Wednesday, March 20, 2013

early commentary on peak oil

attempting to translate (without comments), J.Leskinen song 'Öljyshake' (1981) about (I guess) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Empress

Oil shake

1.The decline of the western world is right at the door

For a long time have they fed the viper on the floor

why won't they apply their heads to any works they do?

Shake oil shake

2.The former cavarly men have the dollars of fine men.

There is something very badly wrong somewhere when

the only place that has it good is Saudi-Arabia.

Isn't there anything but oil on energy?

shake oil shake

3.I saw a tongue colored like crude oil, and I've been shaking since

An oil tanker carrier is a dangerous vessel

in a mist navigating, won't find the checkpoint

and with its oil it carries a flammable cargo

Shake oil shake

4.A tankerful may acquire some bombs and tanks

the superpowers drill the virgin earth like them

rapists and they present their victory dance, but

maybe the Quran should be among their readings too?

Shake oil shake

5.now they sit inebriated with oil shake drinks in drugstores...

sorry the original has much better rhymes and clearer references to historical happenstances. not sure of the last word.

2 comments:

Oale said...

line by line comments:
1.(I think everyone knows this reference, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Decline_of_the_West)
(actually viper's 'on the bosom', finnish idiom of untrustworthy friends)
(phrase is referring to superego vs.ego, i think)
2.(referring to finnish 1800s history (gradual disappearance of nobility from the public scene under russian rule)
(no comment)
(stating the obvious during the oil crisis)
(lit."Is 'oil' the only name for 'energy'?", but you can't see the single quotes in singing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalanguage, fuck it, can't macth the rhymes.)
3.(plays on the lack of the tense of finnish verbs sometimes present, could also be translated ' and I shake', the 'brown-tongue' transformed to 'crude-oil-colored tongue')
(in a mist - sumussa in finnish is a euphemism of being drunk - captain of the oil tanker drunk?)
(crude oil is flammable, though not many have seen the explosion first hand)
4.(refers to cold war sales of arms for oil.)
(actually it should be 'fuck', because in finnish 'drill' is considered ruder euphemism)
(blah I can't translate better than that, refers to a juvenile dancing style)
(Maybe they'd better get familiar with Quran now (to understand islam better?)
5.(you see, it's impossible to translate good poetry with the rhymes and meaning intact?)

Oale said...

Levätköön rauhassa Pauli Matti Juhani.