Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/267

Runo XXI]

When the ale is ill-concocted,

And bad drink is set before us,

Then the minstrels fail in singing,

And the best of songs they sing not,

And our cherished guests are silent,

And the cuckoos call no longer.

“Therefore who shall chant unto us,

And whose tongue shall sing unto us,

At the wedding feast of Pohja,

This carouse at Sariola held?

Benches will not sing unto us,

Save when people sit upon them,

Nor will floors hold cheerful converse,

Save when people walk upon them,

Neither are the windows joyful,

If the lords should gaze not from them,

Nor resound the table’s edges,

If men sit not round the tables,

Neither do the smoke-holes echo,

If men sit not ’neath the smoke-holes.”

On the floor a child was sitting,

On the stove-bench sat a milkbeard,

From the floor exclaimed the infant,

And the boy spoke from the stove-bench:

“I am not in years a father,

Undeveloped yet my body,

But however small I may be,

If the other big ones sing not,

And the stouter men will shout not,

And the rosier cheeked will sing not,

Then I’ll sing, although a lean boy,

Though a thin boy, I will whistle,

I will sing, though weak and meagre,

Though my stomach is not rounded,

That the evening may be cheerful,

And the day may be more honoured.”

By the stove there sat an old man,

And he spoke the words which follow:

“That the children sing befits not,

Nor these feeble folk should carol.