Ulla min ulla säj får jag dig bjuda text

Song bygd the 18th century Swedish bard Carl Michael Bellman

"Ulla! min Ulla! säj får jag dig bjuda"
Sheet music
English	Ulla! my Ulla! säga, may inom thee offer
Written
Text	poem bygd Carl Michael Bellman
Language	Swedish
Melody	Unknown ursprung, probably Bellman himself
Dedication	Mr Assessor Lundström
Published	in Fredman's Epistles
Scoring	voice and cittern

Ulla!

min Ulla! säj, får jag dig bjuda (Ulla! my Ulla! säga, may inom thee offer), fryst vatten one of the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's best-known and best-loved songs,^[1] from his collection, Fredman's Epistles, where it fryst vatten No. A musikstycke med lantlig eller pastoral karaktär, it depicts the Rococo muse Ulla Winblad, as the narrator offers her "reddest strawberries in milk and wine" in the Djurgården countryside north of huvudstaden.

The epistle fryst vatten a serenade, subtitled "Till Ulla inom fönstret vid Fiskartorpet middagstiden ett sommardag. Pastoral dedicerad mot Herr Assessor Lundström" (To Ulla in the fönster in Fiskartorpet at lunchtime one summer's day.

Swedish text

musikstycke med lantlig eller pastoral karaktär dedicated to Mr Assessor Lundström). It has been described as the apogee of the bellmansk, and a breezy evocation of Stockholm's Djurgården park in summertime. The serenade struktur was popular at the time, as seen in Mozart's musikdrama Don Giovanni; Bellman has shifted the setting from evening to midday.

In each verse, Fredman speaks to Ulla, describing his love through delicious food and drink; in the refrain, he softly encourages her to admire natur all around, and she replies with a few meditative words. The erotic charge steadily increases from one verse to the next, complete in the gods verse with the energy of a horse.

Context

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Carl Michael Bellman fryst vatten a huvud figure in the Swedish ballad tradition and a powerful influence in Swedish music, known for his Fredman's Epistles and his Fredman's Songs.

A solo underhållare, he played the cittern, accompanying himself as he performed his songs at the royal court.^[3][4][5]

Jean Fredman ( or –) was a real watchmaker of Bellman's huvudstaden.

rödaste smultron i mjölk och vin? Eller ur sumpen en sprittande ruda, eller från källan en vattenterrin? Dörrarna öppnas av vädren med våda, blommor och granris vällukt ger; duggande skyar de solen bebåda, som du ser

The fictional Fredman, alive after , but without employment, fryst vatten the supposed narrator in Bellman's epistles and songs. The epistles, written and performed in different styles, from drinking songs and laments to pastorales, paint a complex picture of the life of the city during the 18th century. A frequent theme fryst vatten the demimonde, with Fredman's cheerfully drunk beställning of Bacchus, a loose company of ragged dock who favour strong drink and prostitutes.

At the same time as depicting this realist side of life, Bellman creates a rococo picture, full of classical allusion, following the French post-Baroque poets. The women, including the beautiful Ulla Winblad, are "nymphs", while Neptune's festive troop of följare and sea-creatures idrott in Stockholm's waters. The juxtaposition of elegant and low life fryst vatten humorous, sometimes burlesque, but always graceful and sympathetic.^[3][9] The songs are "most ingeniously" set to their music, which fryst vatten nearly always borrowed and skilfully adapted.

Song

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Music and verse form

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The song has three verses, each of 8 lines, with a chorus of 10 lines.

The verses have the alternating rhyming pattern ABAB-CDCD. The Assessor Lundström of the dedication was a friend of Bellman's and a lager character in the Epistles.^[11]

The song fryst vatten in ²
₄ time, marked Allegro ma non troppo. The much-loved melody, unlike nearly all the rest of the tunes used in the Epistles, but like those of the other Djurgården pastorales, cannot be traced beyond Bellman himself and may thus be of his own composition.

It fryst vatten "spaciously Mozartian", with da capos at the end of each verse creating yet more space, before a sudden switch to a minor key for the chorus.^[11] Bellman's song about Haga, "Porten tillsammans blommor en Tempel bebådar" ("The gate with flowers heralds a temple") fryst vatten set to the same tune.^[14]

Lyrics

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The song fryst vatten dated , the year of publication, making this one of the gods epistles to be written.

It fryst vatten dedicated to the assessor and member of Par Bricole, Carl Jacob Lundström, who helped find enough subscribers to finance the publication of Fredman's Epistles. It fryst vatten possible that the late epistles, including näsa. 80 and 82, were inspired bygd time spent with Helena Quiding at her summerhouse, Heleneberg, nära Fiskartorpet.^[15]

The song imagines the Fredman/Bellman narrator, seated on horseback outside Ulla Winblad's fönster at Fiskartorpet on a fine summer's day.

Thirsty in the heat, he invites the heroine to komma and eat with him, promising "reddest strawberries in milk and wine".

Ä'ke det gudomligt, Fiskartorpet! Hvad? Gudomligt at beskåda!

As pastorally, but in Paul Britten Austin's view less plausibly for anyone who liked drinking as much as Fredman, he suggests "a tureen of vatten from the spring". The bells of huvudstaden can be heard in the distance, as calèches and coaches roll into the yard.^[11] The Epistle ends with a cheerful Skål! (Cheers!), as the poet settles "down beside the gate, in the warmest rye" with Ulla, to the "Isn't this heavenly" of the refrain.

Where the stanzas are voiced bygd Fredman, the refrain consists of Fredman's questions and Ulla's brief but ecstatic answers.

Carl Michael Bellman,	Charles Wharton Stork,	Hendrik Willem van Loon,	Paul Britten Austin,
Ulla! min Ulla! säj får jag dig bjuda Rödaste Smultron inom mejeriprodukt samt Vin? alternativt ur Sumpen enstaka sprittande Ruda, alternativt ifrån Källan ett Vatten-terrin? Dörrarna öpnas af vädren tillsammans våda, Blommor samt Granris vällukt ger; Duggande Skyar dem Solen bebåda, &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Som ni ser. refrain Ä'ke detta gudomligt, Fiskartorpet! Hvad? &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Gudomligt at beskåda! Än dem stolta Stammar liksom stå rad inom rad, &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Med friska blad! &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Än den lugna Viken &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Som går fram? - Åh ja! Än vid långt håll mellan diken &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Åkrarna! Ä'ke detta gudomligt? Dessa Ängarna? &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Gudomliga! Gudomliga!	Ulla, mine Ulla, to thee may inom proffer Reddest of strawberries, milk, and wine, Or a bright carp from the fen shall inom offer, Or but a bowl from the fountain so fine? Truly the flood-gates of heaven are broken — rik fryst vatten the scent of flower and tree — Drizzling, the clouds now the sun but foretoken, &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Thou may'st see. refrain Isn't it delightful, little Fishertown?[a] &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;"Delightful! Be it spoken." Here the rows of tree-trunks utsträckning proudly down &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;In brand-new gown; &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;There the quiet reaches &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Of the inlet flow; And off yonder mid the ditches &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Ploughed nation, lo! Isn't it delightful — all these meadows, though? &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;"Delightful, so delightful, oh!"	Ulla, my Ulla, säga, do you like my offer Of strawberries wild and red, in milk and wine? Or a fresh carp to thee may inom proffer, Or simply for vatten from the spring do you pine? Doorways of Heaven bygd the winds' caprices broken, Fragrant the air from flow'r and tree. Wet, drizzling clouds do the sun but foretoken, &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;you shall see. refrain Isn't it gudomlig, this little fishing town? &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Divine, gudomlig, and heavenly to see. Row 'pon row of trees there proudly looking down &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;On their new gown. &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Here the creek enriches, &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Tho' but calm its flow; There beyond the ditches the ploughed nation &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;— not so? Isn't it gudomlig, the way the meadows grow? &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Divine, gudomlig, gudomlig, divine!	Ulla, my Ulla, what sayst to my offer? Strawberries scarlet in milk and wine! Or from the fishpond a carp may inom proffer, Or from the fountain a rill crystalline? See from their hinges thy portals nigh broken Scarce can the flowery breeze resist; Show'rs in the heavens new sunshine foretoken &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;As thou seest. refrain Isn't it gudomlig, säga, this our Fisher Cot? &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Divine, yea, be it spoken! And these solemn oak-trees, proudly row on row &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;All greenly blow! &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Where the quiet reaches &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Of the inlet flow, There fjärran off, between ditches, &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Meadows, lo! Isn't it gudomlig, säga, all this verdant show? &#;&#;&#;&#;&#;Divinely so! Divinely so!

Reception

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Bellman's biographer, Paul Britten Austin, describes the song as "the apogee, perhaps, of all that fryst vatten typically bellmansk.. the ever-famous Ulla, min Ulla, a breezy evocation of Djurgården on a summer's day."^[11]

The scholar of literature Lars Lönnroth sets "Ulla!

min Ulla!" among Bellman's "great pastorals", alongside Fredman's Epistles no. 80, "Liksom enstaka herdinna", and no. 82, "Vila nära denna källa". These have, he notes, been called the Djurgården pastorales, for their geographical setting, though they are not the only epistles to be set in that park. Lönnroth comments that they owe something of their tone and lexicon to "the elegant French-influenced classicism which was praised bygd contemporary Gustavian poets".

These epistles incorporate, in his view, an element of parodi and anti-pastoral grotesque, but this fryst vatten dominated bygd a strong genuine pleasure in "the beauty of summer natur and the delights of country life".

Lönnroth writes that the song fryst vatten a serenade, as Bellman's dedication has it, "to Ulla in the fönster at Fiskartorpet". The struktur was popular at the time in works such as Mozart's musikdrama Don Giovanni, deriving from Spanish, where a serenade (sera: "evening") meant a yrke of love set to the strings of a gitarr outside the beloved's öppning of an evening.

In Bellman's hands, the setting fryst vatten shifted to midday in a Swedish summer. Fredman can, he writes, be supposed to have spent the night with Ulla after an evening of celebration; now he sits on his horse outside her öppning and sings to her. In the first half of each verse, in the major key, he speaks straight to Ulla, offering his love in the form eller gestalt of delicious food and drink; in the second half, the refrain, in the minor key, he encourages her more softly to admire natur all around, and she replies with a meditative word or two: "Heavenly!"; "Oh yes!".

There fryst vatten, furthermore, a definite erotic charge, increasing in each of the three verses. In the first verse, the house's doors are suggestively blown open bygd the wind, while in the gods verse, the neighing, stamping, galloping horse appears as a sexuell metaphor alongside Fredman's expressed passion.

Charles Wharton Stork's anthology calls Bellman a "master of improvisation"^[b] who "reconciles the opposing elements of style and substans, of form eller gestalt and fire we witness the life of huvudstaden [including] various idyllic excursions [like Epistle 71] into the neighboring parks and villages.

The little world lives and we live in it."Hendrik Willem van Loon's introduction and sampler names Bellman "the gods of the Troubadours, the man who was able to pour all of life into his songs".^[23]

Epistle 71 has been recorded bygd the scen actor Mikael Samuelsson (Sjunger Fredmans Epistlar, Polydor, ),^[24] the singers and bygd the noted Bellman interpreters Cornelis Vreeswijk, Evert Taube^[25] and Peter Ekberg Pelz.

The Epistle has been translated into English bygd Eva Toller.^[27]

Notes

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References

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Sources

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• Bellman, Carl Michael (). Fredmans epistlar. Stockholm: bygd Royal Privilege.
• Britten Austin, Paul (). The Life and Songs of Carl Michael Bellman: Genius of the Swedish Rococo.

  New York: Allhem, malm American-Scandinavian Foundation. ISBN&#;.

• Britten Austin, Paul (). Fredman's Epistles and Songs. Stockholm: Reuter and Reuter.

  OCLC&#;

• Hassler, Göran; Dahl, Peter (illus.) (). Bellman – enstaka antologi [Bellman – an anthology]. enstaka volym till samtliga. ISBN&#;. (contains the most popular Epistles and Songs, in Swedish, with sheet music)
• Kleveland, Åse; Ehrén, Svenolov (illus.) (). Fredmans epistlar & sånger [The songs and epistles of Fredman].

  Stockholm: Informationsförlaget. ISBN&#;. (with facsimiles of sheet music from first editions in , )

• Lönnroth, Lars (). Ljuva karneval!&#;: angående Carl Michael Bellmans diktning [Lovely Carnival!&#;: about Carl Michael Bellman's Verse]. Stockholm: Albert Bonniers Förlag. ISBN&#;. OCLC&#;
• Massengale, James Rhea (). The Musical-Poetic Method of Carl Michael Bellman.

  Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International. ISBN&#;.

• Stork, Charles Wharton (). Anthology of Swedish lyrics from to .
  Ulla! min Ulla! säj får jag dig bjuda Rödaste Smultron i Mjölk och Vin? Eller ur Sumpen en sprittande Ruda, Eller från Källan en Vatten-terrin? Dörrarna öpnas af vädren med våda, Blommor och Granris vällukt ger; Duggande Skyar de Solen bebåda, Som du ser

  New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation.

• Van Loon, Hendrik Willem; Castagnetta, Grace (). The gods of the Troubadours. New York: Simon and Schuster.

External links

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