Rannva, Help

Please let Quicquid know if the Finnish poem he posted about is a good one.

Comments

[rannva]

Well, I charge a dollar per word...

Welcome, dark, mild and starry evening!
Your gentle fervor I adore
and caress the dark tresses
that flutter around your brow.
If only you were the magic bridge
that would carry my soul away,
no longer burdened
by the cares of life!

And if it were the happy day
when, overcome with weariness, I might join you
when work is over and duty done,
when night unfolds its black wings
and a grey curtain falls over hill and dale,
O evening, how I would hurry to you!

Or simply scroll directly below the Finnish verses - they are the same in English!

In my humble opinion Finnish has a very beautiful quality to it when used for poetry. Very subtle feelings and nuances can come through, and I think that's what makes the language so melancholic.

[Inkling]

Tolkien, who knew more than a couple of dozen different languages, thought Finnish to be one of the most beautiful. Indeed, he patterned one of his own invented languages, Quenya (high Elvish), after Finnish.

He wrote of first stumbling across a Finnish grammar in Exeter Library, Oxford:

"it was like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before."