Song of the day (3rd September) – Cornelis Vreeswijk – “Om Jag Vore Arbetslös” (If I were Unemployed) & Jack Vreeswijk “Om Jag Vore Arbetslös”.

   Hiya people! 🙂 

   The song that I picked for yesterday but didn’t get to share is Cornelis Vreeswijk’s translation of the American blues and folk musician Tim Hardin’s song If I Were a Carpenter. As you might know, Cornelis translated a lot of foreign language songs into Swedish or was inspired by them. This one deals with romantic insecurity, as, just like in Tim Hardin’s song, the lyrical subject asks the woman he loves if she would still love him or marry him if his life circumstances were different. I find it interesting that while Tim Hardin mostly talks about being poor and working in professions that are associated with poverty, COrnelis takes it a step, or a few, further, and brings police interrogation into the picture. I’m not sure withholding a suspected criminal’s location from the police has much to do with love and could kinda border on toxic potentially, but oh well, what do I know about life anyway? 😀 

   This Swedish version has also been covered a couple times, including by Marie Fredriksson of Roxette, and Jack Vreeswijk, and since I like the latter I’m sharing it as well. I think the studio version is slightly better than the live one below, but the live one seems to be the only one on YouTube. Also the lady at the beginning of that video says that the song is written by Jack, which it obviously sn’t. He performs it together with Hjalmar Leissner here. 

   Below is Bibiel’s translation of the translation. 

 

   If I were unemployed, and you were wealthy
Would you like to have me then, do you think I would be any good later?
If I were wanted, would you give me a chance then
If the police would question you, would you say where I was then?
Say if you still have love, say it if you dare
Can you give me an honest answer, I am just asking
If I were freer, what answer would I get then
If you had a baby, would I be the father then?
If I have a double bed, with sheets of silk
Do you want to marry me then, and sleep in it?
If I were unemployed, and you were wealthy
Would you like to have me then, do you think I would be any good later?
Would you like to have me then, do you think I would be any good later?

 

 Cornelis Vreeswijk: 

   Jack Vreeswijk:

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