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Ikky the lyricist

I noticed that some Marine serving in Iraq got in hot water for performing a song about a Marine killing a family of enemy insurgents who tried to sneakily assassinate him. This song, "Hadji Girl", immediately reminded me of another song, "Tarina pikku sankarista" ("Story of the little champion") that was sung by one particularly angry vicious group of Finnish stalinists in the 1970's, during the Vietnam war. I explained some background about this phenomenon in my earlier post "Watch out, American, the jungle has a million eyes", for those of you not familiar with this movement.

Perhaps I shall next take the liberty of translating the lyrics of this song in my blog, to let my American readers see what leftists thought of them back then. If you wanted to, I guess you can find the melody by pirating the song (the band was called "Meripioneerit", and the album is "Vietnamin linnut"). Or what the heck, just make up your own: try to sound as angry and concerned as you can and you won't go much amiss.

Story of the little champion

Little yankee soldier is a great champion
killed a thousand enemies almost singlehandedly
one night with his gang he marched into a sleepy town
and mercilessly burned it down
and shot the people there...

(who-oah, who-oah, who-oah)

The grateful nation rewarded its homegrown champion
for his brave actions he received a medal made of gold
on one side they engraved the face of sitting president
on the other side the aphorism: "God gave his permit"

(who-oah, who-oah, who-oah)

Heroism is rewarded and the man is the toast of town
let's all first get wasted and then hit the cathouse
a working girl in Saigon gets a buck to turn a trick
a working man can only afford to spend a little bit!

It was a bargain how our hero scored a sister pair
it was a real great trade, the price was more than fair
but in the end the whole deal turned out to be very sour
the little yankee's stinky corpse was found on the dirty mound

The brave men rarely get to die while sleeping in their beds
pretty maidens help them to cross from this world to the next
unwavering he stood his ground and passed out like a man
sneakily betrayed there by the weird sisters clan

(who-oah, who-oah, who-oah)

For his heroism the soldier got a second medal of gold
he died as a lowly sergeant, now the captain's rank he holds
in July every year he gets promoted once again
the new much higher rank each time is engraved on his dirty grave

(who-oah, who-oah, who-oah)

Little yankee soldier is a great champion
killed a thousand enemies almost singlehandedly
one night with his gang he marched into a sleepy town
and mercilessly burned it down
and shot the people there...

(who-oah, who-oah, who-oah, fade out)

I am actually pretty satisfied with my translation of this song with the rhymes and all, and when I tried singing it, the lyrics and melody fit together pretty well. But I will happily take suggestions from my readers for improvements: the comment box is wide open!

Even though this song is about Vietnam, the evility of Americans is of course eternal, so you wouldn't have to change very much in this song to make it work for the present day. Just replace Saigon with Baghdad, and it's like this song is taken from today's headlines! Perhaps we will one day get to hear this song wistfully sung in the leftist anti-war rallies.

8 comments

Perhaps you could also translate the lyrics of "Lenin-Setä asuu Venäjällä" ("Uncle Lenin lives in Russia")

You know, I'm an American, and, well, I am pretty evil.

Speaking of Finnish stalinists, I remember one incident in TV2 not that long ago (must have been during the Kosovo war), when there was a "debate" about current events, and TV2 had dragged in an American girl (exchange student) who spoke Finnish quite well, but not well enough to do any kind of debating, and the other participant in this mockery of fair play was Mr Jaakko Laakso, the ultra-stalinist number one and a former debating champion of Finland.

The setup was a bit too obvious for anyone with two brain cells...

Käännöstyö olisi erittäin mielenkiintoinen sivubisnesammatti tai harrastus varsinkin silloin, jos olisi tuollainen sanansäilävarasto ja lahjakkus kuin sinulla on.

Mikset myös kirjoita kolumneja ja juttuja suomalaisiin lehtiin kanadalaisista aktuelleista asioista? Ei suomalaisten sinne muuttavien tahi liikemiestenkään ole helppoa etsiä netistä todellista faktaa ja uutisointia Kanadan olosuhteista ja infrastruktuurista.

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Here's my go for "Uncle Lenin lives in Russia":

Uncle Lenin lives in Soviet Russia
Far, so far away from Vietnam
Still, it feels to me that
Uncle Lenin lives as close as uncle Ho Chi Minh

Lenin has such a great forehead
It's wider than whole earth and sky
When Uncle Lenin smiles
his eyes twinkle and he laughs like uncle Ho Chi Minh

Uncle Lenin lives in Soviet Russia
I hope he would visit us in Vietnam
For he really loves us
He is so good to us, just like uncle Ho Chi Minh

I am only a little pioneer
And my strength is still very weak indeed
But even young ones can fight
Fight for peace like Lenin and uncle Ho Chi Minh
Fight for peace like Lenin and uncle Ho Chi Minh

Jari, that is one great translation. Now, if we could just find a choir of small children to sing it...

I tried to look for my copy of Punalippu, but apparently some lowlife has filfered it. I would have had a very noce poem about Lenin. Now I only have "Tieteen ja demokratian puolesta imperialismia vastaan". It is a bit repetitive...

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