A Bad Harvest [Finnish translation]

Kristina

And who are you to chide

Almighty God in heaven?

Is it His fault you fill

my empty womb with seed?

You go about in silence

Sullen and begrudging, half the time

And what is my crime?

You want to punish me when all I've done

Is make a child with you?

We made these lives together

Bodies face to face!

You seem to think that I'm to blame

When things go wrong it's all my fault

You are so unfair!

Karl Oskar

How can you think you are to blame?

You know I hold the children dear

But I can't help it. I still worry that

the crop may fail again

Kristina

Do you love me as you did?

Karl Oskar

I always have, I really do

Kristina

Are you saying that to please me?

Karl Oskar

I'd never dare to lie to you

Kristina

That is true, you're always honest

I'm just being vain and jumpy

I don't ever mean to blame you

Karl Oskar

Dear Kristina, how you worry

We will always be together

No-one else we can rely on

Kristina

Do you want me just as much...?

(Karl Oskar whispers in her ear)

Kristina

Goodness, that's the second time you

Speak of love in one single day

It feels good to hear you say it

Was it just because we quarreled

Karl Oskar

I'm too simple to deceive you

Kristina

Let's say I believe you!

Anna

Look here, Papa, I just found it

Is it dead; it isn't moving?

Will I die like this poor bunny?

Karl Oskar

I'm afraid we all die some time

Anna

Maybe we'll all die tomorrow!

Kristina

It will be a day still distant

Karl Oskar

She's smart, that child, beyond her tender years.

Our Anna is a most remarkable girl

Kristina

She watches you, she always follow you,

and you're so proud...

Karl Oskar

But what's her future to be?

Last year there were rainstorms

They drowned the harvest

This year it's drier that hell

We cry out for water!

Where now is your Savior?

Why do we hunger?

Are we just dirt in his hands?

Just lambs to His slaughter?

Come, look at the harvest

See what I've got here

These straws, these hairs of a cat

Come count them for yourself

We've got your precious Lord to thank for that!

Kristina

Watch what you're saying!

Karl Oskar

I throw this back in your face

Let's see how you like it!

Kristina

God help you for those words, Karl Oskar!

Karl Oskar

The barn! It's on fire!

Neighbours

Now everywhere we look it's dark

and we have seen the signs of

coming danger, omens of despair

Across the land all winter long

the signs were deadly

All of spring was dry as tinder, cold as sin

And then the driest yet of thirty summers

No sign of rain, the earth is gasping in the heat

The grass in the meadows turns pale and sickly

And as the grass falls away so, too,

does the livestock

The hills and the valleys turned dark and tawny

Foretelling what was to come: disaster and famine

What good is our labour, our toil and trouble?

They're good for nothing

Our Lord has given us nothing!

Kristina

So proud and so haughty are you, Karl Oskar

I don't know one who compares

It seems you think that you can curse at God

And then just forget it!

Now we are punished

You threw it back in His face

He taught you a lesson

Well, how do you like it!

• Artist:Kristina från Duvemåla (musical)