Finnish poetry in English

Cloudberry · Post by **Cloudberry** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 3:24 pm

Just wondering if anyone has any Finnish poetry in English that they could share?

I have had some Finnish poetry translated into English by a friend of mine recently and I'm really keen to read more.

**Sponsor:**

littlefrank · Post by **littlefrank** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 3:55 pm

http://www.electricverses.net/sakeet.php?language=3

http://www.amazon.com/Contemporary-Finn ... 1852241470

Finland
Feet and faces tingle
In that frore land:
Legs wobble and go wingle,
You scarce can stand.

The skies are jewelled all around,
The ploughshare snaps in the iron ground,
The Finn with face like paper
And eyes like a lighted taper
Hurls his rough rune
At the wintry moon
And stamps to mark the tune.

Robert Graves

Cloudberry · Post by **Cloudberry** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 10:49 am

Oh nice, thanks littefrank - what an apt poem. Thanks for those links too! I will try and get a hold of that poetry book - I've emailed my aunt to see if it's available anywhere near her. I will have to dig out some of the translated poems I have and post them here.

I am reminded of one of my all-time favourite Finnish poems:

The Finnish Land by Aleksis Kivi

What is that land of hill and dale
That is so beautiful,
The land aglow with summer days,
Land with the northern lights ablaze,
Whose beauty all the seasons share,
What is that land so fair?
There many thousand lakes are bright
With twinkling stars at night
There many kanteles resound
And all around make hillsides sing
And on the golden heath firs ring:
That is the Finnish land.

O never shall your tender sky
Be gone from memory
Never the fire of your bright sun
Nor in your spruces the clear moon
Nor yet your woodsmoke as it rides
From clearings to the clouds.

And yet these valleys have endured
Seasons when life was hard,
When in night of sudden frost
The corn sown in our fields was lost;
But came hope with the dawning day
And work swept frost away.

And in these valleys yet again
Some horrors have been,
When slaughter, death were brought by war
And the ground swallowed human gore;
But many heroes´ splendid name
Added to the Finland´s fame.

And now the sweet beloved land
Is ours till ages end:
There is our field that ripples free,
Our meadow in its greenery
And there our forests´wild night lies,
All girded by our seas!

The leafy forest ringing clear
What bliss it is to hear,
As in the first light of the dawn
Through it resounds the herdsman´s horn,
Or in the vale when dusk is long
A maiden sings her song!

To fall asleep in your embrace,
Land of our dreams, what bliss,
O you our cradle, you our grave,
You the new hope we ever crave,
Peninsula so beautiful,
Finland for aye our all!

Cloudberry · Post by **Cloudberry** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 10:51 am

This is one from the Electric Verses collection that I liked:

The sky cloudy, grey, it’s warm,
almost stifling. We walk
along the gravel road, the country road

The pines, their shoots

The warm dampness in the greenhouse. We drink
coffee, black coffee, buy scevola,
two garlic plants, a tomato plant, celery

Back along the road

The sky’s globe, clouds in layers. I long to be
nowhere else but here

HENRIKA RINGBOM (Finland-Swedish poet)

Cloudberry · Post by **Cloudberry** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 4:48 am

Even nature gives you no choice.

When you have seen a cloud in the lap of a pond
and the moon between waterlilies,
you are at the mercy of your own soul.

Eeva Kilpa
(trans. Aili Jarvenpa, Salt of Pleasure: Twentieth-Century Finnish Poetry)

littlefrank · Post by **littlefrank** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 7:45 am

Came across this list, thought it might be of use to you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Finnish_poets

Cloudberry · Post by **Cloudberry** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:41 am

littlefrank wrote:Came across this list, thought it might be of use to you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Finnish_poets

Thanks so much littlefrank - I've been going through this site a lot - I love it!

Cloudberry · Post by **Cloudberry** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:45 am

One year ago today my husband and I were married in beautiful Olavinlinna Castle in Savonlinna

This is a poem a dear friend of ours read in both Finnish and English:

Song of Love

Life is bliss when you're together;
loving bosom,
arousing joy
as mates walk hand in hand.

Thus its creatures nature brings together;
the flying bird,
the dashing darling
quickly finds its partner on the birch branch.

A sweet place for love is in the land of Finland;
snow, ice and frost,
even January's cold
cannot chill true love.

When we're joined with a partner in love,
even the snow is warm,
and there's joy in weeping
as we love, under the North Star.

Jaakko Juteini translated by Börje Vähämäki

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