Marilaulu [English translation]

Now I'll start singing

and now you get to hear it.

I'm not your backup,

even if you seem to think so.

The boys in this village are

of an utterly bad sort.

Hats all askew,

mouth like the gate of a sty.

I've said it already

a hundred and five times,

that a bad sort of boy

won't do for me.

I'll sink my old sweetheart

Into a mud bottomed hole,

then I tell the new one,

I don't have an old one at all.

Nothing is as dangerous

as the sickness for love,

you die of it standing up

mouth and eyes left open.

I'd be utterly silly

if I married from this village,

coat and shirt the wrong way around1,

I'd get a half-crazed one.

First time next to a boy

is like being in front of a judge,

don't care to put my hand on my neck

but don't dare to be without cover either.

There's boys in this village

one short of four,

the love of the village's boys

is left behind my back.

This village's old wives yell and holler

for a new sweetheart for me,

though the old love

hasn't been quenched.

This village's wives bark

so their jawbones clack.

Wonder if the village's wives

need chin pillows bought for them.

This village's wives tongues should

be put into pieces,

since they've gotten a young girl

under their command.

This village's wives should have

hot tin poured in their mouths,

so they'd shut up and

jump into a tree.

1. I have no idea what the original line tries to say; I based this "translation" on the fact the original line speaks of a coat and a shirt and it seems they aren't worn as they ought to be.