Songs on Poems by Harry Martinson och August Strindberg
Harry Martinson was one of the first authors whose poems affected me in a way similar to how music or a favourite painting does. Written in swedish these poems are very difficult to translate without loosing the very substance of the poem, the delicate beauty and the surprising insights offered by new combinations of words.
The Martinson songs are here represented by Pdf-files of two songs: Svårmodet
and Stunden
. The title of the first song is difficult to translate. Gloom, Spleen, Melancholia
the dictionary says and the poem tells us not to avoid this perhaps unwanted state of mind, as it does not wear on happiness nor coarsens any sorrow - it has a value of its own. The second song speaks of the importance to save memories of good moments for later days when wounded by the stings of life.
2009 I was approached by Ulrika Nielsen, a former member of the GSO choir, with an unusual request; her great grandfather once made up a melody to a poem, Välkommen åter snälla sol
, by August Strindberg and this melody was passed on within the family by aural tradition. It had never been written down and no harmony was ever attached to it. This is what she wanted me to do. I find the tune quite charming and present it in this way. The text is a song sung by children and taken out of a longer poem.
