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My Kantele Truly they lie, they talk utter nonsense Who say that music reckon that the kantele Was fashioned by a god Out of a great pike’s shoulders From a water-dog’s hooked bones: It was made from the grief Moulded from sorrow Its belly out of hard days Its soundboard from endless woes Its strings [...]
Better it would be for me And better it would have been Had I not been born, not grown Not been brought into the world Not had to come to this earth Not been suckled for the world If I’d died a three-night-old Been lost in my swadding band I’d have needed but a span [...]
The Devil weds a widow Death another’s leftovers Better to lie on a willows Rest on alder boughs Than upon a widow’s bed On a used woman’s pillow Sweeter the side of a fence Than a widow’s flank Softer the side of a groove Than a widow’s beside is The Devil weds a widow The [...]
The calloo’s spirits are low Swimming on the chill water But the orphan’s are lower Walking down the village street The sparrow’s belly is chill Sitting on the icy bough But my belly is more chill As I step from glade to glade The dove’s heart is cold As it pecks the village rick But [...]
In the vale where I once listened out for the light Where the little birds warble The ptarmigans babble And my heart looked about for some rest from its trouble I cast my eyes downward upon the seaside And a fair young girl on the shore I espied Who was sitting and weeping To see [...]
Truly they lie, they talk utter noncense Who say that music reckon that one kantele Was fashioned by a god Out of a great pike’s shoulders >From a water-dogs’s hooked bones: It was made from the grief Moulded from sorrow Its belly out of hard days Its soundboard from endless woes Its strings gathered from [...]
Long evenings full of longing Low-spirited my mornings Full of longing too my nights And all the time the bitterest. ‘Tis my lovely I long for It is my darling I miss My black-browed one I grieve for. There’s no hearing my treasure No seeing my marten-breast No hearing her in the lane Driving below [...]
Old folk remember And those today learn How before their time Life was different here: Without the sun people lived Gropped about without the moon With candles sowing was done Planting performed with torches. At the time we lived Without the sunshine Who had covered up our sun And who had hidden our moon ? [...]
What the thrush toils at The partridge asks for The hapless one takes The troubled one steals Puts upon a spade Sets on a runner Hides under a door Shields with a bath-whisk The farmer hammers And tempers his spears Marries off his sons Hands out his daughters In boots clogged with clay In fancy [...]
Many rocks the rapid has A lot of billows the sea More plentiful are my cares Than cones on a spruce Beard moss on a juniper Gnarls upon a pine bark Knobs upon a fir Husks on a grass-top Boughs on a bad tree. Drag my cares away Carry off my griefs For no horse [...]