Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/161

Runo XIV]

Yet I wander here for nothing,

All the time without a quarry.

If you do not grant me booty,

Nor reward me for my labour,

Long and sad will be the evening,

Long the day when game is wanting.

“Aged greybeard of the forest,

With thy pine-leaf hat and moss cloak,

Dress thou now the woods in linen,

And the wilds a cloth throw over.

All the aspens robe in greyness,

And the alders robe in beauty,

Clothe the pine-trees all in silver,

And with gold adorn the fir-trees.

Aged pine-trees belt with copper,

Belt the fir-trees all with silver,

Birch-trees with their golden blossoms,

And their trunks with gold adornments.

Make it as in former seasons

Even when thy days were better,

When the fir-shoots shone in moonlight,

And the pine-boughs in the sunlight,

When the wood was sweet with honey,

And the blue wastes flowed with honey,

Smelt like malt the heathlands’ borders,

From the very swamps ran butter.

“Forest-maiden, gracious virgin,

Tuulikki, O Tapio’s daughter!

Drive the game in this direction,

Out into the open heathland.

If it runs with heavy footsteps,

Or is lazy in its running,

Take a switch from out the bushes,

Or a birch-twig from the valley,

Switch the game upon the haunches,

And upon the flanks, O whip it,

Drive it swiftly on before you,

Make it hasten quickly onward,

To the man who here awaits it,

In the pathway of the hunter.