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Elegy - 96 |
1. BETTER UNBORN -Holopainen- Better it would be for me And better it would have been Had I not been born, not grown Not been brought into the world Not had to come to his earth Not been suckled for the world If I'd died a three-night-old Been lost in my swadding band I'd have needed by a span of cloth A span more of wood, But a cubit of good earth Two words from the priest Three verses from the cantor Once clang from the bell2. AGAINST WIDOWS -Laine- The Devil weds the widow Death another's leftovers Better to lie on a willows Rest of alder boughs Than upon the widow's bed On a used woman's pillow Sweeter the side of a fence Than a widow's flank Softer the side of a grove Than a widow's beside is The Devil weds a widow The grave one twice wed A widow's hand is rougher Than a dry spurce bough With which she strikes the playful Grabs the one who laughs A widow has had her games And spent a merry evening 3. THE ORPHAN -Holopainen & Laine- The callo's spirits are low Swimming on the chill water But the orphan's are lower Walking down the village street The sparrow's belly is chill Sitting on the icy leafbough But my belly is more chill As I step from glade to glade The dove's heart is cold As it pecks the village rick But I'm colder still As I drink the icy water 4. ON RICH AND POOR -Holopainen & Rantala- Old folk remember And those today learn How before their time Life was different here: Without the sun people lived Grouped about without the moon With candle sowing was done Planting preformed with torches At the time we lived Without the sunshine Who had cover up our sun And who had hidden our moon ? Without the moonlight stumbled With our fists fumbled the land With our hands we sought out roads With hands roads, with fingers swamps We could not live without sun Not manage without a moonlight; Who would seek out the sun Who spy out the moon ? Who else if not God The one son of God ? 5. MY KANTELE -Holopainen- Truly they lie, they talk utter non-sence Who say that music recon that the kantele Was fashioned by a God Out of a great pike's shoulders From a water-dog's hooked bones: It was made from the grief Moulded from sorrow Its belly out of hard days Its sound board from endless woes Its strings gathered from torments And its pegs from other ills So it will not play, will not rejoice at all Music will not play to please Give off the right sort of joy For it was fashioned from cares Moulded from sorrow 6. CARES -Koivusaari, Holopainen & Laine- Many rocks the rapid has A lot of billows the sea More plentiful are my cares Than comes on a spruce Beard moss an a juniper Gnarls upon a pine bark Knobs upon a fir Husks on a grass-top Drag my cares away Carry off my griefs For no horse can draw No iron-shod jerk Without the shaft-bow shaking off The cares of this skinny one The sorrows of this black bird 7. SONG OF THE TROUBLED ONE -Holopainen & Laine- What the trust toils at The partridge asks for The hapless one takes The troubled one steals Puts upon a spade Sets on a runner Hides under a door Shields with a bath-whisk The farmer hammers And tempers his spears Marries off his sons Hands out his daughters In boots clogged with clay In fancy mittens The sea-swell rumbles And the wind it blow And the king hears it From six directions From seven backwoods From eight heaths away 8. WEEPER ON THE SHORE -Laine & Rantala- In the way where I once listened out for the light Where the little birds warble The ptarmigans babble And my heart looked about for some rest from its trouble I cast my eyes downward upon the seaside And a fair young girl on the shore I espied Who was sitting and weeping To see the waves leaping And over the sky line sad vigil was keeping O why are you weeping alone on the shore ? Now still from your eyes I can see the tears pour What sorrow and smart So pierces you heart That even at midnight it will not depart ? 9. ELEGY -Rantala- Long evening full of longing Low-spirited my mornings Full of longing to my nights And all times the bitterest This my lovely I long for It is my darling I miss My black-browed one I grieve for Beneath the grass my treasure Under the sand my sweet one There's no hearing my treasure No seeing my marten-breast No hearing her in the lane Driving below the window Chopping the wood by the stack Clinking outside the cook-house: In the earth my berry lies In the soil she's mouldering Under the sand my sweet one Beneath the grass my treasure The one I grieve for 10. RELIEF (Instrumental) -Laine- 11. MY KANTELE (Acoustic reprise) -Holopainen-
