Sylvia´s Christmas Song has been one of the most beloved Christmas carols in Finland for more than a century. The song was composed by the writer and composer Karl Collan (1828-1871). The writer and history professor Zacharias Topelius (1818-1898) wrote the words to this popular tune.
Zacharias Topelius has had a very great influence on the shaping of the Finns´conception of history and national self-understanding particularly through his novels and children´s stories. Topelius wrote almost all of his literary work in his mother tongue, Swedish.
Sylvia´s Christmas song is here performed in Finnish by the internationally renowned Finnish bass Martti Wallén in a special recording for Virtual Finland.Sylvia´s Christmas song
Now Christmas did come to the north country here;
Christmas came to the snow covered strand.
Now candles are burning and shedding good cheer
Across all the broad, far flung land.
But hanging on high from the cross beam above,
A bird cage now holds captive my pretty dove,
Which, pining away, makes no sound, high or low;
Oh, who will take heed of the prisoner´s woe?
Oh, star, glowing bright, may your light shine on high,
O´er the northland´s remote wintry scene.
And then, when your radiance fades in the sky,
Your mem´ry will linger in dreams.
So dear none can I ever anywhere find
As may native country, the land of my kind!
And thanks do I offer with Sylvia´s song,
Resounding forever so splendid and strong.
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti