Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/261

Runo XXI]

On the beach no waves were breaking,

On the strand no shingle rattling.

’Twas my son-in-law’s assemblage,

Twice a hundred men in number.

“How shall I detect the bridegroom

In the concourse of the people?

He is known among the people,

As in clumps of trees the cherry,

Like an oak-tree in the thickets,

Or the moon, ’mid stars in heaven.

“Black the steed that he is driving;

Which a ravenous wolf resembles;

Or a raven, keen for quarry,

Or a lark, with fluttering pinions.

Six there are of golden song-birds,

On his shafts all sweetly singing,

And of blue birds, seven are singing

Sitting on the sledge’s traces.”

From the road was heard a clatter,

Past the well the runners rattled,

In the court arrived the bridegroom,

In the yard the people with him,

In the midst appeared the bridegroom,

With the greatest of the party.

He was not the first among them,

But by no means last among them.

“Off, ye youths, and out ye heroes,

To the court, O ye who loiter,

That ye may remove the breastbands,

And the traces ye may loosen,

That the shafts may quick be lowered:

Lead into the house the bridegroom.”

Then the bridegroom’s horse sped onward,

And the bright-hued sledge drew forward

Through the courtyard of the Master,

When said Pohjola’s old Mistress:

“O my man, whom I have hired,

Best among the village servants,

Take the horse that brought the bridegroom,

With the white mark on his frontlet,

Rh