Identify an old finnish funeral dirge or lullaby

baiki · Post by **baiki** » Sun Jul 08, 2012 7:27 pm

I am Finnish-Sami American. When I was very little my mother sang a song to me before bed that she said her mother sang to her. My mother told me that the song was a Finnish funeral dirge, but I always thought of it as a lullaby. Either way, the slow and somber song made quite an impression on me as I only remember my mother singing it to me once. I would love to actually know the proper words and the name of the song that she was singing etc...

I will write the words how I remember them to sound. I only know these few words that were at the beginning.

beewuh bauw pelkaa
onick da-metic da-louka

I know it's a long shot, but hopefully someone can recognize and understand my made up words! Thank you for your help

Jamie

**Sponsor:**

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Sun Jul 08, 2012 8:05 pm

Hmmm... thats a challenge.... could be this one... just as it was pretty popular in the turn of the century and is a sort of... hmmm.. dirge.

baiki · Post by **baiki** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 3:55 am

Thank you for giving my song a whirl! I listened to the song you suggested, but that's not it. The melody and rhythm aren't the same. The song I'm looking for is slower, the words are more drawn out, and it does have a dirge feel to it. Interestingly, pium paum sounds the like the bewuh bow I wrote, but the other words didn't sound close at all. is there a 'pium paum pelkaa' dirge? b-you bow pelkaa?

Maybe I am just remembering it all wrong. This is one tough search.

Jukka Aho · Post by **Jukka Aho** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:11 pm

Probably not one of these but I’ll list them anyway:

Jukka Aho · Post by **Jukka Aho** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:42 pm

I also found this page which lists some of the common funeral hymns used by the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church (the largest denomination in Finland, and one of the two national churches.) You could try searching for the titles of those hymns on YouTube, Spotify, or iTunes; maybe you can find some renditions of them that way.

There’s also an online version of the official hymn book used by the said church. You can search for the above-mentioned hymns — their lyrics and musical notes — by their hymn book number, which the above-mentioned page lists in front of the title of each hymn. The online version of the hymn book has a drop-down list in the top-left corner for choosing the hymn by its number.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 3:22 pm

But the hymn book has been revised and modernised quite a few times, so you'd need to find the 1701 edition to get at what people would have sung in the turn of the century.

Jukka Aho · Post by **Jukka Aho** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 5:57 pm

Pursuivant wrote:But the hymn book has been revised and modernised quite a few times, so you'd need to find the 1701 edition to get at what people would have sung in the turn of the century.

Maybe so, but quite a lot of the old, popular stuff has been carried over in the revisions, with maybe little modernizing touches here and there... because some hymns are just “standards” among regular churchgoers.

baiki · Post by **baiki** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 6:31 pm

Thank you for all of the ideas and links! I have been on a journey to reconnect to my Finnish/Sami roots this year and although the first three songs were not it, I enjoyed listening to them. I am eager to start looking up each of the church songs. I feel very fortunate to have been provided all of these songs in Finnish since I have only been able to search using English which is quite limiting considering what I am trying to find. Ha!

I wish I could sing my song for you guys!

mirea · Post by **mirea** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 7:06 pm

Hmm. Found this one from google/youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exyj5bAdj0g

lyrics:
Piu pau paukkaa,
Jänis metsässä laukkaa,
Poronkello kaulassa,
Eemelin nuttu naulassa.

Jukka Aho · Post by **Jukka Aho** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 7:53 pm

mirea wrote:Hmm. Found this one from google/youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exyj5bAdj0g

lyrics:
Piu pau paukkaa,
Jänis metsässä laukkaa,
Poronkello kaulassa,
Eemelin nuttu naulassa.

The lyrics are close enough to the garbled version posted by the OP and the song even features a “reindeer bell” (a reference to Northern Finland / Lapland where the Sami people live) so as to make me think you might have nailed it down. The description on the YouTube page suggests the song had originally been sung to the poster (the Swedish lady who sings it in the video) by her son’s grandmother who lives in Kuusamo, Finland, just south of the Arctic Circle. Due to the poster being Swedish — and maybe not that fluent in Finnish herself — the pronunciation we can hear in the video is a bit off and not that of a native Finn.

The lyrics translate as:

Pew Pow Bang!
A hare gallops in the forest
with a reindeer(’s) bell on her neck
Eemeli’s jacket (is) hung up on a nail.

(“Eemeli” is a boy’s name.)

There’s not much sense in the above, but lullabies don’t need to as they’re traditionally thought up by parents just trying to calm and hush their baby to sleep... so the lyrics are often some nonsense sentences made up on the spot. But the song doesn’t seem to have a funeral dirge-like quality to it, lyrics-wise, so I guess it’s really “just” a lullaby.

baiki · Post by **baiki** » Tue Jul 10, 2012 12:12 am

That's it! Piu Pau Paukkaa is it! I can't believe it! Thanks you so much for helping me find my song and translating it! I never really thought this would be a success, but I am sooo glad I asked

And the words all came back to me now... I am glad that I will be able to sing the song to my own children when I have them.

It's strange that my mother told me it was a funeral dirge, however, if you sing the song acapella in a lower key it does sound a bit more serious. Thank you again to all for helping me

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Tue Jul 10, 2012 12:41 am

Well, digging digging http://www.kulttuurisampo.fi/item.shtml ... _1920_1920
Looks like with the "pium paum paukkaa" & "jänis metsässä laukkaa" they all agree more or less. Then they agree that its got jingle bells, and usually the (child's name) either coat, dress or pants with it too.

Dang, these are fun

Ashleywallace · Post by **Ashleywallace** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 8:40 pm

This is the song I have been searching for with my grandma as well. It sounds very familiar to her, but her grandmother sang something more like "soutaa paupa." we find the translation "tO row" but she is thinking her grandmother was saying something about rocking. And she doesn't remember paukka, but paupa. Any ideas? This is so fun. Thank you!

Jukka Aho · Post by **Jukka Aho** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 12:55 am

Ashleywallace wrote:This is the song I have been searching for with my grandma as well. It sounds very familiar to her, but her grandmother sang something more like "soutaa paupa." we find the translation "tO row" but she is thinking her grandmother was saying something about rocking.

In (South) Ostrobothnian dialects, the verb soutaa is at least sometimes associated with rocking motion in addition to its primary meaning “to row (a boat)”. For example, people might call a rocking chair, keinutuoli, “soutulavitta”... which translates as something like a “rowing stool” (piece of furniture, not excrement) although I’m not completely sure if this usage is serious or jocular.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:51 pm

Ashleywallace wrote:This is the song I have been searching for with my grandma as well. It sounds very familiar to her, but her grandmother sang something more like "soutaa paupa." we find the translation "tO row" but she is thinking her grandmother was saying something about rocking. And she doesn't remember paukka, but paupa. Any ideas? This is so fun. Thank you!

Well, one that always comes to mind is the "Shoemaker's wifes lullabuy" . The shoemaker's wife is trying to get the baby to sleep, and she discusses with the people shown up in verse, its pretty funny..."don't topple the sourmilk bucket when you leave" the piupali paupali is just a nonsense filler

Keitä te ootte te nuoret poijaat,
kun emmä tunne teitä?
Piupali paupali, piupali paupali,
kun emmä tunne teitä.

Oottekos te tulleet,
oottekos te tulleet kenkiänne hakemaan?
Piupali paupali piupali paupali,
kenkiänne hakemaan.

Suutari on mennyt koko viikoksi
kylille neulomaan.
Piupali paupali, piupali paupali,
kylille neulomaan.

Tulkaa sitten ensi viikolla
kenkiänne hakemaan.
Piupali paupali, piupali paupali,
kenkiänne hakemaan.

Hyvästi, hyvästi! Hyvästi, hyvästi!
Miinalle terveisiä!
Piupali paupali, piupali paupali,
Miinalle terveisiä.

Älkää kaatako piimähinkkiä
porstuassa mennessänne
Piupali paupali, piupali paupali,
porstuassa menessänne.

Missä häntä siellä pää.
Pää jos menee, häntä jää.
Pään jos mieli säilyä,
täytyy hännän häilyä.

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