a song from Utsjoki, from Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (1876)
A short love song from Utsjoki at the northern tip of Finland, written down there between 1819 and 1833 by J. Fellman, the parish's pastor, and printed by Otto Donner in his 1876 book of Sámi songs. The traveller in it goes forward while his thoughts go back; he asks where his bride has stayed behind, and ends with his little heart, hot, come far.
Translation
Forward you travel,
backward your thoughts:
where has she stayed behind,
where has she stayed behind,
my bride?
Far it has come,
my little heart, hot!
Colophon
Translated from the North Sámi of Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 28, a song written down at Utsjoki by J. Fellman. 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. Words were checked in the Sámi–Norwegian glossary that J. A. Friis printed in his Lappiske Sprogprøver (1856) and in his larger Ordbog over det lappiske Sprog (1887): outas is Friis's oudas, forward, and maṅas his manas, back, backward (1887), and Friis's own example sets the two against each other: manas go manak daihe oudas?, "are you going back or forward?"; jođak is from jottet, to travel, journey, move on (1856); jurdagak is the plural of jurda, genitive jurddaga, a thought (1887); pācam is from baccet, to stay behind, be left (1856, 1887); joaudam is from joavdat, to come, arrive, get to (1856); moarssi is moarsse, a betrothed girl, sweetheart, bride (1887). Vaimučam is vajbmo, the heart (1856), in the little, fond form with "my", as Friis's glossary has ædnačam, "dear little mother", and bardnačam, "my dear son" (1856): so "my little heart". Pākas is bakas, hot (1856, 1887), the form that stands after its noun as a predicate: "my little heart, hot". The question word konnas is not in either dictionary in this form; it is read from context as "where", beside Friis's gonne, "where" (1856). Kokkas is read as Friis's gokkas, a form of gukkas, "far" (1887), with the -s of such adverbs of direction (1856): the sixth line is no question but a statement, built like the third, with "my little heart" as its subject, "far it has come, my little heart". Reading kokkas as a second "where" would turn the last two lines into a question about the bride, which the closing "!" does not support.
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.
🌲
Source Text: Vaimučam pākas
The Sámi text as printed by Donner (1876), no. 28, from the Project Gutenberg transcription, proofed against his German edition.
Outas ton jođak,
Maṅas tu jurdagak:
Konnas lä pācam,
Konnas lä pācam
Mu moarssi?
Kokkas lä joaudam
Vaimučam pākas!
Source Colophon
Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 28, written down at Utsjoki by J. Fellman. Public domain. Text from the Project Gutenberg transcription of the book (PG #73262, 2024), with the Sámi lines proofed against the Sámi of Donner's German edition, Lieder der Lappen (1876; Internet Archive identifier liederderlappen00unkngoog). Donner numbers every tenth line in his longer songs; no number falls within a song of seven lines, so none is left out here. Donner's phonetic letters are kept as printed, including ā, ä, č, đ and ṅ.
🌲