Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/84

64

When fell Kaleva’s green forest,

Cleared was Osmola’s famed island,

But thou didst protect the birch-tree,

And the beauteous tree left’st standing,

That the birds might rest upon it,

And that I myself might sit there.”

Then the aged Väinämöinen

Raised his head from out the water,

From the sea the man sprang upward,

From the waves the hero mounted,

On the eagle’s wings he sat him,

On the wing-tips of the eagle.

Then the bird of air, the eagle,

Raised the aged Väinämöinen,

Through the path of wind he bore him,

And along the east-wind’s pathway,

To the utmost bounds of Pohja,

Onwards to the misty Sariola,

There abandoned Väinämöinen,

Soared into the air, and left him.

There stood Väinämöinen weeping,

There stood weeping and lamenting,

On the borders of the ocean,

On a land whose name he knew not,

With a hundred wounds upon him,

By a thousand winds belaboured,

And his beard was much disordered,

And his hair was all entangled.

Thus he wept for two, and three nights,

For as many days stood weeping,

For the country round he knew not,

And no path could he discover,

Which perchance might lead him homeward,

Back to a familiar country,

To his own, his native country,

Where he passed his days aforetime.

But the little maid of Pohja,

Fair-haired damsel of the household,

With the sun had made agreement,

And both sun and moon had promised,