Finnish battle cries

[Aleksander P]

How would you fellow Finns translate some of the most known Finnish war cries such as: "Hakkaa päälle pohjanpoika" or "Verta pakkiin", without losing the original meaning? Its actually quite challenging .

[Mangrove]

"Hakkaa päälle pohjanpoika" or "Verta pakkiin", without losing the original meaning?

"Hakkaa päälle pohjan poika!" from the Linna's Unknown Soldier(s) is translated as "Cut them down, Kaleva!" by Yamaguchi in 2015.

[Juha Tompuri]

How would you fellow Finns translate some of the most known Finnish war cries such as: "Hakkaa päälle pohjanpoika" or "Verta pakkiin", without losing the original meaning? Its actually quite challenging .

Also "Tulta munille!" That is translated at the novel Unknown Soldier as "shoot for their nuts!"
https://books.google.fi/books?id=0abpCA ... 22&f=false
Sometimes also as "Fire at their balls!"...
...

Wired lists a top ten list of battle cries, including this one below uttered by Finnish troops in Väinö Linna's World War II novel The Unknown Soldier.

Tulta munille!
Translation: Fire at their balls!

I think that is against the Geneva Convention.

http://matthew-rodriguez.com/mrod-perso ... attl-cries



Regards, Juha

[Aleksander P]

"Hakkaa päälle pohjanpoika" or "Verta pakkiin", without losing the original meaning?

"Hakkaa päälle pohjan poika!" from the Linna's Unknown Soldier(s) is translated as "Cut them down, Kaleva!" by Yamaguchi in 2015.

Kaleva sounds a little obscure I think. Maybe just the literal translation "son of the north" would do better?

[Aleksander P]

How would you fellow Finns translate some of the most known Finnish war cries such as: "Hakkaa päälle pohjanpoika" or "Verta pakkiin", without losing the original meaning? Its actually quite challenging .

Also "Tulta munille!" That is translated at the novel Unknown Soldier as "shoot for their nuts!"
https://books.google.fi/books?id=0abpCA ... 22&f=false
Sometimes also as "Fire at their balls!"...
...

Wired lists a top ten list of battle cries, including this one below uttered by Finnish troops in Väinö Linna's World War II novel The Unknown Soldier.

Tulta munille!
Translation: Fire at their balls!

I think that is against the Geneva Convention.

http://matthew-rodriguez.com/mrod-perso ... attl-cries



Regards, Juha

Can't go wrong with this one .

[Timonen]

How would you fellow Finns translate some of the most known Finnish war cries such as: "Hakkaa päälle pohjanpoika" or "Verta pakkiin", without losing the original meaning? Its actually quite challenging .

Hakkaa päälle, Pohjan poika! = Cut them down, son of the North!

(Finnish light cavalrys war cry from the 30-years war 1618-1648; they used uncommon tactics as usual light cavalry tactics were that you ride a horse close to enemy, shot the pistolshot, return, load up, charge again. Hakkapeliitta´s used 2 pistols, but instead of returning, they pull out the saber and assaulted the enemy lines.)


Verta pakkiin! = Blood to the mess kit!

[Gamle Lode]

I don't know what the 'verta pakkiin' should actually stand for... I know verta is sg partitive of 'veri' (blood) and pakkiin is singular illative of 'pakki' (some kind of small toolbox). 'Pakki' could mean other things as well, a defenseman in sports (borrowed from Swedish), or it could mean things 'backfiring' especially when hitting on women.

Jukka L. Mäkelä in his book Teräsmyrsky kannaksella relates, that Finns at the battle of Siiranmäki used several types of battle cries, the official one Eläköön means of course 'long live' and it probably is rooted from the Sweden era (Eläköön kuningas). Other battlecries included 'Urah!' - ironically the Russian cry. Third one Mäkelä mentioned was just crying anything out loud.

[Seppo Koivisto]

Hakkaa päälle is actually difficult to shout when you run, unlike Urah! It is often written that Hakkapeliitta's used it only when they started a charge, after that they fought silently, which was uncommon for the time.

[saddler]

How would you fellow Finns translate some of the most known Finnish war cries such as: "Hakkaa päälle pohjanpoika" or "Verta pakkiin", without losing the original meaning? Its actually quite challenging .

Also "Tulta munille!" That is translated at the novel Unknown Soldier as "shoot for their nuts!"
https://books.google.fi/books?id=0abpCA ... 22&f=false
Sometimes also as "Fire at their balls!"...
...

Wired lists a top ten list of battle cries, including this one below uttered by Finnish troops in Väinö Linna's World War II novel The Unknown Soldier.

Tulta munille!
Translation: Fire at their balls!

I think that is against the Geneva Convention.

http://matthew-rodriguez.com/mrod-perso ... attl-cries



Regards, Juha

Can't go wrong with this one .

Maybe a combination of morale building, dark humour or practicality?

The majority of shots on the battlefield are too high - according to various extensive studies - so aiming at the lower part of the body will assist in this aspect somewhat. The mid-point being center mass also makes for less margin of error & increases the chances of a hit.

Aiming lower was also trained for as a technique in the WW1 German army; the issue Gew98 had a minimum sight setting of 400m, so using it at shorter distances, especially close quarters, would have meant the bullets going too high if the normal sight picture/hold was used. Given that the Finnish troops received military training in WW1 from the Germans prior to the 1917 Russian Revolution, this may have been a technique that was adopted by these troops & passed onto the new Finnish army once the country became independent & the volunteers became the core of the new army.

[Juha Tompuri]

Maybe a combination of morale building, dark humour or practicality?

I think a combination of all of them.

Earlier at the book Platoon leader Koskela taughts the men to Aim for the belt (belt buckles in English language translation)
https://books.google.fi/books?id=0abpCA ... 22&f=false
https://books.google.fi/books?id=dvtcAw ... on&f=false

Regards, Juha

[saddler]

Hi Juha

I often imagine that if I had a nice loaded kp/31 to hand & any "Uncle Joe" or "Minister Molotov"followers were needing 6 feet of soil to call their own, the belt buckles would make a good focal point for a couple of short bursts!

Not yet read my copy of the book yet - though I did make sure I bought the quite recent reprint when it came out.

Loved the 1959 movie of the book - not as big a fan of the 1989 movie, but still enjoyed it - so I'm REALLY keeping my fingers crossed for the 2017 movie of the book being a huge success (though if anyone is on screen wearing a 1960's bread-bag I'll kick the cat into a low earth orbit when I get home....)

[John Hilly]

Not yet read my copy of the book yet - though I did make sure I bought the quite recent reprint when it came out.

It's a pretty good translation. What I didn't like was the use of American dialects in it. British would've been much better.

With best, J-P