a song from Utsjoki, from Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (1876)

A joik is a Sámi song that sings a person, an animal or a place; this one sings the salmon. It was written down in North Sámi at Utsjoki, on the Teno river in the far north of Finland, by J. Fellman, who served there from 1819 to 1833, and Otto Donner printed it in 1876. It follows the fish up the river until it turns black and stops eating, and back down to the sea, where it grows bright again and fattens on herring.

Translation

The salmon swims
Along the bottom of the water,
That strong fish
And precious fish,
That would go on, if there were
A river right through the earth.

Then on it goes without stopping
All the way to the end,
And turns so very black,
And then becomes such
That it no longer
Eats at all,
Not even in want.

And it returns
Back down again
To where it came from,
Out of the breadth of the sea,
Where there are many (? plenty of) salmon.
And again it becomes
Just as shining
As it was before.

When it comes again āppasist,
When it gets herring to eat,
Then again it grows fat
And becomes the same
As it was before.

Colophon

Translated from the North Sámi of Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 26, Luossa juoigam, which was written down at Utsjoki by J. Fellman, who served there from 1819 to 1833. Donner printed a Finnish translation after each song; it was not consulted. The text used is the Project Gutenberg transcription of Donner's book, with the Sámi lines proofed against the Sámi of his German edition, Lieder der Lappen, 1876. Donner prints the song as a single stanza of twenty-six lines; here it is divided into four parts, and the Sámi is divided at the same places.

Words were checked in the Sámi–Norwegian glossary of J. A. Friis's Lappiske Sprogprøver (1856) and in his Ordbog over det lappiske Sprog (1887). Vụäddja is Friis's vuogjat, "to swim"; podnī is bodne, "bottom", and mielt is mielde, "along"; kieuras is gievras, "strong", and tiurās is divras, "precious, dear". Tǟdnu is Friis's dædno, "the greatest river of a district", the word that is also the name of the Teno (Deatnu), the river of Utsjoki; the English says "a river". Oppīt is oppeti, "without a break, without stopping"; kitta keäčai is gidda, "right up to", with gæčče, "end". Čāpput is in neither dictionary in this form. It is read from Friis's čappodet, "to turn black" (1856: čapodet, "blive sort"), and his čappot, "to show black and move a little"; its final -t is that of the infinitive čappot, not of a present "it turns" (compare pụäïddu, "it grows fat", from buoiddot), so "turns ... black" rests on the root and the context. Hǟđistke is hætte, "need, want", in the locative, with -ge, "even". Ǟpi is áppe, "the sea", and vīđuđagasist is viddodak, "breadth, expanse", with sist, "in", which Friis's 1887 examples also use for "out of" ("ud fra Tønden", "out of the barrel"); after kost lǟ poattam, "where it has come from", it is given as "out of". Šälgad is šælggad, "bright, shining, clear"; sildīt are herring (sildde); pụäïddu is buoiddot, "to grow fat". Where Donner prints a second word with a query, manga (? ollu), "many (? plenty of)", both are kept. Āppasist, in the fourth part, is left in Sámi. It may be a form of áppe, "the sea", like Ǟpi in the third part, or of Friis's other appe, "strength"; its doubled pp is that of Friis's forms for "into his" (giettasis, "into his hand"), but it ends in -sist, like vīđuđagasist, so the line may mean "when it comes again into its sea" or "from its sea", or, with appe, "back into its strength", and the dictionaries do not decide between them. The song has no joik syllables.

No English translation of this song is known to us.

© 2026 Tianmu Anglican Church. This English translation is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: you may share and adapt it for non-commercial use with credit to the Good Works Library, tianmu.org. The source text keeps its own terms. For other uses, see Rights and Reuse.

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Source Text: Luossa juoigam

The Sámi text as printed by Donner (1876), no. 26, from the Project Gutenberg transcription, proofed against his German edition.

Luossa vụäddja
Čǟci podnīmielt,
Tat kieuras kụälli
Ja tiurās kuälli,
Mī manna juäs livči
Čađa ǟdnam tǟdnu.

Tē oppīt son manna
Kitta keäčai,
Ja čāpput nu sakka
Ja dē šadda nu,
Atti ī ämbu
Porage šat,
Ī hǟđistke.

Ja macca sōn
Fast vụälas,
Kost lǟ poattam,
Ǟpi vīđuđagasist,
Kost lǟ manga (? ollu) luosak.
Ja fast šadda
Sǟmma šälgad
Mo oudal läi

Ko āppasist fast poatta,
Ko sildīt oáǯǯū porrat,
Tē fast pụäïddu
Ja šadda sǟmalākai,
Mo oudal läi.

Source Colophon

Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 26, Luossa juoigam, in North Sámi of Utsjoki in Donner's phonetic spelling. Public domain. Text from the Project Gutenberg transcription of the book (PG #73262, 2024), with the Sámi lines proofed against Donner's German edition of the same year, Lieder der Lappen (Internet Archive identifier liederderlappen00unkngoog). Donner's line numbers are not printed here. Donner's letters are kept as printed, including his long vowels and his ụ and ï, and the query (? ollu) that he prints inside the song. The single stanza is divided into four parts at the same places as the English.

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