Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/86

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But a bearded hero weeping;

Thus weep men whose chins are bearded.”

Three planks high the boat was builded,

Which she pushed into the water,

And herself began to row it,

And she rowed, and hastened onward

To the spot where Väinämöinen,

Where the hero was lamenting.

There was Väinämöinen weeping,

There Uvanto’s swain lamented,

By the dreary clumps of willow,

By the tangled hedge of cherry.

Moved his mouth, his beard was shaking,

But his lips he did not open.

Then did Pohjola’s old Mistress,

Speak unto, and thus addressed him:

“O thou aged man unhappy,

Thou art in a foreign country!”

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Lifted up his head and answered

In the very words that follow:

“True it is, and well I know it,

I am in a foreign country,

Absolutely unfamiliar.

I was better in my country,

Greater in the home I came from.”

Louhi, Pohjola’s old Mistress,

Answered in the words which follow:

“In the first place you must tell me,

If I may make bold to ask you,

From what race you take your lineage,

And from what heroic nation?”

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Answered in the words which follow:

“Well my name was known aforetime,

And in former days was famous,

Ever cheerful in the evening,

Ever singing in the valleys,

There in Väinölä’s sweet meadows,

And on Kalevala’s broad heathlands;