Hiya people! 🙂
This Swedish song is over 50 years old but it’s brand new to me. And I like collecting cool songs with a Sofi/Sofia/Sofie/Sophia/Sophie in them, so it sparked my interest right away when I heard it. I’ve often mentioned on here that I always listen to some music quietly at night, or if not music from Spotify then some radio in one of my favourite languages. And last night I was listening to the Swedish public station P4, and that’s where I heard this song, in the middle of the night. Funnily enough, my Sofi was here too. It’s been freakishly hot here, and also unbearably humid, and Sofi has like a double room. There’s just a normal, big room that she uses during the day, and then there’s a hole in the wall where there is another room and she sleeps there, it’s like a little cave or something, the ceiling is very low there and there’s only a very small window. And as it’s a very small and tight space, it heats up very quickly. Sofi used to sleep in her main room and used that little one for playing video games or other stuff like that, but then she decided that she wants to make the little room into a bedroom, only she didn’t predict how hellish it would get in the summer. And so Sofi couldn’t sleep last night and came to me at about 2 AM, asking if she could sleep here, because I have AC in here.
She had to make herself a makeshift bed on the floor as it would be quite unbearable for both of us to sleep together in my bed, and as she was making it, this song played on the radio. 😀 I wouldn’t even pay much attention to it because it was just playing very softly in the background, but Sofi heard it and was laughing because it sounded funny to her and was asking why do I listen to such weird, antiquated-sounding stuff. 😀 So then I listened more closely and agreed that something about it sounds funny, and I turned the volume up a little bit, and then I realised that it’s about a “lilla Sofi”, so we were both laughing that they’re spying on us. Even though it was funny and even though I usually don’t feel older Swedish music really, I made sure to memorise a bit of lyrics and decided to check it out properly today and I really quite like it. It’s a really sad song though, while at the same time I still think it’s funny.
I’m not perfectly sure if it’s Sofi or Sofie in the title, as I’ve seen both, but Sofi seems to occur more frequently.
The song was written by Benny Andersson (from ABBA, except ABBA wasn’t a thing yet for a couple years) and Lars Berghagen, and released in 1968.
Here’s my literal English translation of it:
Little Sofi, she shines like a sun,
Makes a wreath of meadow flowers and violets,
The sky is shining nicely blue as she slowly goes home,
Sits down by her gate,
Holds the wreath against her cheek
Then a song is heard, then a cloud of dust is seen,
A little soldier is marching along the road,
He has striped trousers and he has a big rifle,
He is marching so pluckily,
A little, big soldier
Little Sofi, she shouts ”Hello to you!
My name is Sofi, come here and play with me”
But then the soldier replies
”No, I have to hurry up
I am going far away
The whole world is on fire”
„May I join you, I promise to be nice
We’ll surely be back here by the evening”
But then he answers her
„It will be far for you to go
Stay here my little friend
For I will come soon again
Day turns to night, and months to years
And little Sofi, she waits every spring
But the wind that is drawing toward north
Can give the answer but has no words
Never comes back again
So she is still waiting for sure
My Inner MishMash 