Oioi, oioi orjan päivät
In the SKVR edition: [Soikkola t. Narvusi]. J. Länkelä. v. III 34. 1858.
SKVR textEnglish
1Oioi, oioi orjan päivät,Woe, woe the slave's days,
2Orjan päivät, vangin vaivat,The slave's days, the prisoner's hardships,
3Lesen naisen lesken päivät!The widow woman's widow's days!
4Paremmat on orjan päivät,Better are the slave's days,
5Orjan päivät, vangin vaivat,The slave's days, the prisoner's hardships,
6Lesen naisen lesken päivätThe widow woman's widow's days
7Kuin tuon raukan minjän päivät.Than that wretch's, the bondwoman's days.
8Sika rikko seulan pohjan,A pig broke the sieve's bottom,
9Vasikka lusikan varren,A calf [broke] the spoon's handle,
10Minjän pääksi päätettiin,The bondwoman was deemed the culprit,
11Minjän syyksi syytettiin.The bondwoman was blamed as the cause.
12Orja parka saapi palkan,The poor slave gets a reward,
13Minjä raukka ei mitään,The bondwoman wretch gets nothing,
14Kolahuksen korvalleen,A cuff to her ear,
15Sinistimän silmilleen.A bruise to her eyes.
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 editors’ signs inside the verses ([ ], ⌈ ⌉, *, [!], [?]) are left out, as in the poem reader; the letters they enclose are kept.
- 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-007221 · Read at SKS ↗
Added by RunoVerse: the English translations, the song types, the verse numbers and the links.