Pelkkä persevä neitsyt - Fat-arsed virgin

Composed: Lehto
Lyrics: lehto / trad.
Arranged: Lehto & Pennanen
Archive tapes:
Spell: to exorcise the evil spirit of the forest. performer: Helena Lahelma. Vuokkiniemi - recorded by: Jouko Hautala & Lauri Simonsuuri 1953
Bowed lyre: Juho Vaittinen. Impilahti - recorded by: A.O. Väisänen 1916
Kantele: Viljo Tiihonen. Kangasniemi, Salmenkylä - recorded by: Jouko Hautala and Lauri Simonsuuri 1949
Harmonium: Iivari Hautala. Evijärvi, Lahdenkylä - recorded by: Väinö Tuomaala 1956
song and comments: Kalle Alanen. Parkano, Aureenkylä - recorded by: Jouko Hautala ja Lauri Simonsuuri 1954 extract from poem by Eino Porko (1952) performer: Arvid Paavola - recorded by: Elli-Kaija Köngäs. Finnish Literature Society / archives of traditional music Indiana University
Musicians:
Vocals: Karoliina Kantelinen & Kukka Lehto
Violin: Kukka Lehto
Perc: Oskari Lehtonen
All other instruments: Tero Pennanen
MIXED BY: Miikka Huttunen
MASTERED BY: Svante Forsbäck/Chartmakers
LYRICS:
Once upon a time I came upon a noble knight. He declared, ‘I’m going to charm that maiden.’ He said he was a knight from bygone days, times of honour! A valiant victor in manly battles. Yeah-yeah...
‘They were the bravest of the brave.’
I tried to slip away quietly, but before I could escape from the knight, he told me he knew everything about women; the nice ones, the beautiful ones, and the no- good ones too.
With the courage brought on by the drink of heroes, he declared the rights of every man to me: ‘You should be grateful that someone wants you. Such a worn-out slut, hardly anyone would bother to look at you.
Listen, girl, the lake doesn’t get worn out by rowing on it. Still, you mustn’t make it too easy or you'll be ruined.
You look much better from behind than from the front. Your face is like a buzzard’s bum.’ Listening is not part of a knight's equipment. He is the centre of the world, the crown of the cosmos.
Spit flew into my face but I just kept smiling. So as not to be a hysterical woman, I said yes. Uh-huh...
‘I guess this will do for now, we'll continue later...’
In this story, princes do not save anyone, you are responsible for your own happiness.
(Trololoitrolo, trololoitrolo...)
Since I didn’t immediately rush into the knight's arms, I was just a fat-arsed virgin, as he told everyone.
But I am one of the last women like this, the next generation will be fierce women. They won’t be filled with thoughts of losers, red-faced, pot-bellied uncles. They won’t be interested in knightly tales, they’ll grab you by the cheek and say: 'Don't hassle me.' Uh-huh...
I don’t speak with my own voice, but with the mouth of greater forces: with the voices of past and future, with the power of five women. I bark with the voice of the powerful petticoated ones,
the crowd of buried wayward women, of unborn sinful girls, I roar with all the women of the underworld!
Begone from here, I say -
Take the devil's skis,
the demon's alder-wood skis
with which you’ll ski through the devil's lands, skim through the demon’s acres.
Go to the dark North.
There will be other murderers there too, eternal wrongdoers.
There will be flesh there without bone, fish without heads,
calves without veins
for a hungry man to eat,
for a greedy man to bite.
Far hence I spit you!