Herkii, hyvä Jumala

SKVR XIII3 10113·Metsäpirtti·1887·Collector: Neovius, A. D.

In the SKVR edition: Metsäpirtti. Neovius 123. 8/10 87. Matti Sutelainen. Synt. v. 1840.

SKVR textEnglish

1Herkii, hyvä Jumala,Hearken, good God,

2satamast ja tuulemasta,From the harbor and the wind,

3pitämästä pilvisäitä.From restraining the cloudy skies.

4Vie pilvet Vennää m(o)aalle,Drive the clouds to Viena's land,

5siel on yks pieni poika,There is a small boy,

6yksi-öine, kaksikuine,One-night-old, two-month-old,

7kolme kymmen kesone(n),Thirty summers old,

8ei uo vielä vettä soaantu,He has not yet received water,

9elässä ei vien pisarta,In life, not a drop of water,

10emo on vettä etsimässä,His mother seeks water,

11sylellääse saunan kylpii,Bathes with a sauna whisk,

12verellä pes peääse.Washes his head with blood.

13Heä kulki(i) kulo alatse,He walked beneath the flames/path,

14vien alatse vieretteli,Rolled beneath the water's edge,

15peääsi suurelle meäell,Reached a great hill,

16korkealle kukkulalle,A lofty knoll,

17näki lammen lainehtivan,Saw a pond rippling,

18sitt heä oikoo ottamaa,Then he reaches to take it,

19heä miitt' mielestääse:He thinks to himself:

20ah, ku en tuont astiaa,Ah, had I brought a vessel,

21nyt ois vettä viljakkaasti.Now there’d be water in plenty.

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.

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