I'm not happy yet no sorrow shakes me

My job today consists of listening to a well-known Finnish singer, Vesa-Matti Loiri, croon old songs at me from a 1970s recording while I'm adding subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Apparently even the deaf enjoy Loiri's singing.

He's singing songs by the poet Eino Leino. This is serious business: longing, nostalgia, despair. It never would have crossed my mind to listen to this type of music but I'm glad I did. There is a dark beauty in the Finnish folk soul.

For a hefty dose of melancholia, the mood most often associated with the Finns, look no further.

English translation by Aina Swan Cutler:

I hear the evening cornbird calling.

Moonlight floods the fields of tasseled grain.

Wood smoke, drifting veils the distant valleys.

Summer evening's joy is here for me.

I'm not happy yet no sorrow shakes me,

but the dark woods stillness I would welcome.

Rosy clouds through which the day is falling,

sleepy breezes from the blue gray mountains,

shodows on the water, meadow flowers...

out of these my heart's own song I'll make!

I will sing it, summer hay-sweet maiden,

sing to you my deep serenity,

my own faith that sounds a swelling music,

oak-leaf garland ever fresh and green.

I'll no longer chase the will-o-wisp.

Happiness is here in my own keeping.

Day by day, life's circle narrows, closes.

Time stands still now ... weather cocks all sleeping.

Here before me lies a shadowy way

leading to a strange, an unknown place.