Album:
Eden (2011)
Testi originali
Inglese, Finlandese
Traduzione
Inglese
Arcadia
Arcadia
Let the line of forest animals run,1
Let the line of forest animals run lightly2
Along the golden path,
Along the silvery way
Where the bridges of silk has been put,
Bridges of silk, bogs of velvet
Watery places with wool,
Bad places with linen!3
The old, grey-bearded man of the forest,
The golden king of the forest
Now open your vast store,
Push aside the bony lock!
The old man, the golden king,
The silvery ruler
Give me some of your only ones,
Carry me some of your beauties4
Rustling in gold,5
Tinkling in silver!
Drive the forest animals to the clearings,6
To the most open glades
During my hunting days,
During my prey finding days!7
Blow some trumpet loud and free
Leave the hills of Arcady8
Give thine oaten pipe away
Leave the hills of Arcady
Once the land of liberty
Land of ancient chivalry
Blow some trumpet loud and free
Leave the hills of Arcady
- 1. juoni = metsän otusten rivi, jono / a line of forest creatures
- 2. virka = juoni, rivi (metsän eläimiä) / a line (of forest animals), vippelehtää = juosta kepeästi, hyppäämällä / run lightly, kind of prancing
- 3. palttina = liinakangas / linen
- 4. kauno = kaunis, kaunokainen / beautiful, beauty
- 5. kulista = kahista / rustle
- 6. vilja = karja, eläin (metsän) / cattle/stock, an animal (of forest)
- 7. erä = metsästysretki, metsäsaalis / a hunting trip, prey/catch
- 8. Same as Arcadia (which comes from Greek), it means a harmonious, idyllic wilderness. It was also believed to be the place where the god Pan lived, and the pipe in the next line probably refers to him.
Song details
Translation details
Aggiunto su richiesta di 
TrampGuy
TrampGuy 
Give a shoutout to Fary
Commenti dell’autore:
The original lyrics can be found in Kanteletar as a poem, named "Metsän kuninkaalle" ("for the king of the forest") and it belongs to a part which has poems about hunting. All in all, a hunter is asking the king of the forest for hunting luck. Tapio was known as the king (and also god) of the forest, so it very likely refers to him.
There is Finnish folk poetry in Kanteletar and it's in a way related to Kalevala. It's hard to translate this kind of Finnish so there may be mistakes.
The words in the footnotes are words for which I found explanations in one version of Kanteletar.
Commenti 15
I must say, I don't know a word in Finnish (ok maybe one :)) but this is a 5/5 for your effort - and I know it took some ;)
Btw, I don't recall Faun having any native Finnish singers, and yet the singer's accent sounds really good!
Haha thanks. Yes they sing quite well even though I can easily hear that Finnish isn't their native language :P.
Really? where do they sound off for example?
and thanks for adding the footnotes :)
No problem, I thought someone might find them interesting/useful.
Well the pronunciation of Ö and Ä isn't always perfect, but they do pronounce for example the word "metsän" well. In Finnish the main stress is always on the first syllable so maybe they have some "problems" with that too, but overall I can understand by just listening what they sing.
I see, thanks for the explanation - I love these sound nuances :)
You're welcome :). It's also fun to read poems like these out loud even if you don't understand all the words.
Glad you enjoyed it :)
There's a guy here who translated it a bit differently. I was just wondering what do you think?
Let's see... I'd say his translation isn't really literal at all, but the main idea is there. For example, as far as I know the original lyrics aren't talking about deer exactly (though apparently "juoni" in the beginning might refer to a deer in some cases, but the book I used as help didn't do so), so that translation, in my opinion, has taken some artistic liberties :P. Sounds nice though.
Ok great, thanks! :)
I was actually wondering about that deer part :)
You're welcome. Yeah it seems that the original lyrics don't refer to deer but to forest animals in general, so I'm not sure why even some other translations use deer.
Actually there are quite a few mistakes in this translation. :steve:
For example "juoni" is not a "line of forest creatures" but a deer - literally. In old finnish juoni ment a deer and Juonetar was the "emuu" (the first mother) of all deers.
Secondly "virka" was a mark carved by the hunter into the trees along his/her (usually his) hunting path; "virkamerkki" = virka mark. The marks were signs to other hunters that the particular area and the animals within it were already reserved to be hunted by someone else. Hunter circled around an area (or a bear's winter den) and made virka marks along the way to tell others that the area was in usage. The circle was called "kierros" (round/circle), for example: karhun kierros = a bear's circle.
Palttina = linen, a cloth made of flax, not from wool.
Ukko = the god of thunder (when written with a capital letter), litteral meaning nowadays being "an old man".
Vilja = crop/crops. In this context the meaning being "the crops of the forest", ie. the animals / the cattle of the forest.
"Luinen lukko lonkahuta!" = "Push aside a bony lock!" (Luu = bone, luinen = bony, lukko = lock)
Then about the name of the song. Arcadia comes from ancient Greece and it has nothing to do with finnish mythology (as the rest of the song, except the german verse in the end).
"In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan. In European Renaissance arts, Arcadia was celebrated as an unspoiled, harmonious wilderness." - Wikipedia.
In the context of this song the meaning being the latter: unspoiled, harmonious wilderness.
That's about it. Otherwise tha translation is quite ok. It is really hard to translate this kind of text into english as there are no exact words to describe some of the things mentioned. :)
sure sounds like you are quite knowledgeable in mythology and folklore :) do you speak other languages as well?
Hmm you could be right, considering that I'm not any expert in this field - as I said in my author's comment, the explanations I found were in Kanteletar (I can't remember which version though). But anyways, I'll check my translation later when I have more time.
All right, first of all, thank you for all the info. It's not always that easy to find information about these old things/words.
I did find some sources which said that "juoni" meant deer, so I might change it - but does your definition of "virka" make sense in this context? "Let the signs run lightly" or something like that... Usually in these old texts the same thing is repeated two times, so as far as I know, it would make more sense if "virka" referred to animals/deer.
I'll change plain weave into flax since I wasn't sure about it to begin with.
I also know that Ukko is the god of thunder, but since the song/poem is about hunting, wouldn't it make more sense that it refers to the god of the forest ("Metsän ukko")? Plus it doesn't look like a name in this. "The old man" may not be the best translation (even if gods are old), but I'm not sure what else "ukko" could mean...
I guess I could keep "vilja" as I translated it, because in any case it refers to animals and not actual crops, just like you said. And if you don't mind, I'll use "Push aside a bony lock!" (I wasn't sure what kind of "opening" lonkahuta could mean).
But yes, thank you for taking time to read this translation and for the information - I hadn't checked what Arcadia really means so it's nice to know that, too :).