Said the aged Väinämöinen,
"There are none among the youthful,
Nor among the growing people,
Nor among the aged people,
Who can play upon these harpstrings,
Drawing cheerful music from them.
Perhaps in Pohjola 'twere better,
Tunes might perhaps be played upon it, 290
Cheerful music played upon it,
If to Pohjola I took it."
So to Pohjola he took it,
And to Sariola he brought it,
And the boys they played upon it,
Boys and girls both played upon it,
And the married men played on it,
Likewise all the married women,
And the Mistress played upon it,
And they turned the harp and twisted, 300
Held it firmly in their fingers,
At the tips of their ten fingers.
Thus played all the youths of Pohja,
People played of every station,
But no cheerful notes came from it,
And they played no music on it,
For the strings were all entangled,
And the horsehair whined most sadly,
And the notes were all discordant,
And the music all was jarring. 310
In the corner slept a blind man,
By the stove there lay an old man,
And beside the stove he wakened.
From the stove he raised an outcry,
From his couch he grumbled loudly,
And he grumbled, and he mumbled,
"Leave it off, and stop your playing,
Cut it short and finish quickly,
For the noise my ears is bursting,
Through my head the noise is echoing, 320
And through all my hair I feel it,
For a week you've made me sleepless.
"And the harp of Suomi's people
Cannot really give us pleasure,
Lulls us not to sleep when weary,
Nor to rest does it incline us.
Cast it forth upon the waters,
Sink it down beneath the billows,
Send it back to where it came from,
And the instrument deliver 330
To the hands of those who made it,
To the fingers which constructed."
With its tongue the harp made answer,
As the kantele resounded:
"No, I will not sink in water,
Nor will rest beneath the billows,
But will play for a musician,
Play for him who toiled to make me."
Carefully the harp they carried,
And with greatest care conveyed it 340
Back to him whose hands had made it,
To the knees of its constructor.
Runo XLI.—Väinämöinen's Music
Argument