Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/210

Rh

Tore the wind my green cloak from me,

Frost my pretty dress from off me.

Thus am I of all the poorest,

And a most unhappy birch-tree,

Standing stripped of all my clothing,

As a naked trunk I stand here,

And in cold I shake and tremble,

And in frost I stand lamenting.”

Said the aged Väinämöinen,

“Weep no more, O verdant birch-tree!

Leafy sapling, weep no longer,

Thou, equipped with whitest girdle,

For a pleasant future waits thee,

New and charming joys await thee.

Soon shall thou with joy be weeping,

Shortly shalt thou sing for pleasure.”

Then the aged Väinämöinen

Carved into a harp the birch-tree,

On a summer day he carved it,

To a kantele he shaped it,

At the end of cloudy headland,

And upon the shady island,

And the harp-frame he constructed,

From the trunk he formed new pleasure,

And the frame of toughest birchwood;

From the mottled trunk he formed it.

Said the aged Väinämöinen

In the very words which follow:

“Now the frame I have constructed,

From the trunk for lasting pleasure.

Whence shall now the screws be fashioned,

Whence shall come the pegs to suit me?”

In the yard there grew an oak-tree,

By the farmyard it was standing,

’Twas an oak with equal branches,

And on every branch an acorn,

In the acorns golden kernels,

On each kernel sat a cuckoo.

When the cuckoos all were calling,

In the call five tones were sounding,