Sexta-feira 21 Set 2007, 21h:00
What a stroke of luck, what a surprise indeed. I knew this song existed, but I didn't know what it was available online - only as a Real Media stream, though, but anyway…
First some background. J. Alfred Tanner (1884-1927) was a Finnish vaudeville artist, singer and part-time composer. He was a stand-up comedian before the term was invented, acting out different roles and sketches during intermissions in cinemas. he also had his own shows at theatres and restaurants when his popularity grew. The vagabond waltz, Kulkurin valssi is perhaps his most famous evergreen, and it has been performed by Tauno Palo, Tapio Rautavaara, Olavi Virta and Kauko Röyhkä, just to name a few.
Tanner parodied dialects and accents, and adapted popular tunes to parodical texts. Among his popular roles were also some ethnic caricatures. In a book collection of Tanner's songs, I found the song "Tattari". Here, Tanner parodies a Tatar travelling salesman.
http://www.ainurin.net/images/tatar/tattari1.jpg
The word "tattari" is a bit misleading. In Swedish, "tattare" are Sinti gypsies (distinguished from the Roma), who received this name in the 18th century. The word alluded to rumours of "wild Tatar hordes" in the East, and was used in a derogatory sense. Historically, there have been no Sinti in Finland, so in a Finnish context, a "tattari" is a Tatar. That Tanner's "tattari" is a Tatar is obvious from his Muslim name, "Haidulla". The character speaks a mix of Finnish, Swedish and Russian, and his travel route is "Petrograd-Moskva-Kazan", all the way back to Tatarstan.
However, Tanner didn't quite understand his subject (and why should he try to, his audience was the majority population). "Haidulla" sings with a Russian accent ("teell' on hjuva tavaraa"), although the Tatar language features equivalents of the Finnish vowels Y, Ä and Ö.
A brief translation in English:
Drasti drasti(1 everybody,
Have to come when I call,
Here are fine wares.
I shout around me: run, run,
Come everyone to me and buy from Haidulla.
I have wandered steadfastly
a long way, a long way,
Petrograd(2, Moscow, Kazan.
Old, wise, clever Haidulla
Never ever paid the customs,
Wares cheap and prices low all the day.
Today, today, today,
You have to buy from Haidulla,
Everything is horosho(3,
nyet better you can get,
so good, so good.
Finskiy girl, come and buy,
Engagement trinkets, don't cost much,
Pretty engagement ring, pozhaluista.(4
For the husbandman, sundry things,
Russki vodka, good to taste,
Take a sip and try it, tastes very good.
For the wifey, for mamashka,
I have a toddler's furashka(5
A shirt, too, but more you shan't see.
(1 ru. zdravstvui, greetings
(2 name of St Petersburg 1914–1924
(3 ru. good
(4 ru. please, you're welcome
(5 ru. cap
(In the last verse, Haidulla tells about his plans to move to Helsinki and open a shop, to settle down like a regular successful bourgeois. And soon he has to hurry away to the next destination.)
It's a funny song, but I have no idea where the original melody, Orientens ros by Felix Jungell, comes from. Sounds like a Swedish-language operetta? "The Rose of the Orient" seems like an ironic description for the busy old man, and the melody doesn't strike me as particularly "Oriental" - but someone could disagree.
You can read the original lyrics here and start a Real Media file clicking on the link below: