| Traduzione inglese / English translation / Traduction anglaise... |
LÄNNEN METSURI | LOGGER OF THE WEST |
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Täss' on metsuri nyt lännen risukosta, | Here's a logger from the thickets of the West, |
olen kulkenut vaikka missä. | I've been roaming around just about everywhere. |
Olen käynyt Buttessa, St. Louisissa, | I've been to Butte, St. Louis, |
Red Lodgessa, Miamissa. | Red Lodge, Miami. |
Olen kulkenut merta ja mantereita | I've been crossing oceans and continents |
ja Alaskan tuntureita, | And the mountains of Alaska, |
ja kaikkialla hulivilityttäret muistaa | And wherever I go, wild girls remember |
lännen metsureita. | The loggers of the West. |
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Ja metsuri on metsuri ja heilankin ottaa | A logger is a logger and he takes himself a gal |
vaikka toisen vaimosta, | Even if she belongs to somebody else, |
ja vesi ei tule silmiin, vaikka ne lakkaavat | And he won't shed tears if he looses sight |
idän tytöt näkymästä. | Of the eastern girls. |
Sillä Buttessa on ruusu ja St. Louisissa on tähti | For there's a rose in Butte and a star in St. Louis |
ja Alaskassa pulmusia, | And in Alaska there are snow buntings, |
ja kaikki ne kuiskii: oletko sä nähnyt | And all of them keep whispering, »Have you seen |
lännen kulkuria? | The wanderer of the West?« |
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Miss' on Meksikon lempi ja Honolulun impi | Be it a an angel of Mexico or a maiden of Honolulu |
ja Filippiinien keltainen tyttö, | Or a yellow Filipino girl, |
siellä metsuri on ollu heidän keskellänsä, | A logger's been amid them, |
mutt' onkos ollu idän Iikka? | But how about Iikka of the East 1) ? |
Miss on kulkurin kulta, sydän iskeepi tulta, | Where a wanderer has his honey, his heart strikes fire, |
niin kaunis on heillä jo tukka. | As her hair looks so beautiful. |
Tämän laulun kun kuulet, niin linnuksi luulet, | When you hear this song, you may think it's a bird singing, |
taasen rakastuupi lännen Jukka. | And once again Jukka of the West 2) falls in love. |
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On San Franciscossa käyty, on Oregon nähty, | Been to San Francisco, seen the state of Oregon, |
miss' on kesä sekä lumiset vuoret. | Where there's summer and snowtop mountains. |
Dakotassa on puitu, Palm Beachilla uitu | Been threshing in Dakota, swimming at Palm Beach |
ja heilasteltu vanhojen ja nuorten kanssa. | And dating both old and young. |
Mutta punapuun kantoon kun torppansa laittaa, | But when you build your dwelling in a redwood stub, |
niin sinne se ilon päivä koittaa. | That'll be a day of joy and delight. |
Vaikka maailman myrskyt meitä tuudittaa, | And however the storms of the world may rock us, |
niin vapaus se varmasti voittaa! | Freedom will prevail come hell or high water! |
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Hiski Salomaa met Iikka in a bar where it came to an argument between Iikka and another Finn about which one of them had seen more of America. Salomaa is told to have picked up the the names of the locations mentioned in the course of the heated discussion and reproduced them in the lyrics of this song. After having written the song he gave the lyrics to Iikka who brought them with him to Finland.
2) Jukka of the West, Jukka Karjalainen (1900 - 1981), moved to America in 1920 returned to Finland in the early 1930s.