Finno-Balkan Voices

1. Chichovite kone/Hevosia hyviä

Säv. trad. Bulgaria, san. trad. Bulgaria/Finland, sov. Finno-Balkan Voices

Chichovite kone: My uncle’s horses, witch graze on his yard, are staring into the distance because they know we’ll go to Mara’s (a girl) and Jovancho’s (a boy) engagement.
Hevosia hyviä: Good horses, money and grain. Run my horse; the sky is dark.

2. Maarojani

Säv./san. trad. Ingria, sov. Emmi Kujanpää

A song about a women’s castle. My sisters, let’s make a castle and hide ourselves from the grooms.

3. Lintuseni

Säv. Juha Kujanpää, san. trad. Finland, sov. Finno-Balkan Voices

Good evening, my little bird, my loved one. Dance now, my little bird, my loved one.

4. Tsafti mi, tsafti bosilko

Säv./san. trad. Bulgaria, sov. Gancho Gavazov, esittäjänä Vaya Quartet

A girl sings to her flower and cries for her beloved who is off to build a bridge over the sea.

5. Sevdelino detelino

Säv./san. trad. Bulgaria, sov. Ilian Yuruchki

Sevdelina (a girl) is so in love. She just got a shiny necklace and a nice belt from her new lover.

6. Oisko mun suussani/Rano mi e, more

Säv./san. trad. Bulgaria, sov. Mamo ja trad. Bulgaria, Shopluk

Oisko mun suussani: Oh I wish I had the taste of summerbutter on my tongue. Oh I wish I had the wings of a bird.
Rano mi e, more: The sun has tisen very early. The forest smells like spring flowers which are lit up by the sun and covered with dew-drops.

7. Peperuda

Säv./san. Emmi Kujanpää, sov. Finno-Balkan Voices

A girl called Rada was waiting for her love near a spring for two years. She asks a butterfly: ”Where is my love, where is my golden bird?”
”He is still walking in the mountains”, the butterfly replies.

8. Metsän sävel

Säv./san. trad. Ingria./Teppo Repo, esittäjänä Mamo

I went to the forest in midsummer and it was good to sing there. But why is my voice not ringing, what is wrong with it?

9. Sinko, Stoyane

Säv./san. trad. Bulgaria, sovittanut Zoya Mikova

Stoyan’s mother tells him to get married to a girl named Ruzhka so that Stoyan would have a lover and his mother would help with the house work.

10. Taz vecher

Säv./san. trad. Bulgaria, sovittanut Gancho Gavazov

A young maiden is not happy this evening because her lover went out into the forest and he didn’t come back. All the young couples are outside to dance but her lover is not there to dance with her.

11. Pyy pesätön lintu

Säv. Mira Törmälä, san. Kanteletar, esittäjänä Mamo

I’m thinking about my childhood, how everything was like in a worm summer day. Now I’ve left my childhood home and life is like a dark cloud or a long night in autumn. Where is my home? I’m a bird without a nest, a bird without a home.

12. Snoshti e Dobra

Säv./san. trad. Bulgaria, sov. Gancho Gavazov

Dobra, a young bride, stayed up very late and spun nine spindles. She is going to weave a linen cloth because it’s time for her baby to be born.

13. Läksin minä kesäyönä

Säv./san. trad. Finland, sov. Emmi Kujanpää

I went to the valley in the summer night and a girl was crying on the shore. She was waiting for her lover and thought he might be dead. But then she saw the ship returning.