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

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!160
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,170
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.180
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,190