Anssi Kela - Kaatuneiden muistolle (In Memoriam the Fallen Ones)
Original Finnish lyrics
Hetkistä kanssas haaveilen
Täällä on kylmä ja minä olen nälkäinen
Kerro miten äiti voinut on,
Hän onko vielä ollut onneton?
Älkää murehtiko turhaan, voit olla huoleton
Viime yönä uutta vuotta juhlittiin
Nelikymmenluvulle jo siirryttiin
Vähän matkan päässä juuri laukauksia ammuttiin
Olen nähnyt monenlaista
Paljon pahaa, kuolemaa
Mutta kasvosi kun muistaa
Se auttaa jaksamaan
Antaa sataa sulaa laavaa
Antaa tulla mitä vaan
Tässä maassa miehet tehdään
Miehet tehdään kestämään
Ja arvaa mitä, pikkuinen
Eräs kavereista on kaupunkilainen
Ja se sanoo, että voitais vaikka muuttaa luokse sen
Varmasti työtä löytäisin
Sinut veisin aina ulos iltaisin
Joen rannalla sun kanssas käsikkäin mä kulkisin
Olen nähnyt monenlaista
Paljon pahaa, kuolemaa
Mutta kasvosi kun muistaa
Se auttaa jaksamaan
Antaa sataa sulaa laavaa
Antaa tulla mitä vaan
Tässä maassa miehet tehdään
Miehet tehdään kestämään
Pysähdyn luokse kaatuneen
Poika vielä, punatähti hatussaan
Otan sormistansa kirjeen
Poika kotiin kirjoittaa:
"Olen nähnyt monenlaista
Paljon pahaa, kuolemaa
Mutta kasvosi kun muistaa
Se auttaa jaksamaan
Antaa sataa sulaa laavaa
Antaa tulla mitä vaan
Tässä maassa miehet tehdään
Miehet tehdään kestämään"
English translation
How are you, my little darling?
I dream about moments with you
It's cold here and I'm hungry
Tell me, how has mom been,
Has she still been unhappy?
Don't be sad in vain, you can be without worry
We celebrated the New Year's yesterday
We're on the 4th decade already (note: 1940)
Not far from here, they fired shots just now
I've seen things of many kinds
A lot of evil, a lot of death
But when I remember your face
It helps me cope
Let it rain molten lava
Let anything come my way
In this country men are made
Men are made to persevere
And guess what, little one
One of my friends here is a city boy
And he says we might be able to move in with him
I'd surely find work
I'd take you out every night
On the riverside, I'd walk with you, hand in hand
I've seen things of many kinds
A lot of evil, a lot of death
But when I remember your face
It helps me cope
Let it rain molten lava
Let anything come my way
In this country men are made
Men are made to persevere
I stop next to a fallen body
He's still a boy, with a red star on his hat
I take a letter from his fingers,
He's writing home:
"I've seen things of many kinds
A lot of evil, a lot of death
But when I remember your face
It helps me cope
Let it rain molten lava
Let anything come my way
In this country men are made
Men are made to persevere"
____
For anyone not familiar with Finnish history: This is a storytelling track of a Finnish soldier writing a letter to his lover/wife at home, while he's fighting in the Winter War. We fought the Russians in that war. The underage soldier boy he finds is a Russian boy (hence the red star on his hat).
Throughout the history of Finns, we've been persecuted. By Russians/the Soviet Union, by the Swedes... We've had to fight tooth and nail for our independence, for our land, for our nation and culture and language to be appreciated... (We still have the Swedish Å in our alphabet despite having no words that have that letter, and two official languages, Finnish and Swedish.) We have learned to be very fierce and withstanding of pressure, going through whatever it takes to get where we need to go, and we take pride in it. (In Finnish, we call it sisu.) Hence the lines in the chorus: "in this land men are made to persevere".
But, as we can tell, the enemy soldier is just a human himself - also missing his loved ones, also fighting for his country. We're not that different.
Comments
Post a Comment