Archive for June, 1979

Poems

Issue 2/1979 | Archives online, Children's books, Fiction, poetry

Kirsi Kunnas

Kirsi Kunnas. Photo: Jyrki Luukkonen

Poems from TiitiƤisen satupuu (‘The Tittytumpkin’s fairy tree’, 1956)

The old water rat

There’s a shiver of a reed,
a rustle in the grass,
a slop-slopping through the mud:
Who’s that puffing past?

Who’s that peeping there?

A whiskery head
and a muddy tread.
It’s Old Mattie
Water Rattie.

Squeezing water from his eyes,
trickling from his sneezing nose,
freezing and sneezing.
Then: Oh dear Misery!
A-snee, a-snee, a-snizzery! More…