KALINA is a traditional folk song performed in Veps, a severely endangered language from my motherland with just about few thousands of native speakers left. starting from the late 1930s the Soviet government changed their strategy to pursue "russification" for everyone regardless of their cultural background. schools stopped teaching languages of national minorities, ethnic youth moved to cities and assimilated there, abandoned territories were deemed unpromising. Stalin's era almost eradicated many cultures and languages, but thanks to research initiatives some of those got nevertheless documented and preserved in the best possible state.

in 2018 i went back to my homeland – Karelia – and traveled a bit around the places where the Veps language is still alive. i recorded KALINA with Alina Kartynen, a friend who had already been singing in Veps and had some experience with the language. Alina did great in the studio, she nailed it from just a couple of takes and i'm enormously grateful to her for trusting me on this.

KALINA is a story about longing for home, a forgotten feeling of being in a place that gives comfort and care. The protagonist has been displaced far away against her own will and been asked not to come back. All she has left is dreaming about being back home, but those dreams are only haunting fantasies. This story has never resonated with me as much as it does nowadays. 

To all of you, who can't be home. Keep it in your hearts.

KALINA

––– VEPS –––

Kalina da babarm,
minun marjeižed.
Olin minä, mamalein'-ik
Tütar-se.

Andei mindei mamam
mehele edahaks.
Andei da i sanui:
“Ala-ko tule!

Äjäl paksus kod’he
ala-ko tule!”
Vot i proidib vodut,
vot proidib toine.

Pakičen mä hebod –
tedan, ei antkoi.
Probuin mända jalgil’ –
tedan, en doidi.

Kändamoi mä kägeks,
lendan sadhu-se,
homencel, ku mamam
tuleb vedele,
a minä-se koivus
kukkaškanden-se,
siloi vot i mamam
fatiše-se jo!

Tedištab, što minä
verhal randalpäi
olen ičemoi ku
čogheiže tulnu!

––– TRANSLATION –––

Guelder rose and raspberry,
My berries.
Was I ever my mother’s daughter?

My mother married me off to faraway lands.
Married me off and said:
“Don’t come back,

Don’t come back home too often”
One year passes by, another year passes by.

I will ask for a horse, but I know, they won’t give me.
I will try to walk, but I know, I won’t make it back home.

I will turn into a cuckoo and fly to the garden.
At the dawn, when my mother comes for water,
I will sit on a birchtree and start to cuckoo.
Then my mother will realise…

Then she will learn that I’m back home
Sweet home from a faraway land.
credits
from KALINA, track released March 29, 2024
Music: Konstantin Kazhev
Vocal: Alina Katrynen
Mixing and Mastering: Konstantin Kazhev

KALINA ambient (feat Alina Kartynen)

––– VEPS –––

Kalina da babarm,
minun marjeižed.
Olin minä, mamalein'-ik
Tütar-se.

Andei mindei mamam
mehele edahaks.
Andei da i sanui:
“Ala-ko tule!

Äjäl paksus kod’he
ala-ko tule!”
Vot i proidib vodut,
vot proidib toine.

Pakičen mä hebod –
tedan, ei antkoi.
Probuin mända jalgil’ –
tedan, en doidi.

Kändamoi mä kägeks,
lendan sadhu-se,
homencel, ku mamam
tuleb vedele,
a minä-se koivus
kukkaškanden-se,
siloi vot i mamam
fatiše-se jo!

Tedištab, što minä
verhal randalpäi
olen ičemoi ku
čogheiže tulnu!

––– TRANSLATION –––

Guelder rose and raspberry,
My berries.
Was I ever my mother’s daughter?

My mother married me off to faraway lands.
Married me off and said:
“Don’t come back,

Don’t come back home too often”
One year passes by, another year passes by.

I will ask for a horse, but I know, they won’t give me.
I will try to walk, but I know, I won’t make it back home.

I will turn into a cuckoo and fly to the garden.
At the dawn, when my mother comes for water,
I will sit on a birchtree and start to cuckoo.
Then my mother will realise…

Then she will learn that I’m back home
Sweet home from a faraway land.

––– CREDITS –––

Music: Konstantin Kazhev
Vocal: Alina Katrynen
Mixing and Mastering: Aleksandr Dmitriev

KALINA

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