Omkring tiggarn från Luossa [English translation]

Around the beggar from Luossa, all the people sat in a circle,

and by the campfire they heard his song.

And about mendicants1 and highwaymen and about wonderful things,

and about his longing, he sang all night long:

"There is something beyond the mountains, beyond the flowers and the song,

there is something behind the stars,2 behind my passionate3 heart.

Hear — something's going around whispering, going tempting me and asking:

Come to us, for this earth, it is not your realm!

I have listened to the quiet4 surf against the shore,

I have dreamed of the wild seas' rest.5

And in my spirit I have flitted towards the shapeless lands,

where that which was dearest to us shall be forgotten.

To a wild and eternal longing we were born by pale mothers,

out of the worries' birth pains, our first wail rose

We were thrown6 on mountains and plains to tumble about and play,

and we played elk7 and lion, butterfly, beggar and god.

I sat quietly by her side, she, whose heart was like mine,

with soft hands she tenderly8 made our home,

I heard my heart call out, what you own is not yours,

and I was carried away by my spirit to find peace.

What I love, it is beyond and hidden in an obscure faraway land,

and my true path is high and wonderful.9

And I am tempted, in the midst of the alarm, to pray before the Lord:

'Take away all of the earth, I want to own what no one, no one has!'

Follow me, brother, beyond the mountains, with the still, cool, rivers,

where all of the sea slowly falls asleep within a mountain-wreathed10 bed.

Somewhere beyond the sky is my home, (there) I have my mother,

in the midst of goldsprinkled mists11, clad in a rosen cloak.12

May the black briny waters cool fevery red cheeks,

may we be miles and miles13from life before the morning is full!14

I was not of this world, and I suffered eternal hardships15

for my worry, my disbelief, and my passionate3 love's sake.

By a shell-strewn seashore stands a gate of heavy roses,

where the wrecks rot at rest and the tired men find peace.

Never heard high16 songs sing17 like the echoes of violins

under vaults where eternally young children of beatitude18 live."

1. Or "beggars", but I've already got that word reserved for "tiggare"; I don't want to repeat words unneccessarily.2. Lit. "stars", without definite article.3. a. b. Or "hot".4. Or maybe "gentle".5. Like "the eternal rest". I would have prefered "the rest of the wild seas", but wanted to avoid any confusion with "rest" as in "the rest of them".6. It sounds rather rough in both English and Swedish, but I suppose it shouldn't be taken literally. I also have no idea why, for much of this poem, he uses the word order verb + pronoun ("Slängdes vi", instead of the usual "Vi slängdes") which would suggest a question, when it's clearly not.7. Alces alces; that is "moose" in North American English (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose). Not to be confused with the wapiti (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk).8. Or "amorously".9. I didn't really know what to make of this line, but here I've meant "high" to allude to "the high road". For "den rätta vägen" I would have said "the right way" (like in the Bible, apparently), but "my right way" doesn't sound... eh... right.10. Or "mountain-lined".11. Lit. "amid mists sprinkled around with gold"12. Or "cape".13. Sure, a Scandinavian mile is about 6.2 international miles, but since it's used in a figurative sense, I thought "miles and miles" would do the trick.14. I've never seen this expression anywhere else in Swedish either.15. Or "tribulations". Anyway, it's hard to grasp something that's supposed to be "eternal" being spoken of in the past tense...16. Or "loud", or less likely "high pitched".17. Sic!18. Or simply "bliss"?

• Artist:Dan Andersson
• Album:Svarta ballader