Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/177

Runo XLI]

When they heard the strains unwonted,

And they heard the skilful playing,

In the waves they dropped the brushes,

Dropped the comb among the lake-waves,

And their hair unsmoothed was hanging,

Nor they smoothed it in the middle.

E’en the Mistress of the Waters,

Water-Mother, towards the rushes,

From the lake herself ascended,

Raised herself from out the billows,

Quickly moved her to the rushes,

Climbed a rock in water standing,

And she listened to the music,

And to Väinämöinen playing,

Listened to the wondrous music,

And to the delightful playing,

And she fell in deepest slumber,

Sank upon the ground in slumber,

On the mottled rocky surface,

Underneath a great rock’s shelter.

Then the aged Väinämöinen,

Played one day, and played a second.

There was none among the heroes,

None among the men so mighty,

None among the men or women,

None of those whose hair is plaited,

Whom he did not move to weeping,

And whose hearts remained unmelted.

Wept the young and wept the aged,

All the married men were weeping,

Likewise all the married women,

And the half-grown boys were weeping,

All the boys, and all the maidens,

Likewise all the little children,

When they heard the tones so wondrous,

And the noble sage’s music.

He himself, old Väinämöinen,

Felt his own tears rolling downward,

From his eyes the tears dropped downward,

And the water-drops fell downward;