FINLAND'S NATIONAL ANTHEM

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 35, 23 February 1940, Page 11

FINLAND'S NATIONAL ANTHEM

"f\UR COUNTRY" (Vart Land), was written by Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-1877), Finland’s greatest poet. Something of its beauty will be found in its closing four stanzas given here, The late Sir Edmund Gosse declared the poem to be "one of the noblest strains of patriotic verse ever indited; it lifts Runeberg at once to the level of Callinus or Campbell — to the first rank of poets in whom art and ardour, national sentiment and power of utterance, are equally blended." The poem became at once, and has ever since remained, the national song of both Finn and Swede, who are now bound together by the genius of the poet in a closer union than the old political tie. The music was composed by Friederich Pacius (18091891), who wrote songs and choral pieces to the words of native poets. He was responsible for another piece, especially beloved by children, which has become a second national song — "Soumen Laulu" (Finland’s Song). Pacius, a German, was a pupil of Ludwig Spohr. He went to Finland in 1834 to organise and direct the music department of the Helsinki University, and remained there until his death in 1891. "VART LAND" (OUR COUNTRY) Here all about us lies this land Our eyes may see it here; We have but to stretch forth our hand, And blithely point to sea and strand, . And say, Behold this land so near, Our tatherland so dear. And were we called to dwell on high, Of heaven's own blue made free, To dance with stars that deck the sky, Where falls no tear, and breathes no sighWe still should yearn, poor though it be, This land of ours to see. O land! thou thousand-lakéd land, With song and virtue clad, On lite’s wild sea our own safe strand, Land of our past, our future’s land, If thou are poor, yet be not sad — Be joyous, blithe, and glad. Yet shall thy flower in beauty ope _ Its petals without stain; Our love shall with thy darkness cope, And be thy light, thy joy, thy hope, And this our patriotic strain To nobler heights attain.