Wonderful songs!

[Guest guest]

I just learned that two fantastic songs, that I know I have mentioned here before, have been translated to English (actually, I think the whole musical has been translated). Finally I can share them with you, for real! Not just with my translation(s).The songs are "You have to be there" and "Gold can turn to sand" from the musical a from Duvemåla (it's a musical by ABBA duo, Björn and Benny, less known, internationally, than Mama Mia, but just as great in my opinion, it's based on a series of books about a family that emigrated from Sweden to America during the 1800's).That musical has some of the most beautiful songs of human strength and suffering that I know of. My absolute favourite (and one I usually dub "the number one religious song", even if it is about doubting God) is "You have to be there" (Swedish: "Du måste finnas", i.e. "You have to exist/be there"). The "you" in the song is God, and the context of the song is when a and Karl- (the emigrants) has been in America for a few years, a has lost yet another of her children at birth, she feels she has also lost her old country and her sense of belonging, and the mourning is driving her and her husband apart, so that she feels she may lose her husband too. And in the midst of this she feels, for the first time in her life, that she is starting to lose her faith in God. The song is accusing God and pleading to God in the same time, in a wonderfully touching way. Accusing God of taking her child, her family and home, and then finally letting her down by maybe not even existing, and pleading to God to exist, because God just has to. The refrain goes (in Swedish) "Du måste finnas. Du MÅSTE. Hur kan du då överge mig?" My translation: "You have to exist, You HAVE TO. How, then, can you abondon me? " The English version can be found on youtube, here to be exact: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqOV7Tn2IcUThe second favourite of mine from the a musical is the song of (Karl-s younger brother) when he returns from a failed quest for gold in the Californian desert. Alone because his, and as, close friend Arvid has died in the desert, from desperately drinking unclean water and getting sick from it. They have sold the, little gold, they found, but the money they got has turned out to be fake and worth nothing. tells the story of Arvid, his death and their friendship in the song, and he tells it to a. He accuses himself of killing his best friend through talking him into taking the trip. He regrets the whole thing and is searching for a's understanding and forgiveness. In the musical he can't even, at first, bring himself to say, in words, to a that Arvid is dead, so he says it by giving her Arvid's watch. The refrain goes: "a, gold can turn to sand"" (literal translation: "Oh, a, the gold turned into sand"). Find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD6rHJXeyM0love/Reb