Musical Words

Tonight I went to watch my roommate and the a cappella choir. It was fantastic. I want to share the lyrics of a song they sang. It is a translation of an Estonian folk song. Wikipedia tells me Estonia is in the Northern Baltic part of Europe, by Finland and Sweden. Learn something everyday, don't you?

When I was very little, al'leaa,
I grew so prettily, al'leaa,
I was but one night old, al'leaa,
Just two days old,
Mother took my cradle to the meadow,
Put my crib on the heath,
Put a duck to rock the cradle,
The bird of summer to push me.
The duck had many words,
The bird of summer had lots of songs,
The duck sang many songs to me there,
The bird of summer, it spoke to me a lot.
That is where this child learned the songs,
This crazy one got to know the words,
All of them I placed on paper,
All of them I hewed into a book.
That is why I have so many words,
That is why I have lots of tunes.

I think I like this so much because it makes me think of where my words come from. We are shaped so much by what we've gone through, who we've gone through it with. I can tell you about growing up on a farm, about the time I dyed my hair with Kool-aid, how I spent my summer teaching kids theatre, how I learned to love reading from my father, how I sing aloud with the radio like my mom.

All of these things are put on paper, hewed into a book. Or at least into my memory. That is why I have so many words.

Until next time, where are your words from?