Olen rakkautta kiireestä kantapäähän,
rakkautta syntyvään lapseen,
etenevään valoon.
Rakkaus on näkemistä,
ajattelemista, ymmärtämistä.
Rakkaus on kehdon ripustamista tähtiin.
Rakkaus on teräksen valamisen vaivannäköä.
Olen kommunisti.
Olen rakkautta kiireestä kantapäähän,
rakkautta syntyvään lapseen,
etenevään valoon.
Olen kommunisti.
Contributed by Juha Rämö - 2022/5/18 - 17:41
I'm a communist,
I'm love from top to toe,
love for a child to be born,
for advancing light.
Love is seeing,
thinking, understanding.
Love is hanging a cradle on the stars.
Love is the effort required to cast steel.
I'm a communist,
I'm love from top to toe,
love for a child to be born,
for advancing light.
I'm a communist.
Contributed by Juha Rämö - 2022/5/18 - 17:43
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.
Jag är kommunist,
jag är kärlek från topp till tå,
kärlek till ett barn som skall födas,
till framskridande ljus.
Kärlek är att se,
att tänka, att förstå.
Kärlek är att hänga en vagga i stjärnor.
Kärlek är mödan att gjuta järn.
Jag är kommunist,
jag är kärlek från topp till tå,
kärlek till ett barn som skall födas,
till framskridande ljus.
Jag är kommunist.
Contributed by Juha Rämö - 2022/5/18 - 22:21
Riccardo Venturi, 16-11-2024 20:10
Sono comunista,
Sono innamorato dalla testa ai piedi,
Amore per un bambino che deve nascere,
Per la luce che avanza.
Amore è vedere,
Pensare, capire,
Amore è dondolare una culla sulle stelle.
Amore è lo sforzo per gittar l’acciaio.
Sono comunista,
Sono innamorato dalla testa ai piedi,
Amore per un bambino che deve nascere,
Per la luce che avanza.
Sono comunista.
--> Fonte / Source
Sevdayım tepeden tırnağa,
Sevda : görmek, düşünmek, anlamak,
Sevda : doğan çocuk, yürüyen aydınlık,
Sevda : salıncak kurmak yıldızlara,
Sevda : dökmek çeliği kan ter içinde,
Komünistim,
Sevdayım tepeden tırnağa...
Contributed by Riccardo Venturi - 2024/11/16 - 19:33
Riccardo Venturi, 16-11-2024
Sono comunista:
Sono innamorato dalla testa ai piedi. [1]
Amare è: vedere, pensare, capire,
Amare è: il bambino nato, la luce che avanza
Amare è: fabbricare un’altalena per le stelle
Amare è: versare acciaio nel sangue e nel sudore.
Sono comunista:
Sono innamorato dalla testa ai piedi...
Riccardo Venturi, 16-11-2024
I'm a communist,
love from head to toe:
love sees, thinks, and understands,
love is a new-born advancing light,
love hitches a swing to the stars,
love casts steel in a sweat.
I’m a communist,
love from head to toe.
Contributed by Juha Rämö - 2022/5/19 - 10:35
rakkautta päästä varpaisiin.
Rakkaus: se näkee, ajattelee, ymmärtää.
Rakkaus: se on vastasyntynyt etenevä valo.
Rakkaus: se on keinun ripustamista tähtiin.
Rakkaus: se on puurtamista sulan raudan äärellä.
Olen kommunisti,
rakkautta päästä varpaisiin.
Contributed by Juha Rämö - 2024/11/18 - 18:33
Riccardo Venturi, 18-11-2024 20:27
Riccardo Venturi - 2022/5/18 - 21:59
Juha Rämö - 2022/5/18 - 22:48
Could someone please submit the original Turkish lines of this poem from the novel Yaşamak Güzel Şey Be Kardeşim? Due to my non-existing Turkish skills I'm unable to trace them myself.
Sincerely yours,
Juha Rämö
Juha Rämö - 2024/11/16 - 12:22
Hello Juha! As you can see, I have added Nâzım Hikmet’s original verses in Turkish from his novel “Life is a Beautiful Thing, my Brother!” (1962). I have also added an Italian translation and an English translation of N.H.’s verses. The English translation you submitted to this site is a rather free and poetical version. The Turkish poem is much simpler. Note: I have translated “sevda” as “love”, but this is rather a verbal noun and, maybe, a better translation could be: “loving”.
See you, and thanks!
Riccardo Venturi - 2024/11/16 - 20:47
Dear Riccardo,
Thank you very much for the original Turkish verses by Nâzım Hikmet. The Finnish songtext by Brita Polttila undoubtedly differs from the original Turkish lines. The contents are there, but the structure is different as is that of my English and Swedish translations. I wonder if this page should be restructured by replacing Olen kommunisti with Hikmet’s original verses and adding the rest of the page content as translations of the two. I don’t know if Hikmet’s text has been set to music, though.
Could you please replace the introduction of my contribution with the following:
Traduzione inglese dei versi di Nâzım Hikmet / English translation of Nâzım Hikmet's verses / Traduction anglaise des verses de Nâzım Hikmet / Nâzım Hikmetin säkeiden englanninkielinen käännös: Mutlu Konuk Blasing
Yours sincerely,
Juha
Juha Rämö - 2024/11/17 - 11:19
First of all, a service communication: my old mailbox is no longer available. My new e-mail address is: info.riccardoventuri@protonmail.com. Please use it for all purposes.
I have replaced the introduction of your contribution. As for your proposal to modify this page according to Nâzım Hikmet’s original Turkish verses, I did some research and found that they have never been set to music and/or sung. Apart from this, I think this page is and should remain dedicated to a Finnish song written by Brita Polttila and performed by Agit Prop, although based on Hikmet's verses included in his novel. In practice, it is the same case as Pete Seeger’s well known I Come and Stand at Every Door, which is also based on a poem by Nâzım Hikmet. Of course, no page of this website is definitive; but, for the moment, I prefer that this page remains as it is, i.e. focused on a Finnish song.
By the way, I wonder if perhaps it would be better to attribute the song to Agit-Prop. Please let me know what you think.
Best regards, RV
Riccardo Venturi - 2024/11/17 - 12:06
Thanks for your new E-mail address. I don't mind attributing the song to Agit Prop. They definitely deserve it.
Cheers,
Juha
Juha Rämö - 2024/11/18 - 10:30
Note for non-Italian users: Sorry, though the interface of this website is translated into English, most commentaries and biographies are in Italian and/or in other languages like French, German, Spanish, Russian etc.
Musica / Music / Musique / Sävel: Eero Ojanen
Testo / Lyrics / Paroles / Sanat: Brita Polttila
Album /Albumi: Laulu kaikille
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 (1944-2021) 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.