Jaak Prozes’ recollections of Arvo Valton
Arvo Valton was undoubtedly one of the greatest figures who united the Finno-Ugric peoples among us, and his tireless energy in standing up for the languages and cultures of the Finno-Ugric peoples was astonishing.
Jaak Prozes reminisces about the Finno-Ugric bridge builder in an obituary published in Postimees.
Arvo Valton considered it very important for Estonians to know their kindred peoples. He considered that knowledge of the Finno-Ugric peoples was part of our national identity and self-existence. That is why he was one of the organisers of the first Kindred Peoples’ Days, an active member of the Estonian Hungarian Society, one of the founders of Fenno-Ugria Foundation and a member of its board in 1992-1995.
He considered the most important activity for the protection and valorisation of Finno-Ugric languages to be translation, not only from small to large languages, but also vice versa. Arvo initiated the series ‘Great Literature of Small Peoples’, in which 27 books were published. Thanks to this, we can now enjoy the poetry of kindred peoples in Estonian. Also worthy of note are the beautifully designed collections of poetry in four languages, mostly translated by Arvo Valton, in which poems in the national languages were translated into Estonian, Russian and English.
However, Arvo Valton’s major translation works are translations of the epics of Finno-Ugric peoples, the latest of which – the Samoyed epic Somatu – was published in 2024. He has also compiled and translated voluminous collections of short stories in Komi, Mari, Erzya, Moksha and Udmurt. A total of 70 books were published between 1976 and 2024 in Arvo Valton’s translations, surely more than anyone has managed.
