Runo IV.—The Fate of Aino
Argument
Väinämöinen meets Aino in the wood and addresses her (1-20). Aino hurries home weeping, and informs her mother (21-116). Her mother forbids her to weep, and tells her to rejoice, and to adorn herself handsomely (117-188). Aino continues to weep, and declares that she will never take a very old man as her husband (189-254). She wanders sorrowfully into the wild woods, and reaches the banks of a strange unknown lake, where she goes to bathe, and is lost in the water (255-370). The animals commission the hare to carry the tidings of Aino’s death to her home (371-434). Her mother weeps for her night and day (435-5l8).
Then the little maiden Aino,
Youthful Joukahainen’s sister,
Went for besoms to the greenwood,
Sought for bath-whisks in the bushes;
One she gathered for her father,
And a second for her mother,
And she gathered yet another,
For her young and ruddy brother.
As she turned her footsteps homeward,
Pushing through the alder-bushes,10
Came the aged Väinämöinen,
And he saw her in the thicket,
Finely clad among the herbage,
And he spoke the words which follow:
“Maiden, do not wear for others,
But for me alone, O maiden,
Round thy neck a beaded necklace,
And a cross upon thy bosom.
Plait for me thy beauteous tresses,
Bind thy hair with silken ribands.”20
But the young maid gave him answer,
“Not for thee, and not for others,
Rests the cross upon my bosom,
And my hair is bound with ribands.
