The Weirdest Finnish Christmas Carols

                                

Traditional Finnish Christmas carols are kind of weird and gloomy. Forget mommy kissing Santa Claus while he's coming to town and check out some of these gems (Click the Finnish titles to listen to them on to Youtube.):


Varpunen jouluaamuna

Sävel: Otto Kotilainen
Sanat: Sakari Topelius, suom. K. A. Hougberg


Lumi on jo peittänyt kukat laaksosessa,
järvenaalto jäätynyt talvipakkasessa,
varpunen pienoinen syönyt kesäeinehen,
järvenaalto jäätynyt talvipakkasessa.

Pienen pirtin portailla oli tyttökulta:
Tule varpu, riemulla, ota siemen multa!
Joulu on, koditon varpuseni onneton,
tule tänne riemulla, ota siemen multa!

Tytön luo nyt riemuiten lensi varpukulta:
Kiitollisna siemenen otan kyllä sulta.
Palkita Jumala tahtoo kerran sinua.
Kiitollisna siemenen ota kyllä sulta.

En mä ole, lapseni, lintu tästä maasta.
Olen pieni veljesi, tulin taivahasta.
Siemenen pienoisen, jonka annoit köyhällen,
pieni sai sun veljesi enkeleitten maasta.



The Sparrow On Christmas Morning
Snow has already covered the flowers in the vale,


Frozen [has] the wave of lake, in the frost of winter.
Little sparrow, [has already] eaten the food [left] of summer,
Frozen [has] the wave of lake, in the frost of winter.

On the stairs of a little cabin was a dear girl:
“Come, sparrow, with joy, take a seed from me!
It's Christmas, my homeless and unhappy sparrow,
Come here with joy, take a seed from me!”

The dear sparrow with joy now flew to the girl:
“Gratefully I shall have the seed from you!
One day God wants to reward you.
Gratefully I shall have the seed from you!”

“I am not, my child, a bird from this world.
I am your little brother, I came from Heaven.
The tiny seed you gave for the poor,
was given to your little brother, from the Land of Angels.”

Translation from http://lyricstranslate.com/


Then we have this (English translation by me):


Konsta Jylhän Joululaulu


Joulun aatto nyt saa, jo ilta tummuu ja hiljenee maa. 

Kuka kulkee nyt yksinään kalmistoon, kuka yksin näin kylmässä on?

 Pieni lapsonen vain, joka näin kiiruhtain jälleen kynttilän haudalle tuo. 

Paikka on hiljainen, tumma, liikkumaton, äidin haudalle valon hän suo.


Liekin niin häilyvän tuo hauta rakkaimman hetkeksi saa. 

Sitä katsovi silmin niin kaipaavin, sitä katsoo ja taas odottaa: 

koska joulun hän saa, koska voi naurahtaa kera muiden taas kuin ennenkin? 

Mutta niin hiljainen koti yksinäisten,on kuin puuttuisi siunaus sen.

Äänen hiljaisen sointuvan nyt jostakin kuulevi hän, joka lämpimin lausehin lohduttaa, 

joka nousemaan katsehen saa: "älä huoliisi jää, nosta pystyyn taas pää, joka hetki sun kanssasi käyn. 

Lapsi joulun mä oon, sinut vien kartanoon, josta lähdit, sun valonas näyn.

Joulun ensimmäisen mä olla tallissa härkien sain. Sinne tähtöset tuikkivat valkeuttaan, 

sinne saapuivat tietäjät maan: 

sitä taas viettämään sinun kanssasi jään, sinun joulusi kauniiksi teen. 

Sinä huomata saat: surun laaksot ja maat voivat peittyä kirkkauteen

Konsta Jylhä's Christmas Carol

It's Christmas Eve. Night falls, the land falls quiet
Who walks in the churchyard, all alone in the cold?
A child, once more he hastens, lays a candle on the grave
All is silent, dark, and still. A light he brings to his mother's grave.

The wavering flame, for a moment, lights the beloved grave
He watches with longing, he watches and waits, once more
When will he have a Christmas again, laugh with the others once more?
But silent are the homes of the lonely

A hushed, melodious voice sounds, consoles him with warm words
"Leave your sorrows, raise your head, child. I am with you," it says.
"A child of Christmas am I, I will guide you home tonight, I will be your light."

"I spent the first Christmas in a manger. The stars twinkled, the wise men came
I will keep it again with you tonight, a beautiful Christmas.
You will see, child: light can drown sorrow's valleys and lands, bring brightness."


Bummed out yet? What about this one? (English translation by me.)


Me käymme joulun viettohon

Music: Martti Turunen
Lyrics: Mauno Isola

Me käymme joulun viettohon
taas kuusin, kynttilöin.
Puun vihreen oksat kiedomme
me hopein, kultavöin,
vaan muistammeko lapsen sen,
mi taivaisen tuo kirkkauden?

Me käymme joulun viettohon
niin maisin miettehin,
nuo rikkaan täyttää aatokset,
ja mielen köyhänkin:
Suun ruoka, juoma, meno muu.
Laps' hankeen hukkuu, unhoittuu.

Turhuuden turhuus kaikki on,
niin turhaa touhu tää;
me kylmin käymme sydämin,
laps' sivuun vain jos jää.
Me lahjat jaamme runsahat,
Laps' -tyhjät kätes ihanat.

Oi ystävät, jos myöskin me
kuin tietäjämme nuo
veisimme kullan, mirhamin
tuon rakkaan lapsen luo,
niin meille joulu maallinen
ois alku joulun taivaisen.



Celebrating Christmas

We celebrate Christmas
With glittering trees and candles
The green boughs we wrap
In garlands of silver and gold
But do we recall the holy child
Who brings the heavenly light?


We celebrate Christmas
With such earthly thought
They fill the minds
Of rich and poor alike
Food and drink, frivolity
The child is lost in the snow, forgotten.


Everything is meaningless and futile
So pointless, all we do.
Our hearts grow cold
If we forget the holy child
Us, we share the flood of gifts
The child, his lovely hands empty


O friends, if only we
Like the wise men of Betlehem
Would bring gold and myrrh
to that beloved child
Then for us, this earthly feast
Could be the start of a true Christmas.


What's that? Oh, you want something happy for a change? This one is actually Swedish, so I'm cheating a little. (English translation by me.)


Hei, tonttu-ukot
Swedish folksong

Hei, tonttu-ukot hyppikää,
nyt on riemun raikkahin aika!
Hei, tonttu-ukot hyppikää,
nyt on riemu raikkahin aika!
Hetken kestää elämää
ja sekin synkkä ja ikävää.
Hei, tonttu-ukot hyppikää,
nyt on riemu raikkahin aika!


Hey, ye merry elves

Hey, ye merry elves, jump and dance
It's the happiest time of the year!
Hey, ye merry elves, jump and dance
It's the happiest time of the year!
Life only lasts a moment
and even that, dark and miserable
Hey, ye merry elves, jump and dance
It's the happiest time of the year!


I think I've spread enough Christmas cheer for today.

Go have a candy cane latte and listen to Rudolf on repeat; you'll feel better, I promise,

Sources:

http://suomalainenjoulu.fi/

http://saaressa.blogspot.fi/2012/11/joululauluja.html

At the Christmas Market

                                 

I decided to visit the Christmas market at Vanha Suurtori today. That's Turku Cathedral and this year's Christmas tree in the background.

                                

                                                Here are a few shots of the market. 

                               

                              

                                         That's the stall for roasted almonds and glögg. 

                            

                            

I couldn't decide which kind of honey to get, so now I have four little jars to try out. From top to bottom, we have woodland, heather, autumn, and dance of the northern lights honey.

                          

Then we found a curious bookstall selling very strange books. I got this one full of old Finnish spells.

                          

And this is the Finnish translation of Sabine Baring-Gould's book on werewolves. Yes, I got a werewolf book at the Christmas fair. What?

                          

Then we hit a few indie bookstores and things got a bit out of hand. The Aho and Canth books I actually need for research, but the rest were impulse buys. I've been meaning to read The Alchemist  for ages, and the original's in Portuguese, so it doesn't matter that it's a translation. The others are a book of old Finnish horror stories and E. T. A. Hoffmann's short stories (this collection had "The Sandman" in it!!). 

                          

At home we had apple glögg and date cake in front of a roaring fire. You can't get much more Christmassy than than. 

Writer At Work

                                  

                                  

                                                                     'Nuff said.

                                                       Getting back to work now. 

                                             

                                   (The mug is terribleminds.com merch, if you want one.

P.S.

• 
  
  I also kind of want this sign from amazon.com.

       

Etymology Expeditions: James Joyce's made-up words

I'm about halfway through Ulysses, and I've noticed that Joyce uses a lot of words that seem made up. After doing some googling, I found this article by Paul Anthony Jones in the Huffington post detailing seventeen words James Joyce made up.

Here are a few of the more bizarre ones:

Yogibogeybox: apparently this describes the paraphernalia a spiritualist would carry around with him. 

Whenceness: from where someone came. 

Ringroundabout: to completely surround something. 

Mrkgnao: meow. Onomatopoetic.

Scribbledehobble: a writer's notebook where he/she scribbles stuff. (I rather like this one. Let's bring this back!)

Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunnt-rovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk
According to the article, this one is from Finnegan's Wake and it describes the sound of thunder that accompanied the fall of Adam and Eve. The cool thing is that it compares words for thunder from many different languages into something that does, indeed, sound like thunder. Don't believe me? Try reading it aloud. (Which words? There are elements from the French tonnerre, Italian tuono, Ancient Greek bronte, and Japanese kaminari.) 

Bonus: Did you know Joyce invented the word quark? When physicist Murray Gell-Maan discovered them in the 1960s, he originally called them quorks. Then he saw this line in Finnegan's Wake: "Three quarks for muster mark." He liked quark better than quork, and as quarks can cluster together threes to form baryons, he felt the name apt. He credited Joyce with the name, of course.

Want to know more? Click here to read the article.

I did a quick search at etymonline.com, and none of these words appear. I'm not that surprised. That's James Joyce: too weird for dictionaries. But I did find yogibogeybox defined at http://www.encyclo.co.uk/. What about you guys? Is anyone still using a non-virtual, hold-in-your-hands dictionary? Are Joyce's words in yours?

Sources:
17 Words Invented by James Joyce by Paul Anthony Jones in the Huffington Post
etymonline.com
http://www.encyclo.co.uk/

Frozen Fairy Tales Giveaway

Want to win a free ebook of the Frozen Fairy Tales anthology? Enchanted Conversations, a fairy tale magazine, is doing a giveaway.

Click here to participate.

Revision, Revision, Revision

                                  

Ahh, revision. So hard to get started, but so rewarding when you're done. 

I finally finished the short story I've been writing for the last few months and, in so doing,  ran out excuses to avoid revising the two stories that have been lying in the virtual drawer since August. So, after some grumbling and whining, I buckled down and got to work. 

Over the last year I've developed a system: at first I just go through the comments, correcting small stuff like typos or missing commas as I go. For the major stuff I'll write a note at the end of the story or into the text in ALL CAPS so I can find it. The real work starts when I have the manuscript at this stage. I'll read through the concerns, then try to address them one by one. Even though I'm focusing on a particular issue or scene, I find that if I have the comments in mind I'll sometimes fix a few more at the same time, or at least come up with a solution. 

Then I'll do a few read-throughs, keeping in mind the stuff I changed and trying to spot any rough edges or bumpy transitions. I'll also do one where I try to feel the flow of the text and change any poor or cliché word choices, work on the description, etc.

For me, getting started is the hard part; when I get going, the process is actually fun and rewarding. To combat this, I try to get started in the morning so I can do as much as possible when I'm in the zone, but the edits usually take me a few days, anyway. 

After I finish, I'll leave the story alone for a few weeks, but I'll do a final read-though before I send it on, unless a deadline prevents my doing this. 

 For the current piece, I'll need to do all of this again, because the revised version is going for another round in the Critters queue. The other story has been through Critters twice, so maybe I'll actually submit it somewhere. 

Oh, and I got a rather nice personal rejection for a piece I sent to a Lovecraft anthology. I'm not too bummed, because I got through the first cut and they complimented my voice (about the best compliment a writer can get), so I'm counting this as a positive. 

Another one for the to-be-revised pile... 

   

Independence Day

In honor of Finland's Independence Day, I though I'd attempt a translation of out national anthem, Maamme laulu by Johan Ludvig Runeberg. Mine isn't a literal translation, but you can find one here.  The part below is only the first and last verse.

Maamme Laulu

Oi Maamme Suomi Synnyinmaa

Soi Sana Kultainen

Ei Laaksoa Ei Kukkulaa

Ei Vettä Rantaa Rakkaampaa

Kuin Kotimaa Tää Pohjoinen

Maa Kallis Isien

Ei Laaksoa Ei Kukkulaa

Ei Vettä Rantaa Rakkaampaa

Kuin Kotimaa Tää Pohjoinen

Maa Kallis Isien

Sun Kukoistukses Kuorestaan

Kerrankin Puhkeaa

Viel' Lempemme Saa Nousemaan

Sun Toivos Riemus Loistossaan

Ja Kerran Laulus Synnyinmaa

Korkeemman Kaiun Saa

Viel' Lempemme Saa Nousemaan

Sun Toivos Riemus Loistossaan

Ja Kerran Laulus Synnyinmaa

Korkeemman Kaiun Saa

Our Land 

Our land, our land, O Fatherland

Ring proud, you golden words 

 No hill nor valley, 

Sea nor shore

Could we hold dearer evermore

Than this, our northern land 

This, our Fatherland

One day your splendour from its shell

Shall break forth and bloom

Still our love you shall ignite

Your hope, your joy,

 Their glory bright

And then your song, O Fatherland

Will echo, high and grand

You can listen to Maamme laulu here, if you want. 


And now it's time to start preparing for the evening's entertainment: watching the President's Independence Day reception on TV and seeing who has the best (and worst) dress. I kind of prefer the goofy ones myself. The broadcast is hours of people shaking hands and standing in line. Yes, I know it's weird, but it's a national pastime.