Clannad – “Siúl a Rún” (Go, My Love).

   Hey people! 🙂 

   So I’ve shared two versions of this extremely popular Irish song with you this year so far, and I thought today I could share with you another one, from Clannad. I guess this version is also quite well-known and well-liked due to Clannad’s fame. I really like Maire Brennan’s vocals in this song, she usually tends to sing in the higher register, but I definitely prefer her when she sings a bit lower and that’s what she does here. I already wrote a bit on the song itself when sharing the version by Anuna so I recommend you see that post as well if you haven’t and if you’re interested in the origins of it, also their song is definitely worth listening to just as well. 

Celtic Woman – “Siúil a Rúin” (Go, My Love”.

   Hey people! 🙂 

   Last month, I showed you the traditional and very frequently sung by all sorts of folk singers Irish tune called Siúil A Rúin by the famous Irish choral ensemble called Anúna. In that post I also explained a bit about the origins and background of the song. Today, I thought I’d share another version of this song, with a bit different lyrics, also from a probably even more popular Irish group that is Celtic Woman. Celtic Woman have actually recorded several different versions of this song, which is not uncommon for them since their line-up has changed a whole lot so they often re-make their old songs with new members. While it is undoubtedly the older version from their debut album, with Órla Fallon on vocals, that is more widely known and recognisable, today I chose to share with you the newer version, with Eabha McMahon as the vocalist. I can’t say which one I like more, but I chose this one because it has a more rootsy vibe and also I’ve already shared a lot of Órla’s music on here, while only one song with Eabha on vocals. As it happens, Eabha was also a member of Anúna as a young girl before she joined Celtic Woman. 

   Since this song is about a woman’s sorrow because of her lover departing to enlist in the army, listening to this song in this awful time gives me a really strange feeling and makes me see it from a different perspective, as I can’t help but think about all the Ukrainian women, also those many women who have fled here to Poland alone or with children while their men are fighting. Except I guess they have it a lot worse than this Irish lady from the song, because they not only must miss their men and wish to be with them but also worry about their lives, which she doesn’t seem to be concerned about so I guess he’s not actually fighting in a war, just simply chose a military career or something like that. 

Question of the day.

   How did your Valentine’s Day go? 

   My answer: 

   Well, personally I don’t really care about Valentine’s Day. For one thing, I’m single and have always been, so I’ve never really had a reason to celebrate it. The second thing is that even if I was not single, I don’t think I would celebrate it, unless my other half would feel really strongly about it being otherwise for some reason. It’s always felt so awfully fake for me and is clearly not so muchh about love as about marketing and it being a great day for all sorts flower businesses, restaurants and the like. Oh yeah and media as there is something to talk and write about so they don’t have to think too much, just throw lovey-dovey content at people’s poor brains so that their own relationships start to feel even more flawed than ever. I suppose it’s different in countries like the States, but here, sometimes if someone expresses that they aren’t really a fan of this holiday, they’ll be accused of being stiffly conservative and not liking modern holidays and wrongly assuming that Valentine’s is an import from America like Halloween or other such, which is probably because, at least according to my Mum, Valentine’s Day was apparently not a thing in Poland until after the transformation, so 90’s. But I know it’s not a modern holiday, even if it’s new here, and even if it was modern, I don’t have a problem with any holiday solely because of how long it’s been a thing. In general, I totally don’t mind there being a special day for people who are in love, so that they can do something extra special for/with each other, or profess their love, as I can imagine it could be easier to have a day like this than pluck up your courage on some random day in a random situation, or even for steady couples who need something more than just their anniversary to remind them how much they actually love each other and to focus more on each other than on their children. But I don’t like its current superficial form, it looks very exaggerated and often almost forced to me. When we (my siblings and I) were younger, our parents would usually buy us some sweets and wish us Happy Valentine’s Day, and Dad always buys Mum, Sofi and me flowers on this day, same as on our birthdays and Women’s Day. So we got some lovely daffodils from him today. He never gives anything to Olek these days though, probably because he thinks it would feel awkward, but I think as it is it’s a bit awkward too, if you treat Valentine’s seriously you could have thought he doesn’t love him. 😀 And yes, he’s also single (Olek, not my Dad, just in case you’re wondering) so the poor lad doesn’t get anything! 😦 

   So, apart from those traditional daffodils, it’s just been a normal day for me. When we were having breakfast in the morning, Sofi sarcastically asked Mum and me what our plans for Valentine’s are and promptly added that she is going to spend all day with the love of her life – skates – celebrating that she doesn’t have the “morphine” (Marfan syndrome, which she was suspected to have but was tested a few days ago). Mum’s ambition was challenged, as the love of her life is running and she didn’t go running today morning. So, despite she normally doesn’t run in the evenings, she decided not to be worse than Sofi and said she’s going to have a romantic outing in the woods in the evening. I said that me and the love of my life don’t need special days to spend happy times together, and we don’t even need outings to enjoy each other, but Mondays are the days when we’re particularly close for particularly long, and so I’m going to spend ecstatic four hours with the love of my life – yr iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh language). – And that’s what I did, with my other, true blue purrfect Russian lover – Misha – accompanying us for a significant part of our date. Unfortunately, polygamic relationships are logistically complicated, and after a challenging and demanding date with my Cymric lover I was not able to do justice to my Norwegian one, but as I knew that was going to be the case, we had a lovely, romantic, light and not quite so demanding weekend together instead. But again it’s not something extremely unusual as we usually spend weekends with each other. 

   So, how’s your Valentine’s been? Do you celebrate it, or do you do something more like Sofi, my Mum or me, or is it just an average day like any other with no highlights to it? 🙂 

AnúNa – “SiúIl A RúIn” (Go, My Love).

   Hey people! 🙂 

   Today I’d like to share with you a very famous Irish folk song, which is performed by lots of folk musicians, not necessarily just Irish. I think there are many great arrangements of it, with those by artists like Clannad and Celtic Woman being particularly well-known, but I decided, at least for now, to share this song with you sung by Anúna. As is the case with all their music, this song was arranged by twin brothers Michael and John McGlynn, who are directors of this Irish choir. I really like their interpretation of it. 

   Siúil A Rúin is a song with very unclear origins, which was probably initially in Irish in its entirety. It isn’t even clear whether the Irish chorus that is part of it now is actually the only bit of the original that has survived to this day, or whether it has been added later. The song is from the perspective of a woman, lamenting her lover who decided to join the military, whose desire is to follow him so that she could be by his side. In the past, I shared with you a similarly-themed American song called Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier by Kronos Quartet with Natalie Merchant, and that one is actually directly derived  from Siúil A Rúin. 

   Here is what the Irish chorus means:

  Go, go, go my love
Go quietly and go peacefully
Go to the door and fly with me.

Declan Galbraith – “Love of My Life”.

Hey people! 🙂

Today I want to share with you a single from Declan’s second album, Thank You, released when he was 14. Like all of his full-length albums, it contains a lot of covers of pop classics, and not only pop, so based on that you may already be guessing that this is also a cover, specifically of the Queen song. I always think he did a really good job with it for a fourteen-year-old.

Sian James – “Cariad Cyntaf” (First Love).

Hey guys! 🙂

Like yesterday, today I thought we could listen to another Welsh traditional song, also played on the harp, but this one has lyrics. This is a fairly popular love song from a male perspective and has been sung by a lot of folk musicians, the version I myself was first acquainted with was from the band 9Bach, whose music I’ve also shared on here in the past. I guess the most well-known contemporary version of this song has been sung by Bryn Terfel though. The translated lyrics are below, andI’ve taken them from

here.

There is beauty only second to Eden

In your warm bosom, fair maiden.

Dear loved one, bright and happy;

Beautiful star, hear this lovesick one.

Promise your love to me tonight,

We’ll make vows before we leave

To engage, come what may.

Place your trust, and say you’ll come.

Bright happy one,

Love of my breast

Fairest that I ever loved

I will take you as a partner.

In your eyes I have truth

That shines like stars

Of Grace and virtue;

To see you is to rejoice.

Lisa Lynne – “Light Of Love”.

Hey people! 🙂

For today, I have another harp piece from Lisa Lynne for you. This one is so relaxing and calming it would really well work as a lullaby imo. 🙂

Question of the day.

What have you managed to avoid?

My answer:

Well, I have avoidant PD for a reason, so a whole lot of things. 😀 But I suppose one of the more interesting things is that I have managed to avoid falling in love so far. And I don’t have a problem with it, it’s kinda funny that everyone’s talking about romantic love and wanting it and chasing it or healing their wounds from toxic relationships where they’ve fallen in love with the wrong person, most people around my age that I know have been with at least one person already or are even in a steady relationship, or have experienced unrequited love or something like that, and I don’t even really know what it’s like to be in love. I suppose it’s slightly overrated. I’m quite curious what it would/will be like if it would ever happen to me in the future. On some level, about which I wrote not long ago, it does add up to my general feeling of inadequacy in that it seems to be something most people experience multiple times so it’s yet another thing that confirms that I’m not really all that normal, but on the other hand it’s not like I have a special desire to experience love or be in a relationship or have someone love me, if it’ll happen spontaneously (which seems unlikely as I do little peopling), it just will and it’s really cool as long as I’ll be able to handle it properly, if it won’t, it’s maybe even better because I don’t really do well with too much emotional closeness on an intimate level so it’s easier as it is. And as a result, I’ve managed to avoid having sex either. Which I guess is also quite rare in this time when you can find 19-year-old girls wailing over how they’re still virgins. 😀 I think virginity is a really cool thing, and it’s also part of me, so I’m not inclined to get rid of it without a very good reason and having real strong feelings and lots of trust for someone.

On a different note, I have no clue how normal or not normal it is for my age group, but I’ve never ever experienced any heart pain, and I consider myself lucky in that regard, because my Dad has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and Sofi experiences minor heartaches quite regularly when she’s stressed or overexerts herself. Heart problems is something that always sounds serious to most people so I’m glad I haven’t had to deal with it and fuel my anxiety.

What’s such a thing in your case? 🙂

Rhys Lewis – “No Right To Love You”.

Hi people! 🙂

Yesterday we had a female pop singer Rhys from Sweden/US, and today we’re having a song from a male pop singer from the UK with the same first name. Actually when I first came across his music somewhere on Spotify I thought he must be Welsh, because Rhys is originally a Welsh name and very common there, and Lewis is also a very common Welsh surname, but it doesn’t seem like he has any connection to Wales, he is from England. I am not familiar with all of his music or don’t listen to him regularly, but I like this plus a few more songs of his, and this one seems to be popular with some Polish radio station so I guess his music must be quite well-known at least here in Europe.

Lynn Saoirse – “Lagan Love”.

Today I’m sharing with you a piece played by the Irish Celtic harpist Lynn Saoirse, but unlike a lot of her music that I’ve shared so far, this is a traditional tune, and not one composed by Turlough O’Carolan. I wrote more about the tune itself

here.

Question of the day.

What’s the most difficult thing to define?

My answer:

Just very recently it struck me again how difficult a concept to define is self, and how ideas about what it is may vary depending on loads of things. Another such thing that also got me thinking a while back is consciousness. We talk so much in psychology and even in normal conversations about conscious, subconscious, unconscious, but it seems difficult to clearly define all that. Another such thing is pain, since there are multiple kinds of pains, and even within the same kind of pain everyone will experience it at least somewhat differently, and describe it differently as well, and we don’t even know how different these experiences are one from each other as there’s no objective way of experiencing or even measuring someone’s pain. There are all those adjectives to help describe it, like sharp, dull, pulsating, burning etc. etc. but I guess sometimes they may contribute to the confusion even more so, because what one person would describe as dull, another might not, even if the feeling is more or less the same. Oh, and it’s interesting with love, but not exactly because it’s hard to define in itself, but because so many languages lack words to describe all the different kinds of love you might feel. Like, I don’t get it, all Indoeuropean languages have taken so much from Greek, yet while there are multiple words for different kinds of love in the Ancient Greek language, I don’t know of any other European language that has that sort of distinction. And we were talking with my Mum a while back how it probably contributes to why so many people have trouble with this word and its understanding.

What’s such a thing that comes to your mind? 🙂

Question of the day.

We really haven’t had any questions in a long time, so let’s get into it! 🙂

Whether you are single or in a relationship, why?

My answer:

I am single, and there are many reasons for that. I think mostly because I’ve just never come across anyone that I’d love and want to be with, as simple as that. 😀 I guess it’s quite weird for many people, but I’ve never been not single, have never dated, have never had sex, and have never even been in love. While that kind of reinforces my feelings of inadequacy since it seems to be vastly different for most people, I’m generally okay with that and don’t feel obliged to try to change it, any time soon, or any time at all, unless it comes naturally. Also I guess I still have quite a fair bit of time for it all happening, if it’s supposed to. My Mum considers herself asexual or something like that, she does have sex (obviously, since she has biological children), but has no physical pleasure out of it and no real need for it, we suspect that must’ve been the case with my grandma who has a giant repulsion towards anything even remotely sex-related, but of course back then no one knew about such a thing as asexuality and I suppose if anyone suggested that to her, even that would repulse her, and I guess this could be the case with me (without my grandma’s repulsion though 😀 ) the more that I was also born with some hormonal issues that often do affect such things. I’m not perfectly sure, because like I said I’ve never had sex so if I did perhaps I’d discover that that’s not the case, and then on the other hand I do consider myself a linguophile because I can get slightly turned on by a language that I love, especially right before sleep, haha, but it’s like I said only a slight thing and not extremely frequent, and generally I have an impression that for most people it takes waaaaay less to stimulate them, to the point where it actually often surprises me how little they need. That being said, of course by never having been in love I also mean romantically, yet I definitely do not think I am aromantic. Regardless of whatever might be the deal with me vs all things romantic and sexual, one thing I do know is that all that involves a lot of intimacy, and intimacy is scary as hell for me, whether it’s emotional or touchy-feely.

Another thing is that, aside from me having never found anyone I’d like to be with, I’ve never been aware of anyone who’d like to be with me. 😀 Which is fine as otherwise I guess I’d feel quite hemmed, even if he weren’t pressuring me or anything.

And then there’s also that I really don’t think I’m cut out for relationships anyway. I am very individualistic and, partly due to that, partly due to some experiences I’ve had, I still have a bit of an aversion to even mere words like together(ness) or common. I don’t like compromises, I don’t even know how to do them. If someone wants me to make a compromise with them I’ll usually either keep going my way or turn in the totally opposite direction where they want to go and go right after them. Same as I never knew and never liked to cooperate with people at school at all sorts of projects and stuff. If I knew that people at my group were either rather passive/submissive by nature or simply not good at the subject, I’d do everything for everyone as that was easier and faster than explaining and discussing everything, and I didn’t have much patience for that, plus they were happy, or if there was someone who I knew that they had it all together more than I did and had more of a personality, or a few such people, then I would barely do anything, I just don’t really know how to be in the middle with such things. 😀 Besides, like I said intimacy scares me and how usually people in relationship expect each other to be open. I know and have heard of couples where one person is pretty self-sufficient emotionally, and likes to have a bit of their own space, but the other not so much, and so this other person wants them to do everything together. It would suck if that would be the case with me and my potential husband, especially if we wouldn’t share a lot of hobbies to begin with. And I have a bad feeling, based on a lot of different little things, that if I went into it, I have all the necessary traits and more to end up with someone toxic, or maybe not properly, inherently toxic like narcissistic or something, but perhaps somehow difficult or damaged or something, which, since I have a very particular brain too, could end up making both of us intoxicate each other quite badly. I’m absolutely happy having difficult, weird, complex friends who have had a lot to deal with, but being such a person yourself and having to deal with another such person’s brain 24/7, seven days a week… I’m not this heroic. Also my last therapist, who for some reason was adamant that I need to be in a relationship (perhaps because she was psychodynamic and they’re obsessed with sexuality so she couldn’t help me if I had no sex life 😀 ) was very encouraging and told me that people “like me” usually have toxic relationships. A lot of her words and opinions couldn’t be taken seriously, but I feel she could be pretty right about that.

Then there are the little big things like that I am Christian, more exactly a (traditional) Catholic, and some stuff that is important for me is less and less important for other people, like such a trivial thing as actually marrying properly and not just going steady or however people call that in English. On the other hand, I don’t want to (and possibly cannot, due to the pituitary stuff) have kids, which on the other hand is usually what people with values similar to mine definitely do want.

Speaking of kids, I would be worried that I wouldn’t have much to offer the potential guy in question. I mean yeah, I have a lot of brains to choose from, people usually consider me interesting or fascinating or something like that, and judging from everything I seem to be considered a good listener, I am empathetic and I think I have a, weird sometimes, but still good for some, sense of humour, I seem to have the sort of shape that apparently appeals to males the most, being skinny and curvy and have reasonable looks, but generally, that’s about it. I can’t do a lot of practical things, I can’t cook, I can’t do a lot of other household stuff or can’t do it well, I don’t want to/can’t have kids, I don’t want to have sex, I can’t drive, I can’t get around outside by myself, I only have a part-time job with a minimal wage which will be over as soon as my Dad retires, I don’t do people… Yeah sure, there are interabled couples, but from what I observe, usually the disabled person is more autonomous than myself. Also when it comes to visually impaired/blind people, I’ve seen research claiming that there is a lot more couples where there is a sighted girl and a visually impaired guy than the other way around, which makes sense and is reflected among people I know. So, I just don’t see it (pun quite obviously intended). I could still be with someone blind, but I don’t want to for several reasons, plus I’ve spent ten years in a blind school where naturally a lot of people were dating at some point, and none seemed interested in me either, unless in the role of a relationship counsellor. 😀 Which is, actually, quite interesting, because a weird amount of people comes to me with their relationship woes, as if I had any idea about that. But I try to help as best I can. Maybe it’s actually exactly this that brings them to me, that I have like an outside perspective or something. Anyway, even if there was someone who would accept the downsides and want to be with me, I, knowing myself, would probably still have a problem feeling inferior in such an unbalanced relationship, unless I’d feel that there is some field(s) in which I could compensate adequately.

So, all in all, while the unquenchable Aquarius in me is definitely curious what it could be like being not single for a change, I don’t really feel like I actually do want to change it in practice.

Oh, and yet another reason! Dating sounds freakishly stressful from what I hear. I’d probably have to sleep two days in a row to recharge afterwards.

So how’s it with you, and, more importantly, why? 🙂

2002 – “Cariad” (Love).

Hey guys! 🙂

So yesterday I wrote about how this group’s music very often sounds kind of sensorily creepy to me, but the song by them that I’m going to share with you today sounds anything but creepy. What drew my attention to it is that it’s quite obviously inspired by the Welsh language, and as it seems especially the Welsh concept of cwtch. This enigmatically looking word, as you’ll figure out from the song, is pronounced cootch, and if we wanted to say what it means in English, we’d say a hug or a cuddle, except it’s something more than that. The situation here is very similar as with the Welsh word hiraeth, which is usually translated as longing, but the real feeling behind it is a lot more difficult to convey through English. If I understand it correctly, cwtch is a particularly safe, yet unreserved and containing type of hug, one you really invest yourself in. The cosy feeling behind it is kind of similar to the Danish hygge concept. But also, cwtch is a word that is particularly tied to the Welsh identity. I may well be wrong about it, and if I am and if there are any Welsh people that are gonna read it feel free to correct me (I don’t even live in Wales, after all), but I have a strong impression that while it’s both Welsh speakers and English-speaking Welsh people who use this word, it seems to be more frequently used by the latter, as a way of connecting with the language as part of their national identity even though they don’t speak it fluently or in daily life. I tend to hear it a lot more often when someone is speaking English, especially people from South Wales, so I have a feeling it’s more like a Wenglish word, especially that it actually comes from the Middle English word couche, meaning a resting or hiding place. The “tch” cluster is also not common in Welsh. Yet, somehow the cwtch is almost like a symbol of being Welsh, an essence of Welshness, and also one of the Welsh words that people from outside of Wales are most familiar with, if they’re familiar with any Welsh words. I guess only popty ping, meaning microwave, is more famous, except it doesn’t seem to really be in use, because the actual Welsh word for microwave is meicrodon. 😀 Kind of like with this village in Anglesey called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which everyone calls just Llanfairpwllgwyngyll or simply Llanfair PG, and the sesquipedalian official name, from what I understand, is only used for the sake of tourists.

Anyway, as a Welsh learner, I thought it was really cool that this American band embraced even just these two Welsh words, cariad (love, sweetheart) and cwtch, because this is such a small, plus endangered language, so I figure it’s always somehow heartening with languages like that when someone knows even a word. I also really like the angelic vocals of Sarah Copus in this piece.

Cornelis Vreeswijk – “Visa I Vinden” (Song In The Wind).

Hiya people! 🙂

Today, I have a beautiful Cornelis Vreeswijk song for you (or Swedes would say a Cornelisk song, Cornelisk is an adjective and I like it because it shows how he really is a huge and recognisable part of Swedish culture. I think this is one of my favourites. We could say nowadays that it is so beautifully emo. 😀

It is a very sad and beautiful love song, and if we’re talking Cornelis and love songs, of course we’re also talking Ann-Katrin Rosenblad, to whom he most often dedicates his love songs, and other of his songs often mention her too. If you’re not yet in the know, Ann-Kat(a)rin Rosenblad was his fictional muse, based on the real life one – Ann-Christin Wennerström. – This comes from his debut album – “Ballader Och Oförskämdheter” (Ballads And Rudenesses/Impertinencies) from 1964.

I even managed to translate the lyrics (go Bibielle!!! I guess it’s my fourth Swedish-English translation if I’m counting right) and they surely do tell you what the song is about, but I wonder if it’s just me who feels that the English lyrics are way clunkier than Swedish. Perhaps it’s because it can’t be otherwise, or maybe I could do it better, I don’t know. If you speak Swedish and read this, lemme know.

Also, honestly, ever since I’ve first listened to this song (which was like… 2016 I guess?) and then understood its lyrics fully, I’ve never really figured out what’s the deal with the “sieve” in the lyrics (see translation below). I thought maybe this word has more meanings in Swedish or it’s some idiom or something, but when I was translating this today I couldn’t find anything like that. So I still don’t know. Maybe it means that she was so selective in love or didn’t retain her emotions for long, meaning that she easily fell out of love, or something? I found out that sieve can symbolise virginity, because of a vestal in ancient Rome who proved her virginity by carrying water in a sieve and not spilling any of it. Cornelis read a whole lot and we could say that he was quite nerdy, and there are mythological references in some of his poems and songs. But here it doesn’t seem very likely to be the case. Yeah, I was the best in my class at poem analyses but have always felt like I’m not very good at it actually. 😀

 

I’m singing a song in the wind,

And hope the wind will bring

This song to my beautiful one’s cheek,

And sprinkle it in her ear,

And move her heart.

I have been to many countries,

And not been to many more.

I guess I could stop going,

If you ask me to do so.

And lovingly look at me.

But wish me luck on the journey,

When I now pull away from you.

And the reason, Ann-Katrin, is this:

I cannot stay,

Where I do not have your love.

I’m singing a song in the wind,

I’m singing a song in a storm.

My heart is like a granite,

My heart has lost its shape,

And my pain is enormous.

But listen to my march under the moon,

It swings in steady minor.

It does not fit on the gramophone,

It’s about you, you troll,

That your heart is a sieve.

Enya – “Hope Has A Place”.

Hey people! 🙂

Today I’d like to share with you another song from Enya. Roma Ryan (Enya’s lyricist) wrote the lyrics to it in Silent Valley in the Mourne Mountains, , co. Down, for her daughter Ebony, about first love, but also love in general and how it’s not only and not always an amazing feeling like we would all like to believe, but it also often brings a lot of pain, or even loss. But the thing you still have left is hope.

Enya decided that, in order to write just the right melody for these lyrics, she’d also need to go to the same place (I really like that approach and I think it seriously makes sense because places  always have their own spirit). Not only did she write the melody there, but also her producer – Nicky Ryan – decided that they’d record the lead vocal there, outside, which I think gives this piece even more of a soul. I think it’s actually the melody that I love the most about this piece.

BrunuhVille – “Celtic Love Song”.

Hi guys! 🙂

Today I’m just sharing a bit of a random song with you that I came across some months ago when looking for more music featuring harp that I could add to my Bibiel’s Playlist For Sleep on Spotify, and this was one of the songs that ended up catching my attention. It has a bit of a modern Celtic feel, while I generally prefer the more traditional and folklore-infused things, but it’s still really pleasant to listen to and I think many of you may enjoy it.

Cornelis Vreeswijk – “Tomtebloss” (Sparkler).

Hey people! 🙂

I thought that today I’d share with you this lyrical piece by Cornelis Vreeswijk. I like it a lot because, well, Cornelis being one of my faza subjects, I’ve been very interested in him as an individual, and this song tells us a whole lot about what his love life and relationships generally looked like. I once found a Swedish programme called “Cornelis Och Kärleken” (Cornelis and Love) where a few people analysed in quite an interesting way some of his lyrics that are about love and women – since a lot of his lyrics and poems talk about various women – and how they illustrated the way his relationships looked like. Having had lived a stormy life overall, it was no less stormy and intense with love, because while on one hand he was seeking love and closeness quite desperately, he had some extreme difficulty with forming and maintaining relationships and whenever there was indeed a possibility of having a closer, deeper relationship with someone, he would basically run away almost in panic immediately. It’s flamin’ difficult having fears which conflict with your basic needs. He was also pathologically jealous – largely due to abusing alcohol and all sorts of drugs and other things, many of which can do such things to your brain – so it also wasn’t easy for the other side to be with him for sure.

And in this song, it really shows, in a both lyrical and raw way. Its lyrics weren’t awfully difficult to translate so I tried my best to do it although there may be some errors in here.

  My beloved is like a sparkler,

like a sparkler easily ignited.

She burns so hot when she catches fire,

my beloved is like a sparkler,

like a sparkler easily ignited.

Red-hot like a kiln are my sweetheart’s embers,

but no fire is eternal.

Cold it is for the charcoal burner when his kiln dies out,

my sweethearts embers are so red, so red,

but no fire is eternal.

My beloved is like a race,

a race where neither of us can win.

Where no one catches the other,

my sweethearts lovemaking is like a race,

a race where neither of us can win.

Yes, love is like a sparkler,

like a sparkler easily ignited.

It burns red when it reaches us.

My soul – i am like a sparkler,

and no fire is eternal.

Lowri Evans – “Tra Bo dau”

After some thinking, I decided to share this song by Lowri Evans that I mentioned in the previous post. I think her version is really good! Here’s my post where I shared this song performed by

Plu

where you can learn a bit more about it.

Kirsten Bråten Berg “Heiemo Og Nykkjen” (Heiemo And Nykkjen) & Helene Bøksle – “Heiemo Og Nykkjen”.

Hey guys! 🙂

I’ve been planning to share this Norwegian folksong with you for ages, but somehow never did it in the end, so finally that’s what I’m doing today. This is one of the first Norwegian folk songs I’ve ever heard and instantly fell in love with it, the version I heard first was the one by Kirsten Braten Berg, and I just loved the harmonies in it, the way it sounded and just the general feel of it, even though I could understand barely anything out of it and it didn’t make too much sense. Usually if you can speak Swedish, you can understand Norwegian well enough that you can at least figure out the context, but my Swedish was only crawling at the time and even now I can’t really understand much out of it on my own, I guess because the lyrics are quite archaic.

Last year I also heard Helene Boksle’s versioon for the first time, Helene Boksle is a well-known Norwegian singer to me whom I like a whole lot and have shared a

Norwegian hymn

in her interpretation ages ago, so you may or may not recall her.

I really love both versions of this song, so, like I often do, I had a hard time deciding on one, and in the end chose to share both of them with you, as they are quite different from each other. Kirsten Braten Berg’s feels more raw, solely with the accompaniment of Ale Moler, and Helene’s is more rich and contemporary. Both are very expressive in their own, different ways.

The song is about a young girl called Heiemo – I couldn’t find any information on the origin of the name so it’s possible that it’s somehow changed and functions in a different form these days or fell out of use. Nykkjen is a creature in Norwegian, but also generally European folklore, also known as Neck, Nokk and lots of other similar things. It is some sort of a water sprite which “by default” has the form of a water-horse, but is also a shapeshifter, and it likes to lure people to the water with singing and music, quite like sirens, and then kill them. So this Nykkjen creature fell in love with Heiemo upon hearing her singing, and decided to kidnap her and then kill her. But things turned around and Heiemo courageously stabbed Nykkjen to death.

Below is the translation of this song that I found

here,

apparently written by a lady called Sheila Louise Wright.

 

– wake up you noble youngsters-

The Water spirit heard it, striding on the sea,

– Because you now have overslept –

Heiemo sang her poem, it was singing in the hillside

The Water spirit heard it, the pagan dog.

The Water spirit spoke to his helmsman:

“You steer my ship upon christian land!”

“I will go upon christian land,

the beautiful maid I will have.”

He then enters her house

with high hat and rosy cheek

The Water spirit danced and Heiemo sang her poem

it pleased all folks in the houses

“Now every one has to go to his own home,

Heiemo I bring with me on the ship.”

“Heiemo, Heiemo, quiet your wrath,

You should sleep on water spirit’s arm.”

She stabbed the water spirit in his chest,

the nail ran into the root of his heart.

“Here you lay water spirit, naked to raven and dog.

Still I have my singing need.”

 

 

Question of the day (29th December).

Would you take a bullet for someone in your life?

My answer:

If there was an actual reason for that – absolutely yes! – I don’t like when people make such foolish declarations “I love you so much that I could die for you” when there is totally no need for such radical acts, and even less so for empty words like that. But if someone I loved a lot, like my Mum or anyone in my close family or my online friends, or perhaps even Misha (although why would anyone want to kill or shoot Misha, and who would be capable of doing this, I have no clue? The only reason I can think of why someone might even consider that is if they somehow really hated me passionately for some reason and were desperate to make me miserable, and I am not aware of having such desperate enemies) or maybe even people whom I not necessarily love but who are somehow important to me and who I care about, or whose life I think is very important, if any of them were in danger where their life could be at risk, and my death could make the situation better in any way, then hell yeah, I’d do that, although it surely would be scary. I think it wouldn’t be quite as scary though as living the rest of my life with a consciousness that I could help save the life of someone who was dear to me in some way or who needed it, but did not do that. It would be more difficult if it was a shot that would only impair me in some way, as that would have some longer consequences for me and I’m not sure how I’d deal with that my whole life, but I’d try to think about how I was able to help someone through that and I suppose that would be at least a bit of comfort for me to know that I somehow helped their cause. My Mum recently asked me what would I feel like living in a country where Christians are persecuted in a major way, where their lives may be in danger because of their faith, and how I’d feel like about giving my life up for Christ, because she read a book about Christians in muslim countries and that made her think about it hard. Now this is such a difficult thing to think about. When you read about the martyrs in ancient Rome for example, and the ways they were tortured, I’m really not sure I would be able to deal with that and keep being faithful. On the other hand, it’s not really these people’s merrit entirely that they were strong and brave enough to go through it but they were supported by God’s grace, I don’t think anyone would willfully agree to such suffering and not give in at some point without some help. But I think I would at least try my best if I was in such a situation and try to have as much courage as possible. And in the case of this question, if I was in such a situation that I would have to take a bullet for Christ, I feel that would be easier than the fancy tortures people had to endure ages ago, so I would take the risk, I think.

How about you? 🙂