Öö Chicagos. [English translation]

My father was

a policeman in Chicago

Times were hard then

Gangsters, poverty, crisis

Night was like always then

Dollars were counted in USA

But at that moment Chicago became

notorious over the country

Al Capone is boss from now on

A life is worth few pennies

And that one´s song is sung

who still honours law

And mother kept crying1

on that night when death moved around

in Chicago

Father hadn´t arrived home from work

Everything could be expected from that night

Still and more.

And mother kept crying

on that night when death moved around

in Chicago

She spread a blanket over her children

And lost her faith in god

On that night

A dark Ford emerged from a corner

An automatic gun spat fire again

so that the city should know from now on that

Al Capone is not some innocent clown

Shots even sounded one after another!

Among those people even someone´s voice sounded,

"Boys, already about hundred cops

have got killed!"

And mother kept crying

on that night when death moved around

in Chicago

Father hadn´t arrived home from work

Everything could be expected from that night

Still and more.

And mother continued crying

on that night when death moved around

in Chicago

She spread a blanket over her children

And lost her faith in god

On that night

And then suddenly all got silent

only that could be heard that a clock was ticking,

Father was standing on the door

From there he crabbed mother into his lap

although he himself was so gray in the face

He had had luck

1. "Ja ema nutma jäi" or mother stayed [behind] crying; mother continued crying. = very vague already in origial. Jääma-sentences are extremely hard to translate. They often stand where in other languages would be future tenses...

• Artist:Jaak Joala