Ei virret laulaen puutu

SKVR XIII1 1091·Pyhäjärvi Vpl.·1854·Collector: Ahlqvist, A. E.

In the SKVR edition: Pyhäjärvi. Ahlqvist A 93. 54.

SKVR textEnglish

1Ei virret laulaen puutu,Songs do not lack by singing,

2kuin ei heittäjä vähennä.as the reciter does not diminish them.

3Miull' on virttä viis rekeä.I have five sleighs of songs,

4sanoja sata kulia.a hundred sleds of words.

5Karjalainen kauppamiesiMy Karelian merchant

6reellä virsiä vetelipulled songs on his sleigh

7ja sanoja saanin kanssa.and words with his *saani*-sled.

8Tarttui saani salvamehen,The *saani* stuck at the lock-man's post,

9reki kilkahti kivehen:the sled clanged against a stone:

10saani rikki, salvan poikki,*saani* shattered, the lock snapped,

11virret tielle virtasivat,songs streamed onto the road,

12mie kokosin konttihini*I gathered them into my containers*

13ja hamusin hattuhuni.*and swept them into my hat.*

14Tuosta sain minä sanoja,From there I gained words,

15eukon lapsi laululoja. -the old woman’s child’s chants.

16Ennen metsä puita puuttui,Before, the forest lacked trees,

17metsä puita, maa kiviä,the forest trees, the land stones,

18ennenkuin minä sanoja,before I had words,

19eukon lapsi laululoja.the old woman’s child’s chants.

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.

Added by RunoVerse: the English translations, the song types, the verse numbers and the links.