I
The world once was young
And flat the earth’s crust
No valleys, no hills
No lakes, no rivers

Lakes hadn’t been hatched
Yet the water not even fetched
Gained power from the spring
Gained power from the spring

The field was bearing crops
Hay was maturing in the meadow
A road so flat and smooth
A road so flat and smooth

Oh, it was boring to live there
With nought but bare land to see
Land so even and flat
Land so even and flat!

II
I got up early in the morning
Long before the dawn
Started creating a story
Started singing up a forest
Started thinking up a hill
Talking up a lake

A wagtail came from the lake
And flew into my arms
A goose came to my aid
And gave me three eggs.

I collected those eggs
And started stacking up hills
One of them became Munamägi
The other one Vällämägi
From the third came the valleys of Rõuge.

I sang up Vällämägi
I thought up Munamägi
Lovely hills came from the eggs
Altogether handsome hillocks!

III
As a creator of the world
You create the world
Here it is
Now it begins

Once in a forest
There grew a tree.
Its leaves were green
And its roots were deep.

It grew and grew
Until it was big
Until it was mighty big.
This oak grew into the skies
Shaded the sun with its leaves.

Le-hee-hee-hee,
he-hee-hee
he-hee-hee,
he-hee-hee.

Wanted to divide the sky
Clout the clouds with its twigs
Wanted to divide the sky
Blot out the moon with its top…

The world turned dark
The world turned cold!

Night and darkness were all
The eye could behold.
And darkness would
Fill every last little bend
It seemed the world
was coming to an end.

A small fella came by
A tiny boy
The fella had a fine axe
Slayer as sharp as a knife
The fella felled the iron oak,
The fella felled the iron oak.
The iron oak, the sacred tree,
The iron oak, the sacred tree.

Hi-hiie-hiie,
Hi-hiie-hiie,
Hi-hiie-hiie,
Hi-hiie-hiie.

What is made from the oak?
A house is made from the oak
A shelter for orphans
A barrel from the trunk
A coffin from the spruce
A bench for god from the roots
What is still left over
Will become a sauna for my brother

Round up the remains
Throw them into the sea
Then we´ll go sweeping the sea
Then we´ll go wiping the shores

Mother Earth, Mother Earth,
When will
When will
You blow your top
You blow your top
Over these human bugs?
Who are on your skin, on your skin,
Befouling,
Befouling…

When will you rise and show
Your face
Let the cities perish
Bring winds and storms
And let the forests, fields and thickets,
Animals and birds
Have their home back?

Oh, Mother Earth
Your patience is boundless
Rarely seen reality
Well, have you given your children
Too much power?

The same
sea
in us
all
red
dark
warm

Throbbing
winds
from every quarter
in the sails
of the heart

line
of foam through
white
space

line
of foam through
white
space

To live otherwise, to die otherwise
To be silent otherwise
Otherwise inside the silence

When the stones were still
Soft, strong wind was
Blowing under heavens,
It was my wind, I played
The squeezebox and sang,
I sang about all
The land and sky, I opened up
Everything, I sang
The sea into land and
Land into the sea,
The big toe into small I sang,
Palms into soles I sang,
I sang of things that didn’t
Exist, nothing had been
Created yet, I sang
The trumpet into bagpipes
The tin whistle into saxophone,
I sang books into birds
And TVs into fish, I sang
Songs into songs,
Chiefs into witches, I sang
Until the song was sung,
I sang and then
I let go.

Crash, bang. Sparks
Flew everywhere, the world
And the world of worlds
Was created.

That morning
The wind had risen
And I
Had been searching for a long time…

A bit tired
From this darkening world
I started collecting gold
/ I started collecting gold
Casting copper /
Hoarding silver
/ I wanted to make a woman out of gold
From copper to cast a spirit /
From every corner of the world

I forged, cast and whittled
Many days and nights
Until she was ready
A Golden Woman

/ Silver for my chest
Silk for my bed /
She glistened and glittered in the winter sun.

You took this woman to your bed
The golden one to golden hays
You slept half the night
And pondered the other half
Turned to her mouth, it was cold
Turned to her back, it was a wall.

Why does the gold not speak?
Why does the silver not love?

I breathe in
The bright morning
One day when I´m myself again
When I still feel
That the wind is wind
And the morning is in the breathing

I go to the well
Fill the bucket and - drink
The chain squeaks
And swifts are in the sky
Swifts are in the sky

The Milky Way! And the flight of the swifts
Small and agile, illimitable and free,
We are seekers
Under the sprawling spread
Where the Northern Sky
Is still a peaceful brother of mine

We all have come
From villages, smoke huts
We’re born in a sauna
Had children and grew old
We are alike
We have mouths, eyes and hearts
And big ears for listening

The Milky Way! And the flight of the swifts
Small and agile, illimitable and free
We are seekers
Under the sprawling spread
Where the Northern Sky
Is still a peaceful brother of mine

You wanted me to teach you
My dying language
From where one can find
The thoughts of our ancestors
Bygone mornings, evenings,
Days and nights,
Dreams.

To speak while dying, falling into oblivion
Of mornings, evenings, days and nights
Of dreams before they disappear.

You wanted to come
As a stranger
Yet one of us
To the funeral
Of my language.

„Funeral is expensive but this won’t wake the dead“
They say in a premature obituary.

„Impressive funeral, a real wedding mood“, someone says.
We are holding a wedding and a funeral at the same time.
A rite of passage or departure, for sure.

Tears turn to laughter, death to life
And my language still lives on.
And past mornings, evenings,
Days and nights,
Dreams
The thoughts of ancestors
Live on.

In what language should one speak about A language
That does not know if it is destined to live Or die?
In the language of walking along

Even if it means
Going down.

Let’s go homewards leelu darling leelu
To your own house leelu dearest leelu
Herd your cattle leelu homewards leelu
Mommy is leelu dozing leelu
Daddy is leelu dreaming leelu
When are you home leelu darling leelu
In your own house leelu dearest leelu