Carl Ernest Backstrom

Carl Ernest Backstrom was an American minister and translator associated with the Evangelical Covenant tradition. Reliable published biographical information about his wider life is limited, but hymn records consistently give his dates as 1901–1984 and identify him as the English translator of August Ludvig Storm’s Swedish hymn. His translation appeared in “The Covenant Hymnal,” authorized by the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant of America, in 1931.

Backstrom’s work is more accurately described as a singable translation and adaptation than as a strictly literal rendering. Storm’s Swedish text contains four stanzas, while the familiar Backstrom version has three and reshapes or combines several of the original images. This allowed the English text to fit the established 8.7.8.7 D metrical pattern and the tune used in Covenant worship.

Hymnary also credits Backstrom with an English translation of Joel Blomqvist’s Swedish prayer hymn “Helige Fader, böj ditt öra neder,” published in the same 1931 Covenant hymnal as “Hear Me, O Father.” These surviving translations show his particular contribution to carrying Swedish pietist hymnody into English-speaking congregations.