Kalevi (coranglaisman) wrote in linguaphiles,
Kalevi
coranglaisman
linguaphiles

Spoken/idiomatic Finnish question

There's a song that I really like and I've translated before, about a year ago. But there's something in it that still just doesn't quite make sense to me.

"Hiljaisuutes aion rikkoa
Tulen vaikka karmit kaulassa
Onhan tässä näitä vuosia
Ollaan sun puolella"

1. I originally translated "tulen vaikka karmit kaulassa" as "I'll come even though you're giving me the creeps", and I was told that that's not quite what that means here, but the person who told me this also couldn't come up with a good English equivalent. Was I close enough originally, or what would work better?

2. "Ollaan sun puolella" -- I just couldn't figure out what this is supposed to be, whether it was "let's be on your side" or what. The only "we" I can even see in this whole song is the singer and the other person, and that seems like a really odd thing to say in that light. Even if it should we "we're on your side", it feels really strange to me. What could be going on there? Is "ollaan" referring to something else other than spoken first-person plural form here?

3. Later on in the song, there's the line "minä olen sinun, ja sinä olet minun jokapäiväinen". I think I translated it awkwardly ("I am your and you are my everyday") because I assumed "jokapäiväinen" was a noun here. Am I right, or does Finnish also do that thing where adverbial forms don't always get used in informal speech ("I'm good, thanks" in response to "how are you?" in English)? Because if it had been something like "jokapäiväisesti", that would change it to something that makes a lot more sense to me, unless I'm just missing something.

Paljon kiitoksia!
Tags: finnish, translation
Subscribe

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

  • 1 comment