialog, not to mention
all the movie references I constantly miss out on... but this is more up my
alley!

I hadn't read very much of the actual Kalevala before, and didn't even
recognize the characters by name. But I knew roughly what it was about, and
I did know how the runometer works, first from reading Barks' Peeweegah
story, but also from my general interest in poetry. Obviously, the first
thing I did was to get hold of a copy of the classic Swedish Kalevala
translation (Bjorn Collinder), which I read with great pleasure in order to
catch the right mood of the characters, the settings, and the meter.
Actually, another Kalevala translation just came out in Sweden... it's so
new I couldn't get hold of it when working with the Duck story, but I have
to say I'm just as glad I didn't. Even though many of the Swedish reviewers
seemed to like the new Kalevala text, it is much too modern for my
antiquated taste!


In writing the Swedish dialog, I had great fun trying to maintain the
characteristics of the classic runometer wherever I could, while also
keeping Don's intentions to sometimes mix the archaic language with more
modern words or phrases to humorous effect, Duckburg-style. The result
can't always be perfect, of course, but I have to say I'm reasonably
pleased with most of it. One thing I deliberately did to change the classic
meter was the way I treated Finnish names like "Suomi". As I understand it,
the "uo" is supposed to be a diphtong... that is, one vowel sound, making
one syllable and one beat in the meter: "Suo-mi". But I figured that when
read out aloud by a native Swede, these vowels would fall more naturally in
two syllables, making three altogether in the word "Su-o-mi". At least they
do to me! This makes a marked difference in the meter, of course, and I'm
sure that every Finn would notice immediately. I almost regret my choice -
the poet in me dislikes every little imperfection in the classic meter, but
maybe some Swedes find the lines easier to read this way, as I was hoping?
Other than that, many lines came quite easy, as the runometric rhythm works
very well in the Swedish language. Much better, I'm sure, than in English,
even if not as well as in Finnish!

I'm eager to see how the general Swedish public reacts to the finished
story. (As well as readers in the rest of the world, of course!) I fully
expect all the die-hard Don Rosa fans to adore it, but will "ordinary"
Swedes, who won't have Kalevala and its characters as close to their hearts
as the Finns do, be able to appreciate the story, the art and the adventure
by itself, the way it's supposed to be? And all the really young readers,
who still make up the largest portion of the readership... will they
understand anything at all? And what if some expert on Finnish literature
should happen to lay eyes on it?! Incidentally, the majority of people with
whom I normally discuss Duck stories are of the "die-hard Don Rosa fans"
category, so I guess I'll never find out if it really becomes a wide-spread
hit in this country... but I'm glad to hear it works so well in Finland,
which is the most important place for it!

By the way... I was expecting to end this note with a Happy Birthday, Walt
Disney... but I see it's already Happy Birthday, Finland! Even more
appropriate, then! I just wish I could say it in Finnish...


Stefan Dios
Malmo, Sweden