Windmill in Finland, 1930

In Finland during the summer of 1930 my mother and her aunt went one day to visit a relative. I think my mother's aunt took this photo of a windmill on that day. Sometimes there were windmills in Finland, though that is not an image I associate with Finland. I associate images of textiles with Finland, woven materials sewn into vests and aprons with colorful sashes and tassels. Today I scanned a few old pictures onto a cd. (In August my blog entries return to a random pattern after May, June, and July with an entry twice a month.)

Folk Dancers and Singers July 1st

The first and second of July I attended concerts in Seattle and Olympia by singers and dancers from Swedish-speaking Finland.

The piano accompanist for choir concerts by the Runeberg Choir in 1930 was Linnea Gord, my mother (Linnea Gord Jensen). She saved lots of things, including ribbons (pctured). She wrote about June 21, 1930 in Jacobstad, "The concert was held at Bradkorshuset. The hall was packed, but it was a small hall. We received a wreath, with pink carnations. It sure was beautiful."

The poet Johan Ludwig Runeberg, born 1804 in Osterbotten, a Swedish-speaking national poet of Finland, wrote narrative a lyric poems and hymns. He adapted "Himlars Rymd Sin Konung Ärar" from Psalm 19. English translation by Laura Jensen, who is not fluent in Swedish. She studied Swedish as a U. of Washington undergraduate. She translated "Himlars Rymd Sin Konung Ärar" for the observation that preceded the 125th anniversary year of First Lutheran Church in Tacoma, Washington.

This hymn is performed at some concerts by the Runeberg Choirs in different years.

Himlars Rymd Sin Konung Ärar

Himlars Rymd sin konung ärar

Himlars härar prisa den dem väsen gett.

Fästet skaparns namn förkunnar, stjärne munnar

sjonga utan vila det.

Dagen spegla vill för dagen

Anletsdragen av den sok som evig är.

Natt, som var, åt natt, som bliver, Budskap Giver,

att den högsta spiran bär.

Hvar ett språk förnims och höres

Tunga röres, hvar ett ord kan talas här,

Hvar en suck, ett ljud kan höjas, Stamma böjas,

allt om Herren vittne här.

All ting skapedt lyder herran,

När och fjärran, i hans vilja röres allt,

Skåda dagens konungs bana

Se och spana, går han ej, som Gud befallt?

Som en brudgrum fram han träder,

Ler och gläder, tröttner och till hvila går

Nästa dag han syns med samma

Väg och flamma som för tusen, tusen år.

Vill du lifvets visdom finna,

Vill du vinna, för ditt hjärta frid och tröst,

Lyft mot herran i det höga upp

ditt öga, se hans verk och hör hans röst.

Herrans lagar rubba icki,

Hvart bi blicke, se vi, hur de fasta stå.

Herrans vittnesbörd och lika,

Kan ej svika; vis är den, som tror därpå.

Herrans bud de äro klara,

Uppenbara och upp lysa ögonen.

Herrans fruktan hjärtan renar,

Ädelstenar smycka mänskan ej som den.

Herre, se dock oss, de svaga

Justar jaga, syden för oss på sin stråt.

Ho förstår, hur tidt han bryter,

Håg förbyter? Fräls oss, Herre, och förlåt.

Ära vare Gud I Hojden

Friden, Fröjden, Saligheten vare hans.

Han skall oket sönderkrossa,

Oss förlossa, som om igen synd mer fans.

God Rules All The Stars And Planets

God rules all the stars and planets.

Heaven's praises ring out of the starry sky.

Since the fimament spoke God's name

The star's voices sing and do not hesitate.

In its mirror the day wishes

The sun's image which is an eternal face.

Night which was to night which will be

Brings a message in the highest, tallest place.

Where a language, heard, shapes being

Where a tongue moves to be speech from just a word.

Where a sigh, a sound car rise, or -

Stammer bow down - all bears witness about God.

All created things obey God.

Near and far off God's will animates it all.

See today the path the king walks -

See it clearly, does it not go as God wills?

God moves like a happy wedding,

Glad, proud, all day and then weary and to rest.

God repeats this every morning -

Waves and brights flames for a thousand happy years.

If you want life's finest wisdom,

Wish your heart healed of its wrong and be at peace

Look to God up in the highest,

Lift your eyes up - hear the song and see the work.

What God mends will not be shaken.

All we glance at, we see it securely is.

Testimonies and God's wittness

Can't deceive us. Those who trust in that are wise.

Messages from God up lift us,

Clearly teach us and illuminate the eye.

That we fear God makes our hearts clean.

Wealthy jewels cannot decorate that way.

God, look down upon us weak ones,

Hunt for justice and correct us on your path.

Who can know how times breaks open,

Providential? God forgive us, God please save.

God is in the heights of heaven.

Perfect peace, joy, and eternal bliss are there.

God shall tear all chains asunder

For us lost ones, we will not sin anymore.

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Historic Preservation

When students wanted to study a foreign language in the 1960's, one barrier they faced was structure - for instance, of buildings. From the University of Washington Catalogue, Laura Jensen saw she could take Swedish, instead of French. To get permission, she went to Padelford Hall's three modern entrances that did not connect inside, to the elevator, marked in numbers and Braille, and went to the lower level, to Scandinavian Studies. It was Spring, 1968. At the dormitory in her desk light, it was a challenge to gaze at Swedish noun declensions.

A portrait of Nelson Bentley from the 1970's shows his desk in Padelford Hall in the 1970's, it is piled with student papers. It was January, 1972, Laura Jensen handed in her paper on Taylor to Whittier. On January 25, 1972, there were three feet of snow.

Snow snapshots at the rooming house she lived at then show Melissa at a third floor window, Tess with a dog by an icicle at the side kitchen door.

Another barrier - the card catalogue, many drawers in cabinets, led the search for Johan Ludwig Runeberg to a different part of Suzallo Library among Dewey Decimal System books. In February, 1972, Laura Jensen turned in her paper with eight poem translations in Scandinavian Culture.

Valiant Attempt, wrote Raymond Jarvi in red.

Scandinavian Culture had chair-desks with book racks under. American Immigrant descendants moved out - as waves when a pebble drops in water - and up, from city centers, in concentric rings.

In Spring, 1972, Laura Jensen's mother wrote that the Runeberg Choir would sing again at Point Defiance Park's Gardener's Paradise, that in 1971 it rained so hard they sang inside a greenhouse.

In Eighth Grade Laura Jensen chose French, not German or Spanish, because she was interested in art and her uncle was in World War One in France. Laura meant Laura in French. Others were awarded French names, Margaret became Marguerite, but Laura was Laura.

In a movie about college, High Time (1960), with Fabian and Bing Crosby, at a dance the band medleys briefly into The Best of Everything, a Johnny Mathis Hit. Johnny Mathis sang the title tune and appeared in a movie about college, A Certain Smile. He played a night club singer performing the title tune. The French girl at the Sorbonne came from Yonne by a river. Jaune means yellow, Rire Jaune means, a sickly smile. The Happy Face.

Bing Crosby, the fifty-plus fraternity pledge, arrived at the High Time dance in a horse-drawn carriage - he spills from the carriage door wearing a wig and a hoop skirt for he must impersonate a woman at a restored plantation mansion. This costume ball was a kind of Living History experience - such events brought to life dances and songs that had been written down from a hundred years earlier.

In April 2006 at Fort Nisqually rain fell in veils through trees, poured off gutters into 1850's rain barrels, a girl carried a stringed instrument in a shawl for songs under the porch roof. In the factor's house on the mantel a shell, a bust of Robert Burns (To A Mouse, Should Auld Acquainance Be Forgot), two women and a sewing machine patented in 1861.

It was the first mechanical thing I dealt with, a sewing machine. I jumped in and took it apart. I was always the one.

Laura Jensen interacts - Yes, family birth order place. Do you car pool? I've never owned a car, I use public transportation, walk, or ride a bicycle.

Everyone comes in on a bus at one October event. It happens in the nighttime.

What are the books?

Cookbooks. Aesop's fables. Orthography and Etymology, so important, things the little boys dragged in, and parlor games!

Their hair is up, their skirts gathered tight.

In 1990 Laura Jensen was taken in a car to a crafts and history museum in Finland. With cousins first she had seen the site where her grandmother was born, then the house that was reassembled, board by board, at the museum. A horse and rider went by. At the museum store she bought a record.

At Point Defiance in the 1990's there is wind in trees, waves on rocks, and Laura Jensen's plastic Yamaha recorder. A young person stops.

Did you write the songs you're playing?

The notes are black in the green music notebook. I copied them from a book. They're folk songs.

The young person walks on.

The songs were written down during a nineteenth century historic preservation project in Finland. The collection is extensive. They had been passed along person to person and in groups as tradition.

But it is dogma - that people can compose songs. Hoagy Carmichael, for example, composed Stardust. This proves that people can compose songs.

From 1988 to 1993, Laura Jensen did six dozen lyric translations from Swedish to English.

(The photo shows the Runeberg Choir in 1926 in Tacoma at a Schottish Rites Temple across the street from Wrights Park).

In May, June, and July entries will be blogged twice a month, on or about the 10th and the 24th.

Three You Tubes Illustrate A Swedish Folk Song

Below, You Tubes show Vartinna, then a performance of a Swedish folk song - two entries on Memorial Day, and a second You Tube performance of the Swedish folk song.

video!