A new public sculpture has appeared in Helsinki, 13 metres high, by the Music Centre. The sculptor Reijo Hukkanen (b. 1946) was inspired by the classic poem The Pike's Song by Aaro Hellaakoski (1893-1952).

 
 

                                                                                                       © Magpie


At first it would seem appropriate, but when one remembers the poem, one starts to wonder:

Kosteasta kodostaan
nous hauki puuhun laulamaan


kun puhki pilvien harmajain
jo himersi päivän kajo
ja järvelle heräsi nauravain
lainehitten ajo
nous hauki kuusen latvukseen
punaista käpyä purrakseen
 

lie nähnyt kuullut haistanut
tai kävyn päästä maistanut
sen aamun kasteenkostean
loiston sanomattoman

kun aukoellen
luista suutaan
longotellen
leukaluutaan

niin villin-raskaan
se virren veti
että vaikeni
linnut heti
kuin vetten paino
ois tullut yli
ja yksinäisyyden
kylmä syli.

 From its damp home
a pike climbed
to sing in a tree
 

when through grey clouds
a dull dawn already glimmered
and on the lake awoke
a chase of laughing waves
a pike climbed
to a fir top
in order to bite a red cone
 
it may have seen heard smelled
or tasted from the cone tip
the inexpressible glory
of that morning
damp with dew

when opening
its bony mouth
stretching
its jawbone
 
so wild and heavy
a song it sang
that birds
fell silent at once
as if the weight of waters
had come above
and the cold embrace
of loneliness.

(a quick and unambitious prose translation by Magpie)

But the sculpture is very fine.