Votian and ingrian folk songs

Songs

Tšako kukku, maa kumizi

(Origin of my Songs)

Timo Kalmu and choir

Download .mp3 file

In Votian

Tšako kukku, maa kumizi,
lintu laulo, lehto lõõkku,
sisavõ pani pajuzõ.
Miä vaa kuuntõlin kujalõ,
ajattõlin add´a päälle:
tšene tšeeli kerkiäpi,
kummall laulu laatuizõmpi?
A tšago tšeeli kerkiäpi,
linnu laulu laatuizõmpi,
sisava sõnat parõpõd.
Menin miä tšülä kujalõ,
algin tšakonnõ kukkua,
sisavõnnõ sirkutõlla.
Viizaz vahti viilon alta,
kavala katosõn alta:
“Tämä on õppiza õllu,
sõisnu on seppije pajazõ,
sepä paja on paukutõllu,
vasaroit on vankutõllu.”
Miä vaitõn vassaõlin:
“En õlõ õppizõ õllu,
sõisnu seppije pajazõ!
Õppizin miä orjuõzõ,
panin pähe poikuõzõ,
ku õlin orjanna Viroza,
poikanna piru pezäzä.”

In English

Cuckoo called, the earth hummed,
Bird sang, leaf swayed,
Nightingale sang on the willow.
I was listening on the village lane,
Thinking on the fence:
Whose tongue is lighter,
Whose song is smoother?
But the cuckoo’s tongue is lighter,
The bird’s song is smoother,
The nightingale’s lyrics are better.
I went to the village lane,
Started to call as a cuckoo,
Twitter like a nightingale.
The clever one peeped from under the gable,
The smart one from under the roof:
“He has been learning,
Standing in the smithy,
Banging in the smithy,
Wringing the blacksmith’s hammers.”
But I replied:
“I haven’t been learning,
Standing inside the smithy!
I studied as a slave,
Learned by heart as a farmhand,
When I was a slave in Estonia,
A farmhand in the devil’s nest.”

In Votian written language

Tšako kukku, maa kumizi,
lintu laulo, lehto lõõkku,
sisavõ pani pajuzõ.
Miä vaa kuuntõlin kujallõ,
ajattõlin add´a päälle:
tšene tšeeli kerkiäpi,
kummall laulu laatuizõpi?
A tšago tšeeli kerkiäpi,
linnu laulu laatuizõpi,
sisava sõnad parõpõd.
Menin miä tšülä kujallõ,
algin tšakonnõ kukkua,
sisavõnnõ sirkutõlla.
Viizaz vahti viilon altõ,
kavala katosõn altõ:
“Tämä on õppizõ õllu,
sõisnu on seppije pajazõ,
sepä paja on paukutõllu,
vasaroit on vankutõllu.”
Miä vaitõn vassaõlin:
“En õlõ õppizõ õllu,
sõisnu seppije pajazõ!
Õppizin miä orjuõzõ,
panin pähe poikuõzõ,
ku õlin orjannõ Virozõ,
poikannõ piru pezäze.”

The singer learned the song from wonderful singers—a cuckoo bird and a nightingale—and “weaved all their lyrics in the apron and put them in shirt hems”. The audience believes that the singer has learned the song in a smithy, but she replies that she learned it as a slave in Estonia.

According to Väinö Salminen, this song version about learning a song from singing birds is particularly characteristic of the western Narvusi-Soikola (Kozemkino-Soikino) region in Ingria. Nat´u Lukina has told Paul Ariste that the song was sung while moving in a circle.

T Maťo (Matrjona) Gerassimova, Jõgõperä (Ariste 1960: 36, 41).

M Naťu (Natalja) Lukina, Jõgõperä (Paul Ariste, Igor Tõnurist 1971, RKM, Mgn II 2329 k); Anna Kivisoo, Ropsu, and choir (Lauri and Aili Laiho-Simonsuuri 1937, ERA, Pl 127 A1).

Singer Nat´u Lukina on the meadow. Photo: I. Tõnurist, 1972 (VE XIV 225 (9)).

Supporters

Estonian Ministry of Education and Research

Kindred Peoples' Programme IV; IUT 22-4

Tartumaa Central Folklore Association

The Paul Ariste Centre for Indigenous Finno-Ugric Peoples of the University of Tartu

Publishers

MTÜ Rahvalauluselts Hellero, Estonian Folklore Archives of the Estonian Literary Museum, 2015

ISBN 978-9949-544-56-1 (html)

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