Pure puuta, mätä maata
In the SKVR edition: Suurij. ( P.) Meril. n. 160. 88. Ohvo Vaassilaińe; kuullut Suomessa Utajärvellä.
SKVR textEnglish
Kirvestä kuin pääsee terottamasta, niin kuin puree terää ja sanoo että:
1Pure puuta, mätä maata,Bite the wood, gnaw the rotten earth,
2Hakkoa vesi hakoja!May water hew the splintered chips!
3Tely on ihmisen iho,Bark is the human's skin,
4Kallio kapehen karva,The cliff's scant fur,
5Kivi on kova, rauta luja,Stone is hard, iron is sturdy,
6Vaan miehen sana on lujempi,But a man's word is stronger,
niin ei koske sittä kirves.
English translations by DeepSeek R1, provided by Lidia Pivovarova (University of Helsinki). AI-generated translations may contain inaccuracies.
The text is that of the SKVR digital edition of the Finnish Literature Society (SKS), with these changes:
- The edition’s line numbers are replaced by a number on every verse, counted as in the poem reader.
Source
Text: SKVR (Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot), the digital edition of the Finnish Literature Society (SKS), licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Permanent address of this poem at SKS: http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:sks-kvr-002465 · Read at SKS ↗
Added by RunoVerse: the English translations, the song types, the verse numbers and the links.