This comforting song making fun of the death of John Churchill, 1st duke of Marlborough, while in reality he was very much alive and giving Louis XIV's French armies hell during the early 18th century Spanish succession war, ended up as a nursery rhyme.

Dino Campana (1885-1932) was an innovative Italian poet. His controversial writings are captured in his only published book of poetry, the emotionally intense and visionary Canti Orfici (“Orphic Songs”). The prime Italian example of a poète maudit, Campana battled mental health problems from an early age and spent a great deal of his youth in and out of lunatic asylums and traveling across Europe. An autodidact, he taught himself several languages and became part of the thriving literary scene in Florence. He composed the poems for Canti Orfici sometime between 1906 and 1913, and self-published them in 1914. Shortly after, Campana began a notorious and tumultuous love affair with Sibilla Aleramo, the author of Una donna. In 1918, Campana was admitted to a psychiatric hospital near Florence where he remained until his death in 1932. His remains were given a proper burial in 1946 in a ceremony attended by many Italian intellectuals, including Eugenio Montale and Carlo Bo.

Note. The following is no “translation” of the Swedish song, but rather a complete rewriting prepared (and sung) by Jan Hammarlund himself. From: Jan Hammarlund, Alla mina sånger (All my Songs), Skördemåne AB 2005, page 102. [RV]