Finnegans Wake på 4 minuter

Jag har lite svårt för irländsk folk. Det har mycket med hur den irländska pubkulturen fanns överallt under nittiotalet att göra. Och att engelsk folk är bättre.
The Dubliners är templatet för denna sorts irländska folk. Men det är svårt att avvisa skivan Finnegan Wakes som ovanstående version av "Finnegan's Wake" kommer från.



I "Finnegan's Wake" dör Finnegan efter att i berusat tillstånd ha fallit av en stege och krossat skallen. Visst gör det ont när knoppar brister. Det hålls en vaka för honom. Vakan går livligt till. Lots of fun at Finnegan's wake. Det kastas en flaska whisky. Innehållet sipprar in i Finnegans mun och se han är återuppstånden.

Sångens titel blev i lätt förändrad form namnet på James Joyces underligaste bok Finnegans Wake. Enligt en del spelar också händelserna i balladen en roll i romanen. Vilket man väl får ta deras ord för. Finnegan Wakes är så underlig och pretentiös att inte ens jag har kommit på tanken att läsa den.

I "Ett stycke ur Finnegans Wake" i Bengt Anderbergs En förlorad värld citerar han en passage som, trots att den inte kom med i romanen, ska vara typisk:

Unslow, malswift, pro mean, proh noblesse, Atrahora, melencoleres, nears; whose glauque glitt bedimmd to imm! whose fingrins creep o'er skull: till, quench! asterr mist calls estarr and grauw! honath John raves homes glowcome.

Detta då, onödigt att förklara, om hur Jonathan Swift blir blind och galen.

Om du medan du lyssnar på Dubliners tolkning av sången samtidigt läser texten nedan kan du säja att du har läst "Finnegan's Wake" om ämnet skulle komma upp:

Finnegans Wake

Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin Street, a gentle Irishman mighty odd
He had a brogue both rich and sweet, an' to rise in the world he carried a hod
You see he'd a sort of a tipplers way but the love for the liquor poor Tim was born
To help him on his way each day, he'd a drop of the craythur every morn

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

One morning Tim got rather full, his head felt heavy which made him shake
Fell from a ladder and he broke his skull, and they carried him home his corpse to wake
Rolled him up in a nice clean sheet, and laid him out upon the bed
A bottle of whiskey at his feet and a barrel of porter at his head

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

His friends assembled at the wake, and Mrs Finnegan called for lunch
First she brought in tay and cake, then pipes, tobacco and whiskey punch
Biddy O'Brien began to cry, "Such a nice clean corpse, did you ever see,
Tim avourneen, why did you die?", "Will ye hould your gob?" said Paddy McGee

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

Then Maggie O'Connor took up the job, "Biddy" says she "you're wrong, I'm sure"
Biddy gave her a belt in the gob and left her sprawling on the floor
Then the war did soon engage, t'was woman to woman and man to man
Shillelagh law was all the rage and a row and a ruction soon began

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

Mickey Maloney ducked his head when a bucket of whiskey flew at him
It missed, and falling on the bed, the liquor scattered over Tim
Bedad he revives, see how he rises, Timothy rising from the bed
Saying "Whittle your whiskey around like blazes, t'underin' Jaysus, do ye think I'm dead?"

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake