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After the Kalevala: "Snow arrives as smoke in the yard." Canto 10 A CHARM FOR SINGERS
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| when Väinämoinen fished for the
virgin when the old singer's grief caught his salmon the line caught the beautiful fish the young flesh, the virginal maiden do not weave with your silk seining nets do not send your daughters to marry old men without love woe quells their songs the beautiful voice of the singer the birdsong of mocking embrace in the fish and the cliff under water in the marble betrayal of bread in the homely bread of the wife in the rising dough of the mother in the yeast and the kneading of touch you must sing a grief lay at sauna |
in old songs of cuckoos and
warblers hornets hum in birchbark woods seek your song in the flight of the bear you must dupe the virginal girl do not wed old men's divinations block your ears to Vellamo's lays in the caverns of Tuonela's whirlpool your song will be strong and alive © Jane Piirto 1999 Tryptich by Akseli Gallen-Kallela |
