Il punto di partenza di questa “canzoncina attualizzata” sembra essere una simile canzoncina di cinquant'anni fa precisi (1972), intitolata Lenin-setä asuu Venäjällä [*], ovvero “Zio Lenin vive in Russia”. Qui ve la facciamo ascoltare dagli Åttopojat in una registrazione del 2014:
La canzoncina era assolutamente tale: si trattava infatti, in origine, di una canzoncina per bambini vietnamita intitolata Ông Lê Nin ở nước Nga, scritta da tale Nguyễn Hồng Kiên e musicata da Trần Đăng Khoa, nella quale, sulla scorta dello “zio Ho”, diventava zio pure Lenin. La versione finlandese fu preparata da Matti Rossi (1934-2017) sulla base del testo originale vietnamita, e poi composta da Eero Ojanen. Si noti comunque la vocina infantile flautata (e, probabilmente, campionata) con cui è cantata questa canzoncina sugli zii di turno. [RV]
[*] La “Russia” è un caso curioso nella lingua finlandese.... (continua)
Musica / Music / Musique / Sävel: Eero Ojanen
Testo / Lyrics / Paroles / Sanat: Brita Polttila
The lyrics of this song are based on lines written by Nâzım Hikmet in his 1962 autobiographical novel Yaşamak Güzel Şey Be Kardeşim, translated into English by Mutlu Konuk Blasing and published in 2013 under the title Life's Good, Brother.
For most of his life, Hikmet was persecuted by the Turkish state for his political beliefs. His works were banned in Turkey until 1965. In 2017, 59 years after Hikmet's death, Yaşamak Güzel Şey Be Kardeşim was published by Yapı Kredi Publications, the current owner of Hikmet's copyrights, with a total of 25 parts of the text censored, including these very lines now reading »I'm a worker« instead of »I'm a communist«. So thank you, Mr. Erdoğan, for this and for your recent kind words about Finland and Sweden.
Well, I think mr Erdoğan's “kind words” about Finland and Sweden are not unexpected. Mr Erdoğan is not only a dictator, but also an international blackmailer. He isn't much different from Putin: he uses the strategic position of Turkey just like Putin uses his gas and natural resources. He's definitely a criminal and a terrorist, but a criminal in the OTAN and his blackmail on Finland and Sweden, which are so eager to enter OTAN and renounce their historical neutrality, is a dilemma for both. What to do? You want to become OTAN members? Well, give us back our Kurds you so kindly protect in your Putin-frightened countries, we'll exterminate them, and then you can become members of anything you want. This is very simple and, I repeat, not at all unexpected. Now, you have to choose, and your choice could be very harmful to people who sought for refuge in you countries against death and/or lifelong... (continua)
Texten till den här låten är baserad på rader skrivna av Nâzım Hikmet i hans självbiografiska roman Yaşamak Güzel Şey Be Kardeşim från 1962. Romanen är översatt till engelska av Mutlu Konuk Blasing och publicerad 2013 under titeln Life's Good, Brother.
Under större delen av sitt liv var Hikmet förföljd av den turkiska staten för sin politiska övertygelse. Hans verk var förbjudna i Turkiet fram till 1965. 2017, 59 år efter Hikmets död, publicerades Yaşamak Güzel Şey Be Kardeşim av förlagshuset Yapı Kredi, den nuvarande ägaren av Hikmets upphovsrätt. Den nya upplagan innehåller totalt 25 censurerade textställen. Censuren har till exempel förandrat »jag är kommunist« till »jag är arbetare«. Så tack, herr Erdoğan, för detta och för ditt vänliga uttalande om Finland och Sverige häromdagen.
Not unexpected but a little bit surprising since my guess was that the first one to make a hearty statement like this would be Mr. Orbán, the great leader of our brother nation Hungary, who has openly declared to be a close friend to Mr. Putin, the great leader of our eastern neighbor Russia whose existence is currently threatened by the hords of Ukrainian Nazis.
Is “Rossi” a Finnish family name, too? This confirms my idea that Finnish and Italian have a very similar syllabic structure in spite of their totally different origin. I have collected a whole list of words that are identical in Finnish and Italian, though -of course- with different meanings. “Matti Rossi” means “red lunatics” in Italian. Pieni, suora, torni, alla, palo, posti, sala, tuo, valli, vene, mela, mieli, sana, soma, veto, matto, paperi, ripa, suoni etc. are all both good Finnish and Italian words. Of course, there's no ryijy in Italian...
Indeed, Rossi is a Finnish surname, too, by far not as common as in Italy, however. According to statistics, there are 2 473 people by the name of Rossi living in Finland meaning that it ranks 335th in the list of most common names. Number one in that list is Korhonen which is the name of 22 583 people in Finland (0,41 % of the entire population).
The earliest record of the name dates back to 1640 referring to a man by the name of Ambrosius Rossi. It's presumed that the name Rossi is a dialectic adaptation of Ambrosius.
Testo / Lyrics / Paroles / Sanat: Matti Rossi (1934-2017)
Musica / Music / Musique / Sävel: Eero Ojanen
Performed by KOM-Teatteri
Album / Albumi: Kun tuuli kääntyy [2009]
Il punto di partenza di questa “canzoncina attualizzata” sembra essere una simile canzoncina di cinquant'anni fa precisi (1972), intitolata Lenin-setä asuu Venäjällä [*], ovvero “Zio Lenin vive in Russia”. Qui ve la facciamo ascoltare dagli Åttopojat in una registrazione del 2014:
La canzoncina era assolutamente tale: si trattava infatti, in origine, di una canzoncina per bambini vietnamita intitolata Ông Lê Nin ở nước Nga, scritta da tale Nguyễn Hồng Kiên e musicata da Trần Đăng Khoa, nella quale, sulla scorta dello “zio Ho”, diventava zio pure Lenin. La versione finlandese fu preparata da Matti Rossi (1934-2017) sulla base del testo originale vietnamita, e poi composta da Eero Ojanen. Si noti comunque la vocina infantile flautata (e, probabilmente, campionata) con cui è cantata questa canzoncina sugli zii di turno. [RV]
[*] La “Russia” è un caso curioso nella lingua finlandese.... (continua)