Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/274

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Other tunes the horns are blowing,

Other doors thou hearest jarring,

Other gates thou hearest creaking,

Other voices at the fishlines.

“There the doors thou hardly findest,

Strange unto thee are the gateways,

Not like household daughter art thou,

May not dare to blow the fire,

Nor the stove canst rightly heaten,

So that thou canst please the master.

“Didst thou think, O youthful maiden,

Didst thou think, or didst imagine,

Only for a night to wander,

In the morn again returning?

’Tis not for one night thou goest,

Not for one night, not for two nights,

For a longer time thou goest.

Thou for months and days hast vanished,

Lifelong from thy father’s dwelling,

For the lifetime of thy mother,

And the yard will then be longer,

And the threshold lifted higher,

If again thou ever comest,

To thy former home returning.”

Now the hapless girl was sighing,

Piteously she sighed and panted,

And her heart was filled with trouble,

In her eyes the tears were standing,

And at length she spoke as follows:

“Thus I thought, and thus imagined,

And throughout my life imagined,

Said throughout my years of childhood,

Thou art not as maid a lady

In the wardship of thy parents,

In the meadows of thy father,

In thy aged mother’s dwelling.

Thou wilt only be a lady

When thy husband’s home thou seekest,

Resting one foot on the threshold,

In his sledge the other placing,