Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/229

Runo XLVI]

“Welcome, Otso, be thy coming,

Honey-pawed, who now approaches!

To our dwelling, freshly scoured,

To our household, now so charming.

“This I wished for all my lifetime,

All my youth I waited for it,

Tapio’s horn to hear resounding,

And to hear the wood-pipe whistling,

Wandering through the golden forest,

Coming through the silver woodland,

And our little house approaching,

And along the narrow pathway.

“I had hoped a year of fortune,

Waiting for the coming summer,

As for new-fallen snow the snowshoe,

Or a path for gliding suited,

As a maiden for her lover,

Or a consort for a red-cheek.

“In the eve I sat at window,

Morning, at the door of storehouse,

At the gate a week I waited,

And a month at pathway’s opening.

In the lane I stayed a winter,

Stood in snow while ground was hardened,

Till the hardened land grew softer,

And the soft ground turned to gravel,

And to sand was changed the gravel,

And the sand at length grew verdant,

And I pondered every morning,

In my head reflected daily,

‘Wherefore is the Bear delaying?

Why delays the forest’s darling?

Has he travelled to Esthonia,

Wandered from the land of Suomi?’”

Then the aged Väinämöinen

Answered in the words that follow:

“Where’s my guest to be conducted,

Whither shall I lead my gold one?

To the barn shall I conduct him

On a bed of straw to lay him?”