And the mother spoke as follows,
As she listened to the cuckoo:
“Never may a hapless mother
Listen to the cuckoo crying!
When I hear the cuckoo calling,
Heavy beats my heart within me.510
From my eyes the tears are falling,
O’er my cheeks are waters rolling,
And the drops like peas are swelling,
Than the largest broad-beans larger.
By an ell my life is shortened,
By a span-length I am older,
And my strength has wholly failed me,
Since I heard the cuckoo calling.”
Runo V.—Väinämöinen’s Fishing
Argument
Väinämöinen fishes for Joukahainen’s sister in the lake, and draws her into his boat in the form of a fish (1-72). He is about to cut her to pieces when she slips from his hand into the lake, and tells him who she is (73-133). Väinämöinen tries to persuade her to return to him, and then fishes for her, but in vain (134-163). He returns home disconsolate, and his dead mother advises him to woo the Maiden of Pohja (164-241).
Now the tidings were repeated,
And the news was widely rumoured,
How the youthful maid had perished,
And the fair one had departed.
Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,
Deeply sorrowed at the tidings;
Wept at evening, wept at morning,
Spent the livelong night in weeping,
For the fair one who had perished,
For the maiden who had slumbered,10
In the muddy lake downsunken
To the depths below the billows.
