Tigerdrottningen & La Belle Epoque

[stjärnor]

Godhet - Goodness

J: The first day in my life
You burst open the door, stormed in
like a flashbang of goodness

B: And I remember so well when I saw you the first time
You wrote songs
You were pathetic when I saw you
Exactly like your songs

J: So I tried with the truth
Something made me be straight with you
So I just lied about small details
like my age and my name

B: I remember so well when I saw you
J: I broke in to heaven
Heard the echo from your heartbeat
A stalker against an angel

B: To forgive your sins was a mistake
A mistake
J: I broke in to heaven
to steal your tears

B: Everything we do has consquences, so be aware of who you hurt
B&J: If I could just fill my heart with goodness

B: I remember the first time I saw you
Your ego obscured the sun
J: The first day in my life ended
Everything looked so dark, you were the light
but it began to resemble complacency

B: and I remember so well what I said to you that time, last time

J: You saw the terror in my face
You swept it away with a smile
You say
B: Everything I do, I do of pure goodness

J: Your political correct goodness
B: I remember the last time I saw you

J: I broke in to heaven
Heard the echo from your heartbeat
A stalker against an angel
To forgive my sins was a mistake
A mistake

B: I am no damn angel
and you are first against the wall
like a warning example
An example for new generations
of what happens when you don't believe in goodness
and I am glad it is over

J: I broke in to heaven
Followed the echo from your heartbeat
A stalker against an angel

B: to allow your sins was a mistake
A mistake
J: I broke into the sky
To steal your tears

B: Everything we do has consequences
so be aware of who you hurt
B & J: If I could just fill my heart with goodness

J: J.Berg
B: Beatrice Eli

[DanielOlin]

Good work, stjärnor! A few small closer explanations from me as a Swede:

Here's the translation for Skogarna, and have a rough draft of Godhet, which I'll tidy up and put up shortly.

Skogarna - The Forests

Some info from items/ places mentioned in the song, can anyone clarify the political references? :
Karlbersvägan is a street in Stockholm
Tranan is a bar/ restaurant in Stockholm http: //www.tranan.se/
Solidaritet (Solidarity) - A political party?
Nymoderat (New Moderates)- right wing political party
Prime minister (statsminister) Olof Palme was murdered in Stockholm and a street in Stockholm bears his name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olof_Palme
Kungsholms kyrka (Kungsholms church)- a church in Stockholm

- Solidarity is not a party. It is the most famous notion of the left wing and is the fundamental idea of socialism. The collective responsibilty for all of society and all of humanity.
- The Moderate Party is the biggest of the conservative parties and have governed Sweden for eight years now (winning two elections in a row which is very rare for a conservative party). In recent time they altered their name to The New Moderates in an attempt to change their public image from conservative upper class to look more labour-friendly and modern.
- The unsolved (?) murder of the prime minister in 1986 is often refered to as when Sweden "lost its innocence". He was a democratic socialist and is a very iconic figure in modern Swedish history and politics.

[DanielOlin]

I am not from here
Never from here

I think you got this wrong though. Literally translated you are right, but actually it should rather be:

I can't get out of here
Can never get out of here

[stjärnor]

I think you got this wrong though. Literally translated you are right, but actually it should rather be:

I can't get out of here
Can never get out of here

Thanks Daniel, I'll amend my text. Sometimes, literal translations is all I can do as a non-swede!

And thanks for the clarifications/ extra info on the political parties/ movements. I would have delved further into google and tried to look further into them before posting my text, but I'm too tired tonight for Swedish politics in Swedish!

[DanielOlin]

A bus breaks hard
An elderly couple fall in time

...

5 times winters' sun
the rest of the day in darkness

EDIT- see Daniel's post on the following page for clarifications, re: politics, etc.

These two are not entirely correct either. "I gången" has nothing to do with time, but means the walking space in the bus - I think the English word would be bus aisle - you know the path in the middle between the seats.

And "5 timmars vintersol" is 5 hours' winter sun.

Otherwise, really good work.

[stjärnor]

Argh, my stupid tired brain! I know timmars is hours, stupid brain!

Thanks again!

[stjärnor]

Translation below for Din enda vän. Can anyone help with the line 'Allt det vackra det jävliga vi gör'? I'm struggling with the context of 'jävliga'. Tack på förhand!

Din enda vän- Your only friend

In your sad green eyes
there was a longing which could kill anyone

We were born by a dance floor
our idea of luxury was almost ritual

We came from sosse* towns
(beyond boundaries which everyone else has)
Where all the nose blood which we spilled
(which became boundaries one must draw)
We blamed our childhood
(licked ziplock bags like in films)
Our horny eyes looked good in the picture
(run, run for your life)

If we escape, I will kneel before God
(run, run for your life)
You hold me like no other
in a world which is hopeless and sick
(run, run for your life)

All the good, all the evil which we are
All the beautiful, all the ugly we do
We are the same, we are alike, we are one
So let me be your only friend

In a limo white as new snow
(we held court everything we touch turned to gold)
A vulgar version of the bible's pale horse
(run, run, run, run)
And your sad green eyes
(where victory was lost and profit was guilt)
say farewell to arms
Bonjour tristesse
(run, run for your life)
If we escape, I will kneel before God
(run, run for your life)
You hold me like no other
in a world which is hopeless and sick
(run, run for your life)

All the good, all the evil which we are
All the beautiful, all the ugly we do
We are the same, we are alike, we are one
So let me be your only friend

*Please read Daniel's post below regarding the word 'Sosse' and it's history/ usage. Some things are best kept in the original language!

[DanielOlin]

- 'Sosse' doesn't exactly mean socialist in the general sense of the word. It is derived from the word 'social democrat', which is a member/voter of the Social Democratic Party (Labour Party).
A quick history lesson: The Social Democrats was the biggest party throughout the larger part of the 1900's, Always getting 30-50% of the votes for almost a hundred years, and the politicians of old formed the Swedish well fare system, based on the socialistic movement of the working class.
They formed the government for over 40 years in a row from the 1930's to the 1970's. They have lost the latest elections and have had a very media-covered 'crisis' with historically few votes, but the last couple of years they have been on a steady rise again to the top of the poll. (However, thoughtful people often point out the question of how much different the party in some aspects actually is nowadays from their opponents in the (New) Moderate Party).
Should also be mentioned that the word 'sosse' can also quite commonly be associated with 'grey' and boring traditional bureaucracy.
So I would argue the translation to 'socialist' is wrong, since it is directly connected to the specific party and not the general idea of socialism. Perhaps you should let it remain the Swedish 'sosse' and explain what it is. 'We came from sosse towns'.
Some towns and cities are more known municipality strongholds for the party then others. The municipality of my hometown Gothenburg for example has been strongly ruled by the party since forever. Kent are from Eskilstuna and that municipality has also been ruled by a majority of social democrats for over 40 years.

- The translation of 'skuld' should rather be 'guilt' in this context, I think. (Though litterally 'dept' is right.)

- 'Jävliga' could be translated as 'the bad' or 'the ugly' or 'the wrong'. 'All the beautiful, all the bad/ugly/wrong we do'. The word is derived from cursing, from 'jävlar/jävlig' which literally means devilish or fiendish. (A lot of Swedish cursing is mostly derived from Christian belief of Hell and the Devil).

[stjärnor]

Thanks again Daniel.
Can you help me with the line 'Allt det vackra det jävliga vi gör' please?

[DanielOlin]

Yes, I edited it into my post!
(I also edited my perhaps quite boring history lesson of the social democratic party)

[DanielOlin]

The sentence 'allt det vackra det jävliga vi gör' is lacking an 'och' ('and'). Well, strictly grammatically lacking at least, perhaps that is what made your understanding of it difficult. Poetically and as a pop/rock lyric you don't need the 'and' when you sing the sentence like that, you know. :P

[stjärnor]

Tack som fan!

Politics are not my strong point, and like last night, Swedish politics is almost one step too far for me at this time of night! I kind of understood that 'sossestäder' meant that the towns/ cities referred to in the song meant that they were traditional political strongholds of one party. We have much the same thing here in Scotland/ the UK: certain towns/ constituencies /areas are traditionally Labour voting, especially the places which had/ have heavy industry like mining, factories. (and without being derogatory, 'grey' could describe such towns from the hard industry pollution)
As an aside, Scotland has more pandas (2) than Conservative Party Members of Parliament (1) in the UK government, which says a lot about what we think of the current UK government!

I'll take your advice and replace socialist with 'sosse' since you kindly explained the history & usuage of the word.

And the 'jävla' word, I learned all about in Swedish lessons! (who doesn't want to know the swear words in a new language?!) It was explained that it was probably the harshest word you could call a person (in terms of swearing). In this case I just couldn't re-jig it to fit with the rest of the lyric, so thanks again for helping out with that one. (and the missing 'och'!)

[DanielOlin]

One last correction: 'bibelns bleka häst' is not 'the Bible's white horse' but 'the Bible's pale horse'.
'Blek'/'bleka' means 'pale'.
It is (most likely) a reference to the Book of Revelation 6:8, 'there before me was a pale horse, its rider was named Death and Hades(Hell) followed close behind him'.

[stjärnor]

Another thanks. I initially googled 'white horse from bible' and did get that bible reference you mentioned- all results showed a white not pale horse, simply because that's what I googled, I meant to go back and google 'pale horse' (as a literal translation) to see if it brought up the same things. A white horse was an image in my head, rather than just 'pale' which almost needs another word to qualify the adjective (pale what- pale brown, pale grey?). But yes, after all my waffling, pale is the more fitting reference here!

[DanielOlin]

Well yeah, that's right. The horse is often painted white in illustrations - for example on that famous tarot card of Death the colour of the horse is a very pure white. (Though myself I've always pictured it sickly yellowish.)