Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/61

Runo XXIX]

Since by night he dare not tarry,

Nor by day could linger longer,

For the island-maidens’ pleasure,

Sporting with unbraided damsels.

Spoke the lively Lemminkainen,

Said the handsome Kaukomieli:

“Now the youth must take departure,

And must travel from these dwellings,

Joyless leave behind these damsels,

Dance no longer with the fair ones.

Surely when I have departed,

And have left this land behind me,

Never will rejoice these damsels,

Nor unbraided girls be jesting,

In their homes so full of sadness,

In the courtyards now so dreary.”

Wept the island girls already,

Damsels at the cape lamented:

“Wherefore goest thou, Lemminkainen,

And departest, hero-bridegroom?

Dost thou go for maidens’ coyness,

Or for scarcity of women?”

Spoke the lively Lemminkainen,

Said the handsome Kaukomieli,

“’Tis not for the maidens’ coyness,

Nor the scarcity of women.

I have had a hundred women,

And embraced a thousand maidens;

Thus departeth Lemminkainen,

Quits you thus your hero-bridegroom,

Since the great desire has seized me,

Longing for my native country,

Longing for my own land’s strawberries,

For the slopes where grow the raspberries,

For the maidens on the headland,

And the poultry of my farmyard.”

Then the lively Lemminkainen

Pushed into the waves the vessel,

Blew the wind, and then it blustered,

Rising waves drove on the vessel

Rh