Asa - Vaaranmaa (Land of Danger)
Land, both in the sense of the physical soil under his feet, and the country he lives in.
Routa hiljaista puhetta, tässä lepäilee
Ground frost (is) quiet speech, here rests
Isät jäässä, jalat vaaranmaassa
Frozen fathers, feet in/on the land of danger
Koivet kaupunkisotilaan kahlaamassa tien
Legs of the city soldier wading the way
Lieju pintaa, vanhat nukkumassa pois
Silt covering, old ones sleeping away
To sleep away = to pass away, to die
Isäntä maan tiputti korvaani jyviä
Master of land dropped seeds into my ear
"Isäntä" means the man of the house, a person who owns the land or the house. The female equivalent would be "emäntä".
Maailman laului primitiivisen syviä
Primitively deep songs of the world
Kotkan kuvast synty koski ja maa
Rapid and land were born out of a picture of an eagle
Rapid aka white-water, a part of a stream that flows very fast.
Sotkan munast tähdet taivaalle jaa
From the egg of a pochard divide the stars onto the sky
Pochard is a bird species. The Finnish national epic Kalevala tells the folktale where the world was born from the egg of a pochard, including the creation of the stars depicted in this song.
Taivaalla kalmaa pohjalle kotahan
Death on the sky, onto the bottom of a goahti
I wish English had more words for the word "death". "Kuolema" is the modern time word for "death", "kalma" is an older and more poetic expression. So is saying "kotahan" instead of "kodan".
Goahti (or kota in Finnish) is a traditional Sámi hut or tent. Goahti - Wikipedia
Yli kuun ali päivä olkapäille Otavan (pois)
Over the moon, under day on the shoulders of Otava (away)
Vaarnoi vaskisii kuurasta pimeää
Coppery tent pegs, darkness from the frost
"Vaskinen" is such an old word I had to check what it actually means. Apparently it's "coppery". A more modern word for that would be "kuparinen". Vaarna is a tent peg, but also "stake", like the ones vampires are killed with (except this one's coppery). "Kuura" specifically means frost that's on the ground, ice crystals on the top of the Earth's surface, typically seen in the mornings as nights begin to get colder in the fall. Frost - Wikipedia
Luojal isot kädet, mut ei ikin' omaa nimeä
Creator's (got) big hands, but never a name of His own
Karjalan kalliol kuvista hiiden ojaa
Crag of Karjala pictures a ditch of a hiisi / Crag of Karjala makes a ditch out the pictures of hiisi
He bends the words so much I genuinely don't know what he means...
- Karjala is a place that now belongs to Russia, used to belong to Finland but we lost it in a war. "Karjalan" = "Of Karjala" Karelia (historical province) - Wikipedia
- "kallio" = bedrock, crag, basement ... The Earth's surface under all the land and plants. Visible in many parts of Finland. In Finnish mythology, folktales and even in modern art and speech, it is associated with the toughness of the people living here - the harsh environment, the multiple wars we've been in, the suffering our people have been through in the hands of Sweden and Russia, how we're so proud of how we've survived through all that. And since we survived through that, we'll survive through anything that life throws our way.
- "kuvista" = "of pictures"
- hiisi is a mythological creature in Finnish folktales. I think the "hiiden oja", "a ditch of a hiisi" in this song refers to hiidenkirnu, "a churn of a hiisi", better known as Giant's kettle in English. Hiisi - Wikipedia Giant's kettle - Wikipedia
- Oja is a ditch. A long and shallow lower portion on the ground, usually found on either side of a road and sometimes containing water. Ditch - Wikipedia
- "a ditch of a hiisi" makes me think of eskers and terminal moraines I learned about in high school geology class. Finland used to be covered in ice during the ice age, so we have quite a lot of those. Explained in layman's terms, they're huge scratches on the bedrock, caused by the ice that was there once. Maybe Finnish folk of the past, before they learned the science behind it, believed that these, too, were caused by hiidet (hiisi creatures)? I know they believed the giant's kettles to be caused by them, and lakes and islands as well (hiisi creatures were HUGE, the story goes that they had a fight and made the lakes with their hands, scraping the ground into their fists and throwing it elsewhere). We also have mountains like Saana, Halti and Malla, who were believed to have been giants in the past, but I think those might be different kind of giants from hiidet... I'm not sure, though. But that's where my mind goes to, when I listen to these lyrics.
Kipuvuoren louhikoista alas pimentolaan
From the rocky terrain of the pain mountain down into the darkness
Why doesn't English have any words?! 😩
Louhikko is a soil type similar to gravel, except the rocks are much much bigger, about the size of a human head. I translated it to "rocky terrain". If you can't imagine what it'd look like, there are Google Image pictures.
"Kipuvuori" or "Pain Mountain" is a place where Finnish folktales tell pain came from and where pain went, when it was not experienced by humans. I didn't know about it before just know, I sadly don't have neat stories to tell like about hiidet. But from what I learned from the internet today, it looks like a bedrock with holes and rocks on top of it. And the rocks grinding on the bedrock causes the pain.
"Pimentola" is clearly a place, I can tell by looking at the word. "Pimento" is both literal darkness and figurative darkness, "being in the dark", not knowing something. So pimentola is probably a place where someone is "in the dark", literally and figuratively.
Osaran aukioilla väittää kivenkovaa, nimenomaan
On the clearings of Osara claims as hard a rock, precisely/exactly
Osara is a small village in Hämeenkyrö, Finland. I just learned of it's existence right now.
To "claim as hard as a rock" is a Finnish idiom, it means that someone insists on something, they claim something and are 100% sure they're correct about it.
"Nimenomaan" is a phrase that means the same as "Exactly", but literally it's something along the lines of "owning the name"... Very bad translation, but what I mean is that the Finnish word implies something is so exactly and precisely the thing, whatever it is, that it's like the dictionary definition of that thing. I just thought that was an important clarification, since he just had so many bars about rocks and now used the idiom "väittää kivenkovaan", "claim as hard as a rock".
Mul' ei oo maata millä maata
I have no land to lay on
Ei mille laulaa, minkä rauhan vuoksi raataa
Not one to sing to, for which's peace I'd drudge for
Etsin äärimmäistä reunaa
I'm looking for the furthest edge
Ja puhetta kaiken keskellä
And speech in the middle of it all
Mul' ei oo maata, ei kivijalkaa
I have no land, no plinth
The plinth or a foundation of a house, or a more figurative basis or foundation. I chose plinth because it sounded the most poetic.
Minkä markan vuoksi raataa
Which's mark I'd drudge for
Yritän ymmärtää jo liikaa
I'm trying to understand too much by now
Ja lopulta kerran hölmistyn
And eventually will become a fool once
Mä uppoon usvaa, hiivin mä mustaa
I sink in mist, I creep to blacken/in black
Lapuan vastatuuli kollektiiville tuskaa
Headwind of Lapua - agony for the collective
Headwind, a wind that blows in the opposite direction than where you're going, is a commonly used euphemism for being against something, opposing something.
Lapua is a place in Finland, known for i.e. the Battle of Lapua. Battle of Lapua - Wikipedia
Puhallan puskaan, ristilippu ruskaa
I blow into a bush (?), cross flag autumn colors
"Cross flag" = the Finnish flag, which is blue cross on a white surface. Cross representing Christianity, white and blue representing the Finnish scenery (white snow, blue skies and lakes).
Ruska is a word for the colors the leaves turn in autumn/fall. Varying shades of red, orange, yellow and brown.
I'm not sure if there's a symbolic meaning he's going for with the colors, if he's saying he'd let the flag touch the ground (which is considered offensive, I think it's even illegal - don't trust my word on that, though, check Finlex), or something else. IMO, the entire song is him being a tad unpatriotic, not feeling... like this is a country he'd like to stand for and defend, at least at the time of writing this song. His lyrics are often very leftist-political but also showing love to a quintessential essence of being a Finn. Maybe he feels - at least momentarily - that we've strayed too far from his ideal state for the country to exist..?
Ei maata millä maata, eikä maata mille rustaa
No land to lay on, no land to scribble to
Ei kellää suojaa, hautamme suolaa
No shelter for anyone, salting our graves
Potkin portahiksi laumamme suomaa
For stairs, I kick what our herd gave us / I kick the swamp land of our herd
Suomaa = granted/given (by someone)
Suo = swamp
Maa = land
--> Suomaa = swamp land
Laseis kuolaa, aseissa kuonaa
Drool on the glasses, scum on the guns
Tiesin sulkakynässäni paljasjalka luomaa
I knew in my quill creation of barefoot / creation of born and bred
I think he's saying he's a "barefoot" aka born and bred -somewhere (Roihuvuori / Helsinki / Finland), and that has a huge impact on his creativity, his penmanship.
Ruuti ruumaa, ei masiinaa mitä puunaa
Gunpowder into the cargo hold, no machine to polish
"Masiina" and "puunata" are very old words, they give a much older-kinda twang to the lyrics than the words "machine" and "polish". Just want to point that out, I feel like it's part of the atmosphere and the message of the song to use such old words instead of their modern counterparts ("kone" and "puhdistaa").
Ei kuuna päivänä pärjää minkä tänne kruunaa
Never making do whomever is crowned here
Kingdom of Finland (1918) - Wikipedia
This historical event when we had a king for a couple of months, plus Asa might also be talking about more modern leaders, and how they never last.
NATO-huumaa, polttouunin kuumaa
NATO ecstasy, the heat of a cremator
The word "cremator" and the next bar... I think he might be comparing NATO to nazis... I don't know enough about history or politics to comment on that, but... That's what I'm getting from this.
In Finland, people talk about the gas chamber the nazis used as "oven" or "uuni". Polttouuni literally translates to "burn oven".
Also, in case you don't know, NATO has been an under-the-radar, not-that-heated political opinion topic discussion thing for a LONG time here in Finland. This song came out in 2006 and we joined NATO in 2023. Pacifists like Asa are obviously against it. I was one of those people who was about 50-50 about it - before Russia attacked Ukraine I was against it because that might trigger Russia to attack us, but after Putin gave that speech about "wanting back the area Russia had when they had a tsar" or whatever (I've only read parts of it on news articles, translated from Russian to Finnish) and then attacking Ukraine shortly after, I switched to the opinion that we should join NATO because holy shit we need backup, fuck this guy...
Before that speech and that war, the majority of Finns voted "no", against NATO on public surveys, but those historical events made the scale tip to "yes". And then the government or someone decided that we'd join.
Saksalaisii Lapissa ja isälläni muu maa
Germans in Lapland and my father's got another land
I don't know what he means that he's father's got another land... He's father is Finnish, I checked. Maybe he means symbolically?
Tulevaa lamaa, Siperian hamaa
Upcoming/Future recession, legacy/blunder of Siberia
Siniverisii sotilaita vannomassa valaa
Noble/Blue-blooded soldiers swearing their oath
Finnish Defence Forces military oath - Wikipedia
As As avaa, aatelisel avaa
As As opens, opens with a noble
As = Asa
Saa sankari maistaa nytte ugrilaista sanaa
A hero gets a taste of Ugrian word now
Mul' ei oo maata millä maata
I have no land to lay on
Ei mille laulaa, minkä rauhan vuoksi raataa
Not one to sing to, for which's peace I'd drudge for
Etsin äärimmäistä reunaa
I'm looking for the furthest edge
Ja puhetta kaiken keskellä
And speech in the middle of it all
Mul' ei oo maata, ei kivijalkaa
I have no land, no plinth
Minkä markan vuoksi raataa
Which's mark I'd drudge for
Yritän ymmärtää jo liikaa
I'm trying to understand too much by now
Ja lopulta kerran hölmistyn
And eventually will become a fool once
Oi! Oi! Suurimmat suomalaiset
Oh! Oh! The greatest Finns
Mä nostan kahden silmän nähtäville vanhoi
I lift up old patriot spines, skulls, barbed wire
Patriootin rankoja, pääkalloja, piikkilankoi
so two eyes can see them
Näitä hylättyjä rantoja, hei
These abandoned shores, hey
Vaaranmaassa Marski anto revolverin Dalai Lamalle
In the land of danger Marski gave Dalai Lama a revolver
Marski = Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim - Wikipedia
Runeberg sai tortun, naulan päähän ja pulun paskaa olkapäille
Runeberg got a torte, a nail to the head and pigeon shit on his shoulders
Runeberg torte - Wikipedia is a type of pastry. According to the legend, the recipe was created by Runeberg's wife.
Mut Mellerille pystytettiin liikennevalot junatielle
But Melleri got traffic lights on the railroad
Like, the traffic lights were put up for him, to honor his legacy or memory somehow, like it's a statue.
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