Estonian at its most aesthetic

A board of language experts recently picked ten sentences which they claim best showcase the beauty of the Estonian language. These are they.

• «Üle oja mäele, läbi oru jõele.»

• «Kalli ema hella soojust jagub üle mitme põlve.»

• «Kuula, kulla külanaine – kuuled külla tulnud vaime.»

• «Küll küllale liiga ei tee.»

• «Mahlakas jõhvikas maitses soisel kaldal hää.»

• «Ämber läks ümber.»

• «Millal maksan memme vaeva.»

• «Tilluke talleke tatsas tasasel pinnal.»

• «Ema tuli koju.»

• «Pöidlad pihku, pöialpoisid!»

To me half of them seem like they were just designed to be tonguetwisters or entries in an Alliteration Can Be Fun contest. For what it's worth, here's my translations of them.

• "Over the creek to the hill, through the valley to the river."
• "The gentle warmth of a beloved mother is felt over several generations."
• "Listen, dear village woman – you will hear the spirits who have come to the village."
• "A little bit more won't make any difference."*
• "The juicy cranberry tasted good on the boggy bank."
• "The bucket tipped over."
• "When will I give mum her due?"*
• "The tiny little lamb toddled on even ground."
• "Mother came home."
• "Thumbs up, Thumbelina!"*

They don't have quite the same ring to them in English, do they. Personally, my favourite is «Üle oja mäele, läbi oru jõele», although «Ämber läks ümber» has an ironic sense of balance to it too.

*Thanks to Greta for helping me out with these, which are either very colloquial or don't really mean anything. Apparently «Küll küllale liiga ei tee» is what you might say in a situation where you have done something so much that doing a bit more of it won't change anything or make the situation noticeably worse eg if you've run up so much debt on your credit card that buying something else won't make much difference. «Millal maksan memme vaeva» is an old saying related to paying someone the respect they deserve. «Pöidlad pihku, pöialpoisid!» means bugger all and was presumably coined just because the 'experts' liked the sound of it. Ironically (again) it's probably the one that sounds best in English :)