I found this song a while back. In 1865, a Swedish professor and satirist named His Henric Hallback of the University of Lund composed Lincolnvisan for his school's student union. It starts off mocking the news of President Lincoln's assassination, calling him "the king of Northern America." Hallback continues with vivid if exaggerated descriptions of his head being shot off and speaking while disembodied. It ends, however, on a positive note when it blessed the dead king and damned the murderer. This is just another in a long line of references to the Civil War from around the world.
This is a link to a Swedish musician singing this song while playing the guitar, to give you some idea of how it sounds.
The chorus is actually nonsensical, designed to carry on the melody, as if saying "la la la la".
As I am not a Swedish speaker, I had to rely on Google Translate to convert the original text into English, with some modest changes. Any fault is mine alone.
Lincoln
Visan by His Henric Hallback
Have
you heard the terrible event,
it
is true for it to happen right now,
when
the King of Northern America
was
shot, well shot down the middle.
Tjolahopp
Tjang Chong faleladala,
Tjolahopp
Tjang Chong fallirej.
when
the King of Northern America
was
shot, well shot down the middle.
He
went out to see a play
for
it amused His Majesty
But
he could well imagine,
that
he would be shot just for that.
Tjolahopp
Tjang Chong faleladala,
Tjolahopp
Tjang Chong fallirej.
But
he could well imagine,
that
he would be shot just for that.
But
then came a villain through the door,
ugh,
so frightful perilous he looked!
And
in his hand he bore a pistol,
which
was loaded with bullets and gunpowder.
Tjolahopp
Tjang Chong faleladala,
Tjolahopp
Tjang Chong fallirej.
And
in his hand he bore a pistol,
which
was loaded with bullets and gunpowder.
And
so he shot the king in the face
so
that the head jump from his neck;
and
blood it splashed on the wallpaper,
and it asked: who had done this?
Tjolahopp
Tjang Chong faleladala,
Tjolahopp
Tjang Chong fallirej.
and
blood it splashed on the wallpaper,
and it asked: who had done this?
And
so [they] lay the king on a couch
and
stroked his hair.
And
the king he took himself to the head
and
said: Aye, aye so bad I feel.
Tjolahopp
Tjang Chong faleladala,
Tjolahopp
Tjang Chong fallirej.
And
the king he took himself to the head
and
said: Aye, aye so bad I feel.
"Oh,
goodbye" said the good-natured king
"Now
to heaven joy I receive,
where
little angels they flap their hands,
so
what fun they have."
Tjolahopp
Tjang Chong faleladala,
Tjolahopp
Tjang Chong fallirej.
where
little angels they flap their hands,
so
what fun they have."
And
so died the good natured king
and
is blessed, I think, right now.
But
damn embrace the culprit,
who
shot the king in half!
Tjolahopp
Tjang Chong faleladala,
Tjolahopp
Tjang Chong fallirej.
But
damn embrace the culprit,
who
shot the king in half!
Nice to see a translation of this song.
ReplyDeleteA little correction though: the lyrics says "och så sköt han den kungen i planeten", litterary "and so he shot the king in the planet". In this context, "the planet" means "the face". So the lyrics should be "And so he shot the king in the face".
Greetings from Sweden!
Staffan Nilsson
Tack sa mycket, Staffan. That correction makes more sense. I used Google Translate for the original. While I love Sweden - I have family there - I am not from there nor do I speak the language. I like to search out remnants of the American Civil War in other countries. In my trips to Scandinavia, as seen in pictures I have posted on this blog, I found a statue in Norway that may be the least visited Civil War monument anywhere. There's a statue of John Ericsson at Nibroviken in Stockholm, and the grave of Union colonel and Medal of Honor recipient Ernst Mattias Peter von Vegesack. This song adds to the cultural influence of the conflict around the world. Again, tack.
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