This year I'll stay

A view of Helsinki from a rocky shoreline during dusk with a pink sky. Helsinki Cathedral can be seen on top of the cityscape on the coastline in the distance.
Lead text
Singer-songwriter Iisa Pajula wrote about Christmas in the capital of Finland in 2020.

This year I'll stay

I've never seen the Linnunlaulu bay on Christmas
or the Senate Square,
to think
I never got my rutabaga casserole
from the Hakaniemi market hall 

Ooh a Christmas sauna downtown,
I'd melt right on the bench
because I've had so few of these,
my very own
Yuletides in Helsinki 

This year I'll stay
here in this city whose streets
I still roam with an app on my phone,
and whose neighborhood grids
I still can't recall

This year I'll stay,
I won't pack up a rental car to the brim,
my scattered Christmas in the countryside
can wait
until at least next year 

For a moment, in the darkness of the evening,
I’ll leave everything else and listen to George Michael
(not Last Christmas, but his solo Christmas album)
it's as if a sea of candles were burning on the opposite shore
I smile
and return to the warmth indoors 

This year I'll stay

 

Translation by Kasper Salonen

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Teaser text
Singer-songwriter Iisa Pajula wrote about Christmas in the capital of Finland in 2020.