Girl of Tyyri

A translation of Tyyrin tytti

The empty girl of Tyyri,
a cowherd of little worth at the rectory,
went to mass in the summer
and servant girls mocked her:
“There comes Miss Nothing
without proper church clothes.”

She came home crying. –
She spent her nights alone, weaving,
sowing in the cow-house,
and with each stab of the needle
a prick dissolved from her heart;
having completed the skirt,
she entered the house of the Lord.

The people in the village were asking:
“Who is this Cinderella
arriving without godly pearls?”

She came home crying. –
She spent her summer gathering pearls
at cattle fords,
and with each fine pearl
a tear dried up on her cheek;
she stringed the pearls on a cord
and went to the house of the Lord.

Suitors were standing by the roadside,
each holding a flower
for his sweetheart;
a young lady who took a flower
was a kind companion for the church road,
one who held a flower and studied it
was a fair partner for the dance,
one who hid a flower at her bosom
was to be a given in marriage.

The empty girl of Tyyri
walked to the house of the Lord
without a flower. –

                                 The poor maiden
sat on a glade crying.

God was walking a cattle path
in the form of a mortal man.
“Why do you cry, poor maiden?”

“Woe is me,
for I am an empty girl of Tyyri,
a cowherd of little worth at the rectory.”

“Why will you not go to the dance?”

“I cannot go to the dance,
for I have no partner.”

The merciful Creator gave her a flower.
“You have a great suitor.”

The people of the village were dancing
on a mound between waters
at sunset;
there also was the empty girl of Tyyri
with her great suitor.

She came home rejoicing. –
She hid the flower in a box,
put it under her pillow,
opened the box in the morning:
the flower had golden leaves.

From that she knew her great suitor
with whom she had danced
on the mound between waters;
and she cried no more.

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