Who are we? We are our stories. We are our pictures

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Stream of Life

I am getting older and I tend to tear up at the turn of a well written page or the drop of a sad song. Lorna was reading or watching a baseball game when I was watching this and when she came in at the end of it she asked what it was and I couldn't talk because I knew I would break up. When I did gather myself and told her that it was about old Finnish men in the sauna it probably didn't carry the weight as it did for me. Now I don't expect it to affect others that way, but if you are old, stoic and of northern stock, take fair warning.


Watch the full episode. See more POV.

Oravan Laulu (The Squirrel) by Aleksis Kivi

Sweetly sleeps the squirrel baby
Sleeps on her mossy bed
Never reached by hounds
Nor snared by hunters
Safe in her nest
From her cocoon high up
She looks upon the world
After seeing so many fights
The peace flag of her home tree
Is flying over her head
Oh, to live so happily
In the swinging cradle up so high
Squirrel nesting forever
In the gentle arms of the tree
Hear the song of the woods
That’s where the furry cutie
Is sleeping on her window
Birds in the skies
Are singing lullabies
Taking her to the sweet land of dreams

3 comments:

Hindy said...

Hi from Canada! I happen to have seen Steam of Life yesterday and went looking for the lyrics to The Squirrel and landed on your blog. I sing in a choir and this is exactly the type of music we perform. I was wondering where you got the translation. I've been searching all over the web and can't find any music for it or even any back story to the song. If there's anything you've got that would help my search, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks!

Gunnar Berg said...

My daughter has sung in a number of choral groups too - it's a Minnesota thing.

It just typed in the first line of the song along with "Finnish song" into Google and followed the thread.

Aleksis Kivi was the father of Finnish writers. Einojuhani Rautavaara set some of his poems to music and wrote the eponymous opera about his life. Some of them, this included, are available from Amazon.

Hindy said...

Thanks!