If you like music and translating Finnish song lyrics, then you might like this article. I will be analyzing Finland’s national anthem Maamme.

1. About the Song Maamme

Oi maamme Suomi is Finland’s national anthem. The song is quite long: 11 stanzas. When it is sung, people only sing the first and the last stanza. The official name of the song is just Maamme “our country”.

The Finnish anthem is based on a poem Runeberg wrote in Swedish. Translating it wasn’t easy! It was translated in different ways by more than 20 different people. The current version is based on two translations. First, a group of poets led by Julius Krohn translated it in 1867. Afterwards, Paavo Cajander made improvements to it. The current anthem has retained the original translation for the first and last stanza, while the rest of the lyrics originate from Cajander’s corrections.

Runeberg meant the poem to be turned into a song. He released his own melody for the Swedish version. Several other people composed different melodies for the poem afterwards. The melody that gained official status is by Fredrik Pacius. I find it interesting that Pacius’ version was created and presented within two days. He didn’t spend much time on it at all!

The Estonian national anthem “Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm” uses the same melody.

2. Song Lyrics

I’m only including the two stanza that people actually sing.

4. Glossary

The following grammar terms have been abbreviated.

I have marked different elements of the analysis using the following symbols.

5. Oi maamme Suomi – Finnish Song Analyzed

I think it’s interesting how the Finnish national anthem doesn’t contain the word isänmaa “fatherland”, which is found in most national anthems. Instead, it uses the word synnyinmaa “land of birth”. Both isänmaa and synnyinmaa have the same number of syllables, so it is likely that this was a conscious decision.

The “golden word” is clearly the word Suomi. As is common in songs, the word order has been mixed up. Normally, we’d say kultainen sana. It’s used as a synonym for precious or valuable (arvokas).

The verb soida is used to express something ringing, including telephones (puhelin soi), alarms (hälytys soi) and instruments (viulu soi).

… is more beloved than…

This phrase is missing the verb olla. No water or beach is more beloved. Once again we’re dealing with a mixed word order, which we could “fix” as: Ei ole laaksoa eikä kukkulaa, ei ole vettä eikä rantaa, joka on rakkaampaa “There is no valley or hill, no water nor shore, that is more beloved”.

Neutral word order would be kuin tää pohjoinen kotimaa. The spoken language tää for tämä is mainly used because the line would have one syllable too many otherwise.

Isien kallis maa would literally be “the fathers’ expensive country”. We’re talking of course about the forefathers (esi-isät), who have had to fight for Finland and for which many have paid a heavy price. The word kallis can also be more loosely translated as “precious” or “dear”.

I guess this line is supposed to express the sentiment that Finland’s glory will rise. I’m translating kerrankin fairly different from the literal meaning because I have the feeling it’s not meant to mean “this once” here.

Lempi in current Finnish generally appears at the beginning of compound words, e.g. lempiväri “favorite color”, lempieläin “favorite animal”. An older meaning it has is love. I translated [saada nousemaan] as “to rouse”. Literally, it means “to get (something) to rise”. The object of this sentence is lempemme, so it’s expressing that our love will be roused.

If I’m interpreting this part correctly, we should change the order of the sentences: “Sun toivos (ja) riemus loistossaan saa vielä lempemme nousemaan“, which means: In the glory of your hope and joy our love will still be roused.

This is the second appearance of kerran in this song and I’m still not sure how to interpret it. I’m inclined to translate it as “then” in this context.

A higher echo probably means a louder sound, echoing further and more majestically.

6. Translated Version

This could turn out very controversial but, below, you can read my personal interpretation of the lyrics of Maamme. I’ve looked at several other translations and I’ve taken hints from those, combined some elements and then added my own ideas. As such, this is by no means an official translation, and it’s probably lacking in several areas. Still, I think there are worse translations around, so I want to share mine.

Learn More Elsewhere

Please let me know in the comments if this is the type of content you want to see more of! You can also leave some song suggestions.

Related posts:

“If you’re happy and you know it” in Finnish To Play: Pelata, Leikkiä, Soittaa, Näytellä – What’s the Difference Anssi Kela – 1972 – Meistä tuli muurareita – Song Analysis Arttu Wiskari – Tässäkö tää oli – Finnish Song Lyrics Analysis