1. Eriskummainen kantele / My kantele |
The text is from the Kanteletar (1840), a collection of folk poetry made by Elias Lönnrot, compiler of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. |
Ne varsin valehtelevat, tuiki tyhjeä panevat, jotka soittoa sanovat, arvoavat kanteletta Väinämöisen veistämäksi, Jumalan kuvoamaksi, hauin suuren hartioista, veen koiran koukkuluista. Soitto on suruista tehty, murehista muovaeltu: koppa päivistä kovista, emäpuu ikipoloista, kielet kiusoista kerätty, naulat muista vastuksista. Sentä ei soita kanteleeni, ei iloitse ensinkänä, soitto ei soita suosioksi, laske ei laatuista iloa, kun on huolista kuvattu, murehista muovaeltu. |
Truly they lie, they talk utter nonsense who say that music reckon that the kantele was carved by Väinämöinen fashioned by a god out of a great pike's shoulders from a water dog's hooked bones: no, music was made from grief moulded from sorrow-- its belly out of hard days its soundboard from endless woes its strings gathered from torments and its pegs from other ills. So my kantele will not play, will not rejoice at all music will not play to please give off the right sort of joy for it was fashioned from cares moulded from sorrow. |
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