Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/61

Runo IV]

Much I should not then have needed,

But a shroud a span-long only,

And of earth a tiny corner.

Little then had wept my mother,

Fewer tears had shed my father,

And my brother not a tearlet.”

Thus she wept a day, a second,

And again her mother asked her,

“Wherefore dost thou weep, poor maiden,

Wherefore thus lament and sorrow?”

“Therefore weep I, hapless maiden,

Therefore do I weep for ever,

That yourself have pledged me, hapless,

And your daughter you have promised

Thus to be an old man’s comfort,

As a solace to the old man,

To support his feeble footsteps,

And to wait upon him always.

Better were it had you sent me

Deeply down beneath the billows,

There to be the powan’s sister,

And companion of the fishes.

In the lake ’tis surely better

There beneath the waves to sojourn,

There to be the powan’s sister,

And companion of the fishes,

Than to be an old man’s comfort,

To support his aged footsteps,

So that I can mend his stockings,

And may be a staff to prop him.”

Then she sought the mountain storehouse,

And the inner room she entered;

And the finest chest she opened,

Raised the painted lid with clangour,

And she found six golden girdles,

Seven blue robes of finest texture,

And she robed her in the finest,

And completed her adornment.

Set the gold upon her temples,

On her hair the shining silver,