19 helmikuuta 2017

Oh heiferiness and humanness


I just read a fantastic book called Danger of Verses. It consists of Finnish poems chosen by seven writers. Each writer has written a short essay of the poem chosen by him or her. The book was hilarious indeed. Then I found online the English version of this rural parody by the poet Ilpo Tiihonen. He is one of our most appreciated contemporary poets, born in 1950. In Finnish this poem was so cheerful and excellent that I thought his rural parodic scenes might be a joy for you too. Of course I and others who are not native English speakers miss its nuances but I know some can enjoy :)


A SUMMER EVENING’S SLIGHT CONCEPTUALNESS

Ah summer evening, and its eveningness,
its prodigious wonders and their bridgefulness
when the nightunited seamlessness
steals into one’s heart with restfulness

O heiferiness and humanness,
ah shivering shimmeringness,
innocents’ innocuousness
and vastness with its stresslessness –
five or six chicks of a dabchick,
and deep water, lapfulness.


Our blue sky’s mirrored changefulness!
the spruces’ tall topliness, their tips’ sacredness
the yellow-billed black singer’s flutiness.
Nested cosiness, mutual tootiness!

And oh the idler’s idling idleness
and the shuttling rower’s glidingness
on his holiday trip to goal-lessness
the fisherman’s undemanding uncatchingness
the innocent non-offendingness
of the leadhead’s letting-go-ingness.


Summer, great echoing summer’s heatstrokiness,
the haiku-puffs of the sauna’s smokiness, lip-lap
unsteady jettiness, lip-lap, rocking-about-edness
the naked skin’s nothing-about-it-edness
aerial echoing of seagulness
and goodies grilling for forkedness.

Ah gulfiness, lakiness, streaminess
ah featherlight set-free-again-ness
and seismic earth’s ecstatic staticness
and summer calm’s so easy boatliness.


Ah cows’ exuberant udderliness,
humanness, quiescentness,
ah Finnish horses’ trusty horsiness,
and foxcubs’ frisky foxiness,
hazelhens’ henness, snakes’ snakiness,
ah far-off-ness of quaky autumn, and its headachiness!



Oh microscopic wormy mouldiness
dandelions’ sunny harvest of goldiness
the headland’s swaying hayfulness
witchgrass’s whimsical playfulness
and sheep-sorrel’s sweet salt-tastiness!
Oh the saliva-licking of all unchasteness
hot musk-orchid’s scented headiness
passion flowers’ glad gift of unsteadiness
and the minty gluiness of sticky lipfulness


yes, and at the edge of happiness, thistliness.
But detail by detail the cosmic interdependenceness
and ref by ref its green inter-referenceness
sing the appendixness of human songfulness
Oh all the heiferiness, humanness, hoveringness
wafting cloud-loftiness, lofty melodiousness –
our heavenly household’s wallhung wise-sayingness –
oh summer cradling us, its total cradlingness.


Translated by Herbert Lomas (assisted by Soila Lehtonen) 

A summer evening’s slight conceptualness
III song: Summer symfony, dedicated to the author Joel Lehtonen (1881–1934)
From Eros (WSOY, 2002)
The Finnish lyrics can be found here.

Mosaic Monday

Natur-Donnerstag
I know, the poem is in English and it translates very poorly into German with Google.
But I wish you can enjoy the photos - and maybe learn some English...

I wish you enjoyed!

27 kommenttia:

  1. I enjoyed it so so much, thanks most sincerely, darling Riitta !!!
    Wishing you a lovely Sunday and new week ahead

    XOXO Dany

    VastaaPoista
    Vastaukset
    1. I'm so glad to hear that dear Dany ❤︎ It is such extravagant play with words!!! :)) Some fun in the life! Wishing you too a lovely new week.

      Poista
  2. A beautiful way to start my morning Riitta. A truly wonderful poem and the photos too. I could almost imagine summer 😍😍. B x

    VastaaPoista
    Vastaukset
    1. So happy you liked it Barbara! This was a good find!

      Poista
  3. Wonderful, such joyfulness and playfulness in the words. Yours photos are wonderful too:)

    VastaaPoista
  4. Hola, Riitta.
    Te comento, que muchísimas veces nada más que puedo disfrutar de las imágenes que nos ofreces, porque es una pena, para los que solo sabemos un idioma, lo difícil de entender el resultado que hacen los traductores de Internet, no siempre, pero sobre todo si se trata de poesía.
    De todas formas seguiremos disfrutando de tu buen hacer, y de la belleza de tu país
    Gracias.
    Un abrazo.

    VastaaPoista
  5. Sí es pena y Google traductor es pésimo, de verdad. He optado por el inglés aunque tengo visitantes alemanes, españoles, portugueses, brasileños, norteamericanos, suecos, holandeses, japoneses... de todo el mundo y todos son importantísimos para mí. Ojalá las traducciones de Google se mejoren pronto!

    Muchísimas gracias Manuel por tus comentarios amistosos. Te espero buen semana.

    VastaaPoista
  6. Thank you for the country photos. Love seeing all this beauty. Have a great week!

    VastaaPoista
  7. Hi Riitta,

    I'm visiting from Mosaic Monday. Your photos evoking the simple luxuries of country life and Mother Nature's permanent presence there are stunning! I really like the line, 'on his holiday trip to goal-lessness', from the poem; this is, indeed, a much sought after 'activity' when one is on holiday these days, as life can be hectic.

    Have a wonderful week,
    Poppy

    VastaaPoista
  8. I loved the poem you shared and the images that went with it. Such a wonderful play of sounds and words. Have a wonderful week. I'm visiting you from over on Mosaic Monday.

    VastaaPoista
  9. What fun! Your images are perfect with the poem and I giggled as I made way... "heiferiness and udderliness", along with "microscopic wormy mouldiness" followed by dandelions ... I could see it all! Happy Monday!

    VastaaPoista
  10. Your photos are lovely....and the words....they are wonderful and witty and so....just right!

    VastaaPoista
  11. Very beautiful images.

    VastaaPoista
  12. Oh I am in love with the greens and lovely colours in this post and the faces of those lovable sheep, I love them all very much~

    VastaaPoista
  13. Happy Mosaic Monday

    Much love...

    VastaaPoista
    Vastaukset
    1. Thank you all so much for visiting & your lovely comments ❤︎

      Poista
  14. What fun word play. I found myself smiling as I read the poem with its over-the-top words.

    VastaaPoista
    Vastaukset
    1. It is hilarious, isn't it! Of course we who are not native English speakers miss a lot, unfortunately.

      Poista
  15. Dear Riitta,
    just great! The poems are fantastic and the photos as well.
    I wish you a nice week.
    Loretta

    VastaaPoista
  16. Dear Riitta,
    the photos are amazing, but the poem is, for me, quite difficult to understand. I did not find a translation for the word heiferiness in the internet. I only found heifer, but the translation makes no sense if connected to the poem.

    Many greetings
    Wolfgang

    VastaaPoista
  17. Beautiful words and scenery :D)

    VastaaPoista
  18. Beautiful nature photos and the poems too, dear Ritta
    I wish you a happy day.
    Greetings from Austria
    Sadie

    VastaaPoista
  19. I enjoyed the summer feeling from this post dear Riitta :) The blue sky, the sea in Finland, and the words from the poem!
    This was a very nice summerday in Finland - thank you.
    Greetings from rainy Germany
    Kirsi

    VastaaPoista
  20. Liebe Riita,
    wie wunderschön sie wieder sind deine Naturimpressionen,
    ich mag jedes Bild und jede Stimmung davon, danke dir herzlich!!!
    Ganz liebe Grüße schicke ich dir mit ein wenig Sonne von hier,
    die Monika*

    VastaaPoista
  21. We still have to wait a bit, dear Riitta until we will be able to enjoy such wunderful summer impressions. But I really admire your lovely photos here showing a nice summer evening in Finland. :-)
    I like the poem, too. :-)

    Thanks for sharing and have a nice afternoon.

    Best regards from
    Christa

    VastaaPoista
  22. En todellakaan ole harjoitella Englanti, jossa käännös en voinut tehdä paljon, mutta en löytää kesäinen kuvia hyvin virkistävää!
    Rakkaus, Heidi

    VastaaPoista

Thank you for your comment ♥ All comments containing an advertising link shall be removed.

Kommentoimalla HYVÄKSYT, että Google kerää sinusta määrättyjä tietoja. Mitä ne ovat, löytyy sivulta Yksityisyydensuoja sekä Googlen sivulta.