Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/60

40

Like a floweret by the wayside,

Like a raspberry on the mountain,

Far more lovely than aforetime,

Fairer than in former seasons.”

Thus the mother urged her counsel,

Thus she spoke unto her daughter,

But the daughter did not heed her,

Heeded not her mother’s counsel

From the house she wandered weeping,

From the homestead went in sorrow,

And she said the words which follow,

And expressed herself in this wise:

“What may be the joyous feelings,

And the thoughts of one rejoicing?

Such may be the joyous feelings,

And the thoughts of one rejoicing;

Like the dancing of the water

On the waves when gently swelling.

What do mournful thoughts resemble?

What the long-tailed duck may ponder?

Such may mournful thoughts resenble,

Thus the long-tailed duck may ponder,

As ’neath frozen snow embedded,

Water deep in well imprisoned.

“Often now my life is clouded,

Often is my childhood troubled,

And my thoughts like withered herbage,

As I wander through the bushes,

Wandering on through grassy meadows,

Pushing through the tangled thickes,

And my thoughts are pitch for blackness

And my heart than soot not brighter.

“Better fortune had befel me,

And it would have been more happy

Had I not been born and nurtured,

And had never grown in stature,

Till I saw these days of sorrow,

And this joyless time o’ertook me,

Had I died in six nights only,

Or upon the eighth had perished.