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Runo XLVI]
Väinämöinen and Bear
215

Be not filled with causeless anger,
I myself have not o’erthrown thee,110
Thou thyself hast left the forest,
Wandered from thy pine-tree covert,
Thou hast torn away thy clothing,
Ripped thy grey cloak in the thicket.
Slippery is this autumn weather,
Cloudy are the days and misty.
“Golden cuckoo of the forest,
Shaggy-haired and lovely creature,
Do thou quit thy chilly dwelling,
Do thou quit thy native desert,120
And thy home of birchen branches,
Wattled wigwam where thou dwellest.
Go to wander in the open,
O thou beauty of the forest,
On thy light shoes wandering onward,
Marching in thy blue-hued stockings,
Leaving now this little dwelling.
Do thou leave this narrow dwelling,
Leave it for the mighty heroes,
To the race of men resign it.130
There are none will treat thee badly,
And no wretched life awaits thee.
For thy food they’ll give thee honey,
And for drink, of mead the freshest,
When thou goest to a distance,
Whither with the staff they guide thee.
“From this place depart thou quickly,
From thy little nest depart thou,
From beneath these famous rafters,
From beneath this roof so handsome;140
Glide along upon thy snowshoes,
As on pond a water-lily,
Then glide on among the fir-trees,
Like a squirrel in the branches.”
Then the aged Väinämöinen,
He the great primeval minstrel,
Walked across the plains, loud-playing,
O’er the heath he wandered singing,