Nälkämaan laulu (Song of the Hunger Land) Anthem of Kainuu (Finland) 

*LYRICS EXPLANATION AND TRANSLATOR'S NOTES* Finnish regions have their own anthems, and this is the anthem of the Kainuu region. Made in 1911, it was originally written as a poem by Ilmari Kianto with a melody composed by Oskar Merikanto, and it has since become one of the most sung regional anthems in Finland. The lyrics reflect the time when they were written, so I will try to explain them here. I'm sure I don't have to explain things such as nature descriptions; Kainuu has rapids, forest, lakes etc. In the top right corner is the flag of Kainuu. 0:48: Hills (vaarat): Vaara is actually a Finnish word meaning a fell with trees on it. So it is definitely bigger than your average little hill, more like fell sized; however, "a fell" in English seems to mean one without trees on top, so I translated this as "hill". 1:57: May our cabins hide: When Kainuu was populated by Finns in the late 1500s, the villages were constantly attacked by Karelians from the east who killed every man, woman and child they could find. This is why people built hidden cabins in the middle of forests and away from the villages so when there was an attack, they could go hide there and hopefully not be found by the attackers. (For those more interested, this was a part of a conflict known as the Russo-Swedish War of 1590-1595.) 2:08: Pillagers, bandits: Refers to the same thing as explained above, also just generally there were raiders in the region, even in later periods. 2:14: Vigour (tarmo): I found this word a bit difficult to translate. It's a bit like sisu... with tarmo, you push forward and keep your chin up. 3:06 Belief (maausko): The original text by Kianto said uskonto uus ("a new religion"). It was changed to things such as uskomus and maausko (so more like "belief"). I guess the people singing the song didn't want to sing about getting a new religion, hahah. 3:10: Defeat magic and conservativeness: Okay so I feel like this part really needs an explanation. Kainuu people were traditionally, and indeed 100 years ago as well, extremely superstitious. They believed in magic, omens, folk healing, future telling... you name it! People were even likely to believe their traditional beliefs (they were centuries old, after all) over science. Learned people were pretty annoyed at this at times. "Conservativeness" here doesn't mean how we understand it nowadays. It's more like the text asking people, please stop believing in superstitions and believe in facts instead. 3:23: Farmer and "riihi": Most Kainuu people at the time were poor farmers. "Riihi" is a northern European style grain drying and threshing cabin; it doesn't have a term in English. en.wiktionary.org/wiki/riihi 3:33: Your poise, honour, work: "Ryhti" I translated as poise... it means standing up straight with good posture, as well as having an _attitude_ which is akin to good posture. Some places write the lyrics as "ryhtisi, kunniatyö" = "your poise, your honourable work". 3:46: Cowards go behind oceans: This is a reference to the people who would move to other countries, mainly the USA, in search of a better life. Kianto did not like these people, thinking of them as cowards for leaving in search of wealth instead of staying to work hard and build their home to be a better place to live. Indeed, Kainuu in the 2020s is as technologically advanced as any other part of Finland, and there haven't been any famines or raids since WWII. It does not carry the reputation of poverty as it used to 100 years earlier. Clearly staying and building their land anew worked for the Kainuu people. You can find this attitude, "work hard and improve your homeland", quite common in Finland even today. Well there it was! I'm quite angry now because I had just finished writing this when my computer shut off out of nowhere and I had to write it again! But I think I remembered everything I was going to say (if not I'll just edit later). Check out the description for info as well. The Finnish regional anthems are truly great songs but sadly under appreciated. I'd also like to point out that there are multiple versions of these lyrics with slight changes (uskomus instead of maausko, nouskoon instead of nosta jo, taantukoon instead of taannuta, etc). However, the meaning doesn't change.

IF there's ever going to be anything resembling a sovereign Finnish nation again, this must be its anthem, albeit slightly updated and maybe even slightly more harsh. None of the other songs really went deep enough to the core of our people. Its blatantly apparent whenever people are asked which of these regional anthems they liked the best, even people in western coastal Finland always place this song if not first then close second.

I miss your old Lorax multis sm, they were really good :(

Hieno

Olisiko aika jo palauttaa sanoitukset kohdalleen oikeiksi tai ainakin oikeammiksi? "Miekkaan jos tarvis, tartutaan vaan...." , kuten käsittääkseni alkuperäinen sanoitus menee. Tämä löysä lausunto "miekkaa ei tarvis, tarmoa vaan..." on joka tapauksessa täysi susi. 60-luvun "rauhan" radikalismin seurauksena, väkisin muutettu, eikä edes taivu tähän muuten niin väkevään lauluun.... joka on maakuntalauluni

is the word "maausko" related to the estonian pagan belief of maausk?