Äijö Lyrics English translation

There was a cranky old coot lived in the village, bowlegged
and weak in the head. One night he was out in the pines;
crowing and screeching, carrying firebrands that scorched
his palms; alone in the night, exhausted.
Now on that chilly hillside he kept snakes, one at the top
and two lower down. And then he was bitten in the palm,
a stinging wound, a load of venom.
Alone in the night he trudged along, lurking by the porch
waiting for the snake to appear, wanting to put that wilyVärttinä - Äijö - http://motolyrics.com/varttina/aijo-lyrics-english-translation.html
devil's head on the block, to take an axe to its slithery neck.
The old man was weary, he'd already had more than many
a stronger man could have taken.
To heal the snakebite he washed it with liquor, poured proof spirit
over it, took some resinous wood and made the sauna steaming hot,
went round the garden reading charms and incantations.
And there was much speculation about his doings: all that trudging
and stumbling, the crookback snakes and their strange antics,
that cranky old coot wheezing and crowing alone in the night