Hauen laulu - Pike`s Song

May I introduce to you - Leevi Lehto and his brilliant translation!

www.leevilehto.net

My Talk and Reading in Philadelphia, Feb. 23, 2005

(This text is from Talk in MS Word)

Leevi explains himself first:

"Think of the stress always falling on the first syllable. As a sort of reverse example, lets take "Hauen laulu", by Aaro Hellaakoski, which I translated for you as "The Pike's Song". I will begin by reading the two first stanzas in Finnish, so you get some touch of how the language works when abiding to its "natural" flow:"

Kosteasta kodostaan
nous hauki puuhun laulamaan

kun puhki pilvien harmajain
jo himersi päivän kajo
ja järvelle heräsi nauravain
lainehitten ajo
nous hauki kuusen latvukseen
punaista käpyä purrakseen
................

"Let's then try "the same" in my English – and I'll try to retain as far as possible the original stress pattern:"

"From his hole so wet and drenching
a pike rose up to tree to sing

when through the greyish net of clouds
first gleam of day was seen
and at the lake the lapping waves
woke up with joyous mean
the pike rose to the spruce's crone
to take a bite at reddish cone

he may have seen or heard, or smelled
or learned by taste of cone
the dew-wet glory, untold yet
of that morning-hour

opening his
mouth so bony
sidewise moving
the jawbone phoney

intoned a hymn
so wild-and-heavy
that birds fell silent
immediately
as if overcome by
the waters' weight
and lonesomeness'
cold embrace."