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Runo XLVI]
Väinämöinen and Bear
227

On a golden mountain’s summit,
On a copper mountain’s summit.590
In a splendid tree I laid him,
Pine-tree with a hundred needles,
In the very largest branches,
In the broad and leafy summit,
As a joy to men for ever,
And a pleasure to the travellers.
“Then I turned his gums to eastward,
And his eyes I turned to north-west,
Not too high upon the summit,
Lest if they were in the summit,600
Then the wind might perhaps destroy them,
And the spring wind treat them badly.
Nor too near the ground I placed them,
Lest if I too low had laid them,
Then the pigs might perhaps disturb them,
And the snouted ones o’erturn them.”
Then the aged Väinämöinen
Once again prepared for singing,
For a splendid evening’s pleasure,
And a charm to day departing.610
Said the aged Väinämöinen,
And in words like these expressed him:
“Keep thy light, O holder, shining,
So that I can see while singing,
For the time has come for singing,
And my mouth to sing is longing.”
Played and sang old Väinämöinen,
Charming all throughout the evening,
And when he had ceased his singing,
Then a speech he made concluding:620
“Grant, O Jumala, in future,
Once again, O good Creator,
That once more we meet rejoicing,
And may once again assemble
Here to feast on bear so fattened,
Feasting on the shaggy creature.
“Grant, O Jumala, for ever,
Grant again, O good Creator,