"You Perkons, Laima too, and all the rest,
Will live on, known forever in your fame.
The Baltic people will at my behest
Sing songs heroic that preserve your name.
Throughout the future, song will bring them cheer,
And give them lightened spirit that, once more,
They take up arms to serve their homeland dear,
And for the cause of freedom go to war."
Scene 2: Bearslayer's destiny is revealed by Perkons
Staburadze tells of a wonder
These vows the Council brought now to its close-
Their homeward paths the gods departing sought.
When Staburadze last of all arose,
And with these words portentous tidings brought:
"I came this day straight from my palace home,
With eager news of what my eyes there saw.
It happened in the seething waters' foam,
The raging vortex of the maelstrom's maw."
"I sat aloft and spun the mists of night,
On Staburags's crag enthroned on high.
The shuttle filled and in the morning's light,
At cock's first crow the blushing dawn was nigh.
Then came two witches riding in the air,
Lit by the sun they flew in dawn's pale gleam;
On oaken branches twisted, gnarled and bare,
Across the Daugava sped above the stream."
"And down into the pool a staff they cast,
One of the two they through the heavens rode.
Then on the other homeward sped off fast,
To seek again their dread and drear abode.-
To learn the reason for this secret deed,
To look into the whirlpool's depths and see,
I flew down straight, and took of all good heed,
And drew the whirling branch secure to me."
"Then what strange sight before my eyes took form!
A handsome youth revealed in morning's grey,
Who lay within the log, his skin still warm,
Though swooning in a deathly faint he lay.
Forth from the log I drew the gasping lad,
And bore him to my home beneath the swells,
Within its crystal halls now warmly clad,
I laid him down upon a bed of shells."
"When signs of life with surging joy I saw,
To tell of this I hastened hence to you;
To learn great God of Thunder of your law,
To know your will and seek your further view.
For humankind within the maelstrom's jaws
Must lie for ever, turned to lifeless stone.
Our Staburags, augmented without pause,
Has by such plunder ever vaster grown."
"This youngster now I do desire to take
To dwell with me inside my castle gate.
For if he venture from the sacred lake,
To turn at once to stone will be his fate.
But in my Crystal Palace he can bide,
In human form the bloom of youth to see,
There, raised to safety from the river's tide,
To live his life in harmony with me."
Stern Tikla chaste, with strict words ever rife,
Spoke thus, fair Staburadze to berate:
"Perhaps to have eternal godly life
Our sister now does judge a tedious fate.
She does not wish so long alone to mourn
And wash the cliff with flood of bitter tears.
She wants the youth of human parents born,
And with him yearns to spend the passing years."