#välikuolema | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

m3r1m4r5u333 · 1 year

Text

Käärijä - Välikuolema

Käärijä - 'Middle death'

(Taksit on jo pihalla!)

(The taxis are already outside!)

Mä oon aivan loppu, loppu

I'm so done in, done in

Mut en haluaisi vielä nukkumaan

But I don't want to go to sleep yet

Mä oon aivan loppu, loppu

I'm so done in, done in

On se kyllä rankkaa kun *juotetaan

Tough indeed to be pushed to drink

Sekä *kisakondista koetellaan

and have your race readiness tested

Nyt mun on pakko saada välikuolema

I must now take an intermission

Hei anna mulle minsa, hei

Hey gimme a minute, hey

Mä lupaan että tää ukko on taas

I promise this gaffer will again be

Täysissä voimissaan

restored to full power

Tuli taksit pihaan, ei olla menos himaan

The taxis arrived at the yard, we aren't going home

Karin ja muiden kaa pidetään kivaa

We're having fun with Kari and the others

Meil on mukana mukava määrä glögii ja simaa

We've got a nice amount of mulled wine and mead with us

Mikä mussa on vika ku ei jaksa yhtään (?)tinaa(?)

What's wrong with me, I don't feel at all up to boozing

Kovasessa on yritys kova ja kovasta yrityksestä huolimatta

Hard efforts (?)in the taxi(?) and despite trying really hard

Mä nojaan selkänojaan

I'm leaning against the back rest

Vaik haluun joraa, mä tarviin vodaa

Even though I wanna dance, I need water

Ei jaksa dokaa

Not feeling up to boozing

Mä oon aivan loppu, loppu

I'm so done in, done in

Mut en haluaisi vielä nukkumaan

But I don't want to go to sleep yet

Mä oon aivan loppu, loppu

I'm so done in, done in

On se kyllä rankkaa kun *juotetaan

It's tough indeed when you're pushed to drink

Sekä kisakondista koetellaan

And your race readiness is tested

Nyt mun on pakko saada välikuolema

I must now take an intermission

Hei anna mulle minsa, hei

Hey gimme a minute, hey

Mä lupaan että tää ukko on taas

I promise this gaffer will again be

Täysissä voimissaan

restored to full power

....

Tai sit en herää ollenkaan

Or I may not wake up at all

Herää!

Wake up!

Anna mun pliis vielä hetki lepää

Please let me rest just a bit more

Herää!

Wake up!

Mitä jos ei nyt vaan jaksa enää

What if I'm just too tired now

Herää!

Wake up!

Onko mun siis vielä pakko vetää

So must I then keep boozing

No jumalauta passaa sitä flindaa

Well goddammit, (?)pass me(?) the bottle

Tää välikuolema on kestäny jo ihan liian monta timmaa

This intermission has already lasted for way too many hours

Mis me ollaan?

Where are we?

Tääl ei oo enää ketään vaikka meitä oli sillon lähtiessä tosi monta

Nobody's here anymore even though there were so many of us when we set off

Paljon kello, mikä homma?

What time is it, what's going on?

Se on jo yli puolenpäivän ja se vast on uskomatonta

It's past midday, isn't that unbelievable

Nyt mennään päivää, tokaa

Now it's day, second one

Ja vielä meikän päähän sattuu, kovaa

And still my head aches, hard

Ei uppoo rommi, kola

Rum, coke... not going down

Mä tarviin vodaa

I need water

ei jaksa dokaa

not feeling up to boozing

Mä oon aivan loppu, loppu

I'm so done in, done in

Mut en haluaisi vielä nukkumaan

But I don't want to go to sleep yet

Mä oon aivan loppu, loppu

I'm so done in, done in

On se kyllä rankkaa kun juotetaan

It's tough indeed when you're pushed to drink

Sekä kisakondista koetellaan

And your race readiness is tested

Nyt mun on pakko saada välikuolema

Now I must take an intermission

Hei anna mulle minsa, hei

Hey gimme a minute, hey

Mä lupaan että tää ukko on taas

I promise this gaffer will again be

Täysissä voimissaan

Restored to full power

Tai sit en herää ollenkaan

Or I may not wake up at all

....

Herää!

Wake up!

Anna mun pliis vielä hetki lepää

Please let me rest just a bit more

Herää!

Wake up!

Mitä jos ei nyt vaan jaksa enää

What if I'm just too tired now

Herää!

Wake up!

Onko mun siis vielä pakko vetää

So must I then keep boozing

No jumalauta passaa sitä flindaa

Well goddammit, (?)gimme(?) the bottle

Tää välikuolema on kestäny jo ihan liian monta timmaa

This intermission has already lasted for way too many hours

Herää!

Wake up!

Anna mun pliis vielä hetki lepää

Please let me rest just a bit more

Herää!

Wake up!

Mitä jos ei nyt vaan jaksa enää

What if I'm just too tired

Her��ä!

Wake up!

Onko mun siis vielä pakko vetää

So must I then keep boozing

No jumalauta passaa sitä flindaa

Well goddammit, (?)gimme(?) the bottle

Tää välikuolema on kestäny jo ihan liian monta timmaa

This intermission has already lasted for way too many hours

-------------------------------

Notes.

This isn't an official translation. I'm just a random fan, and not even an professional translator.

Välikuolema explained in Wikipedia:

From väli- (“middle-, inter-”) +‎ kuolema (“death”). 1. (colloquial) A pause to rest from partying or substance abuse.

My translation of välikuolema here is 'intermission'. 'Interlude' was another word I toyed with.

--------

Rambling about finnish culture, and lines/words I struggled with. And my reasoning for what I came up with:

"Sekä kisakondista koetellaan/and have your race readiness tested"...

First all I'd like to try explain 'race readiness', so here's my LONG essay.

A literal translation of 'Kisakondis(-ta) would be something like 'fitness for the competition'. Kisa = competition/trial/game, kondis = physical (or emotional) condition/health/endurance/fitness

It was originally a sports reference. Anytime there's some sports event coming up, finnish reporters keep speculating/asking if an athlete is healthy enough/at an ideal level of mental and physical fitness for the competition.

Eventually the never-ending speculations of 'competition readiness' became an ongoing joke.

And since finnish party/alcohol culture tends to be very ...moist... ...Jokes about someone's 'kisakondis'/competition readiness' - or lack of it - often refer to alcohol tolerance/level of inebriation/party endurance.

But kisakondis is not just about alcohol tolerance and endurance to keep partying, it's also about grace, appereance and skillset.

Yk, since a 'competition ready' athlete is obviously 'the ideal human'. A competition ready athlete looks good, is mentally prepared, skilled, has great endurance, can keep going no matter what... And so on.

For example if a finn runs into someone they know and that person is super drunk, doing all sorts of embarrassing things, and looking super haggard while doing all that... The finn might be tempted to gossip that they saw "X" and "X didn't look quite ready to compete".

Sometimes people bring up 'kisakondis'/competition readiness as a roundabout way to refer to someone's physical appearance. Or at least I've seen the term used like this. Obviously athletes tend to look like gods and a 'competition ready' athlete especially so... Which is why people may compliment each other like 'wow, aren't you in a great 'kisakondis'!") etc.

So even though finns tend to translate references to 'kisakondis' to be all about alcohol tolerance, that's not the whole truth.

Someone who's totally sober and losing a darts game might joke about not being 'prepared to compete', someone who struck out when they tried to hit on someone could joke about not being in an ideal 'kisakondis'. Etc.

Anyway, sorry about the essay. The rambling is quit irrelevant because in Välikuolema I'd say that the "race readiness that is being tested" does almost certainly refer to alcohol tolerance because that's the theme of the song etc etc.

-------

'Mikä mussa on vika ku ei jaksa yhtään *tinaa(?)/What's wrong with me I don't feel at all up to boozing

*NOT SURE if the lyrics go 'tinaa' or 'hinaa'. Some websites say hinaa, but I'm like 99.5% sure I'm hearing 'tinaa'. Tbh I think 'tinaa' makes more sense. Another translation also appears to think so.

Anyway, tinaa/hinaa is slang... And either way I'm thinking it translates to drinking alcohol. 'Tinaa' definitely does.

And even if the word is 'hinaa' I'd still translate it the same way. Some finns may disagree with me, but the reason I'm thinking that 'hinaa' would also refer to boozing goes like this:

Other meanings I could come up for the slang word 'hinaa' simply do not make sense for this song, line, or artist! Mainly because Käärijä seems like a cool dude, I doubt he'd suddenly switch from rapping about drinking to err.. slinging homophobic slurs..

But also, the slang word 'hinaa'/'hinata' originally means 'towing'. Towing is near synonymous to dragging/pulling... and the verb finns use for dragging or pulling is 'vetää'... And 'vetää viinaa' (viinaa = booze) is a word combination very often used for consuming (lots of) alcohol.

So I think 'tinaa'/'hinaa' means 'to drink alcohol'. I went with 'boozing' since the original line is also slang.

And anyway, I'm actually fairly sure the word I hear in the song is 'tinaa'. It's repeated twice and it sounds to me like 'tinaa' both times.

---------

Anyway, the lyrics do actually also contain the verb 'vetää'. Käärijä mentions he's not feeling up to 'vetää'.

I translated 'vetää' to 'boozing', but tbh, finns use the word 'vetää' pretty creatively. It can be used for drinking, but also for smoking, for taking pills, injecting drugs, or even eating something like candy, burgers... grandma's mashed potatoes... So what's happening really depends on which word 'vetää' is paired with.

HOWEVER, I'd say that since 'vetää' is usually, and has probably since the dawn of time been, paired with the word 'viinaa' ('booze'), I feel like booze is suggested even when the word 'vetää' is used more ambiguously, on it's own. Plus the song keeps talking about drinking, and if Käärijä meant something that's not booze, I think he'd word it another way.

----------

'Kovasessa on yritys kova'/Hard efforts in the taxi...

I struggled with this line for ages 😅 I'm still not 100% certain 'Kovasessa' means 'in the taxi".

The sentence goes something like "There is lots of hard effort... in/at/within 'kovanen"...

This 'kovanen' (origin 'kova' = tough/hard/stiff/severe/intense.. +'nen' a dimunitive) is an unfamiliar word to me. I don't even know if it's slang or something Käärijä came up with.

He also uses the word 'kovanen' in Viulunkieli. In that song he's rapping about being in a bar where the general mood is tense, and he's got the money so he 'orders a Kovanen'... Which is why I'm thinking Kovanen is either a taxi, or a stiff drink 🤷

'Kovasessa' could refer to drinking. Finns sometimes say "kovat juomat" when talking about "stiff drinks". Also, "kovassa humalassa" is a common way of saying 'to be extremely drunk'. Kovasessa/ ('in kovanen') could mean 'in a state of severe drunkenness', and 'Kovasessa on yritys kova' could translate to 'When one is very drunk, one tries very hard..'.

But let's make it extra confusing and stumble to my idea about the taxi:

Kovanen sounds like a family name! '-Nen'-ending is super common for Finnish family names.

So... "Kovasessa on yritys kova" could then translate to "(A person called) Kovanen is trying really hard"...

But!! after decades of dithering I came up with 'in the taxi' because a Google search told me that there's a finnish taxi company called Kovanen. And since the lyrics already mentioned taxis, I think he's singing about being in a taxi... A taxi, which carries the nickname 'Kovanen'.

Either way, the associations I'd expect my fellow finns to have when they hear the word 'kovasessa' make it sound like a word play. Maybe he's simultaneously saying that he's drunk AND in a taxi?)

----------------------

"No jumalauta *passaa sitä flindaa"/Well goddammit pass me the bottle.

😅 So to be awkward, this could also mean the total opposite: "Goddammit take a break from the bottle, then"

The line confuses me because the verb 'passaa' has more than one meaning. It means 'to hand over', 'to offer', but it ALSO means 'to skip'/'sit out' - like how players sometimes skip their turn, intentionally, in some card games. And the verse sounds like dialogue which adds to the confusion 😅 Who's talking here? I don't know! Do you know?

#käärijä #Välikuolema #Käärijä song translation #eurovision #eurovision finland #middle death

97 notes · View notes