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