Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/321

Runo XXV]

Therefore thus did Ilmarinen

Hasten forward to the homestead,

To the house his father gave him,

Which his parents had constructed.

Hazel-grouse were twittering blithely

On the collar formed of saplings,

And the cuckoos all were calling,

On the sledge’s sides while sitting,

And the squirrels leaped and frolicked

On the shafts of maple fashioned.

Lokka then the kindest hostess,

Kaleva’s most beauteous matron,

Uttered then the words which follow,

And in words like these expressed her:

“For the new moon waits the village,

And the young await the sunrise,

Children search where grow the berries,

And the water waits the tarred boat;

For no half-moon have I waited,

Nor the sun have I awaited,

But I waited for my brother,

For my brother and step-daughter,

Gazed at morning, gazed at evening,

Knew not what had happened to them,

If a child he had been rearing,

Or a lean one he had fattened,

That he came not any sooner,

Though he faithfully had promised

Soon to turn his footsteps homeward,

Ere defaced had been his footprints.

“Ever gazed I forth at morning,

And throughout the day I pondered,

If my brother was not coming,

Nor his sledge was speeding onward

Swiftly to this little homestead,

To this very narrow dwelling.

Though the horse were but a straw one,

And the sledge were but two runners,

Yet a sledge I still would call it,

And a sledge would still esteem it,