Recordings from the Estonian Folklore Archives 3

Songs Learned at Work

Marie Sepp Kolga-Jaani (1937)

Kui mina akkan laalemaie,
laalemaie, laskemai,
üübikene, ütlemaie,
käokene, kukkumai,
ei mind jõua ohjad oida,
ohjad oida, köied köit,
päitse'eta mind pidada,
egä valjad vaigistad.

Kui mina laalan, laksub metsä,
kõnelen, kõliseb mets.

Külä mind jookseb kuulamaie,
vald mind tuleb vaatamai(e),
rikas rehekatusselle,
santi saana sõnnikul,
imestavad, ütelevad,
ühel, teisel kõnelev(ad):
“Kust see laps need laulud saanud,
ulluke sõnad osan(ud)?
See põle tüdruk teinud tööda,
ta põle kangasta kudunud,
ta põle arus einä niitnud,
ega luhas loogu võtt,
see käind Arjus õppimasse,
Virus viisi võttemas.”

“Oh, minu ellad vellekesed,
kulla kalliksed õed,
mesimarja memmekesed,
kullerkupu taadikes(ed),
ma-p käind Arjus õppimasse,
Virus viisi võttemas.
Ära mina ütlen selle koha,
kus ma need lood luges(in),
kus ma viisid veeretäsin
ja kus mõtted mõlgutas –
arus eina niitessagi,
luhas loogu võttessag(i),
kurus kuhja luuessagi,
kodo kangasta kudud.”

When I start singing,
letting go with song,
a dear nightingale, I start saying,
a sweet cuckoo bird, I start calling out,
then no reins can hold me,
neither reins can hold me nor ropes bind me,
neither bridles can keep me,
nor halters silence me.

When I sing the forest echos,
when I speak the forest rings out.

The village runs to listen to me,
the parish comes to look at me,
the rich man on the threshing roof,
the cripple on the dung heap by the sauna
are amazed, they speak,
to one another, they say:
“Where has this child got these songs from,
that crazy one knows such words?
That girl has not done any work,
she has not woven cloth,
she has not mown hay in the pasture,
nor has she raked it together in the meadow,
she gadded about learning them in Harju,
she got those tunes in Viru.”

“Oh, my gentle brothers,
dear golden sisters,
honey-sweet mothers,
globe flower fathers,
I did not gad about learning songs in Harju,
nor did I get those tunes in Viru.
I will tell you that place,
where I read those stories,
where I rolled the tunes
and mulled those thoughts –
in the pasture mowing hay,
in the meadow raking it up,
in the shed piling it high,
at home weaving cloth.”

ERA, Pl. 48 A1 < Kolga-Jaani khk., Soosaare v. – H. Tampere, A. Pulst Riigi Ringhäälingus 1937. a. < Marie Sepp, 74-a.
[LP V a 3; CD2-3]. Viidang 1997, 14–15.