Raskasta Joulua 2019 | "Sparrow on Christmas Morning" by Marco Hietala (English lyrics) 

Indeed. Marco is true genuine gentleman, yet joyful little kid in his heart. Sidenote: After the song Marco gave double claps from the audience to the children choir for their performance. Class act.

Thank you SO much for this musical gift. :)

Thank you Paul for your kind message and information :). Lyrics you provided (in Ragnarok Juletide album song) are technically perfectly fine conveying the story in similar fashion, but removal of Christianity overtones does slightly change the feel of the song, lessening the "devout" (if this wording makes sense) of the original lyrics. Also, my lyrics translation in all these "Raskasta Joulua" carols are flawed in variable degree as I translated them bit hastily "on the fly". There are few glaring typos and reversed word patterns in this song aswell. Copy from user leppis84: "fundamental mistake there also at 1:23. Christmas is NOT homeless, the sparrow is. If you look at the Finnish lyrics, there is a comma between words "on" and "koditon", so the correct translation would be something like "It is Christmas, my poor homeless sparrow". Despite partially very crooked english translation, it conveys the feel of the original Finnish lyrics. On that note, as Christmas is nearing us yet again, this traditional original Finnish Christmas song (in rockified form) along with many others are reaching new audiences around the world via magic of internet and endless musical rabbit hole of RU-vid. It is a wonderfull world of modern era digital sharing ^^. Thanks once again Paul and all the best to you!

@@Corca Thank you for your kind words! And again for these videos, with the subs. I've been showing them to my Scottish-American girlfriend and now she's in love with Raskats Joulua like I am! I think for the official translation I like it all except the last verse. I have lived your life, oh child, and to you I tell That I am your brother's ghost, and I knew you well This seed grown by the sun, a kindness to a tiny one Gift for your dead brother's ghost Still he knows you well First there's the structure reasons "dead brother's ghost" is a redundant phrase because "ghost" already is a statement of death, so the extra dead part just makes this super dark. Secondly there's the wording implication. A "ghost" has a strong negative connotation, usually reserved for dead spirits who have not gone to heaven and are not at peace. They should have used "spirit" instead. Finally, this is supposed to be the emotional core of the song, but loses that with the wording and with the glaring omissions of "sent from Heaven" and "received in the land of angels". The way this one is worded sounds like the girl is being cruelly haunted, not that she's been given a gift for her kindness by a visit from her lost brother. In my opinion the deep feelings I get from the Finnish version are gone form the English one here. I didn't even like this song until i read other translations and understood the real meaning. From looking at many translations, especially yours, I would have written it like this: I am not truly just a bird from this land I am your lost brother, girl, sent to you from Heaven This act of kindness, dear, to a poor lost creature here Was gifted to your brother there In the land of angels I think it keeps the cadence and the rhyming properly, and more correctly conveys what is happening in the story.

Yes you are correct. Most definitely translation is not perfect + original Finnish lyrics have a poetic delivery which is even harder to mould into translated lyrics. That said, message of the song conveys itself better with slightly flawed english lyrics for the international viewers than no lyrics at all. :)

@@Corca Good translation nonetheless. However, there is a fundamental mistake there also at 1:23. Christmas is NOT homeless, the sparrow is :) If you look at the Finnish lyrics, there is a comma between words "on" and "koditon", so the correct translation would be something like "It is Christmas, my poor homeless sparrow". Keep up the good work!

@@Leppis84 Few others have pointed out that poorly translated phrase. You guys are absolutely correct. Thaat was bad one. I noticed few more questionable translation choices afterwards tho unfortunately wont be making any post-fixes. The main message of the song should be still well understandable, which was my main focus. Thanks for the well placed critique, you were not alone on that one. :)

Yeah I understand. Melancholic arrangement definitely helps keeping the atmosphere grounded with Marco's usual stellar delivery respecting the original song. Also the guitar melody work is spot on. Subtle yet epic. "Sparrow on Christmas Morning" is one of the hidden gems of all Raskasta Joulua songs.