JOST A MON

The idle ramblings of a Jack of some trades, Master of none

Sep 14, 2013

Kalevipoeg

   Seda ma lauluna lõksutelen 
Võõraste kuulijate kõrva; 
Armsamad kevadised kaimud 
Varisenud mulla alla, 
   Kuhu mu lusti lõõritusi, 
Kurvastuse kukutusi, 
Ihkava meele igatsusi 
Koolja kuulmesse ei kosta. 
   Üksinda, lindu, laulan ma lusti, 
Kukun üksi kurba kägu, 
Häälitsen üksi igatsusi, 
Kuni närtsin nurmedella.

These are lines from the opening invocation, Soovituseks, of the Estonian epic poem Kalevipoeg, by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald.

I will sing these out as a song, 
into the ears of listening strangers, 
my springtime companions
are settled beneath the soil,

to where my hoping rhymes
my sad trilling
the yearnings of a mournful spirit 
cannot be heard by the dead.

Alone, a bird, I sing out
I trill alone, a poor cuckoo,
I give voice to my yearnings 
until I wither on the meadow.

Translation by Thomas A. DuBois, "The Narrator’s Voice in Kalevala and Kalevipoeg", Oral Tradition, (15) 1, pp. 126-144.

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