Eino Leino's poems

 Here a quotation from my blog text about the seasons in Finland, with Eino Leino's poems quoted in it, http://finnishskills.blogspot.fi/2014/11/living-with-seasons.html .

"I have used to think that poet Eino Leino's day is 6th of June (and not of July) and that has been good so, when the greater art's civiliced wisdom conquers book knowledge from school, work and studies, so one does not get squeezed but is left with enough room for life. Eino Leino's poems are beautiful nature, love and the laws governing life poems, old, touching, among the most famous in Finland.

"The Song of the Sage Väinämöinen



There aren't many joys given to a human child:
One the joy of spring
and another of summer
and third of high, clear autumn's joy.
Plough, saw,
harvest,
rest at last in peace from labour.


There aren't many sorrows given to a human child:
One a sorrow of one's heart,
another worry of living,
and third of high, strict death's sorrow.
A friend betrays,
life leaves you,
magic is hero's only work and enthusiasm.

Why would sing I, to whom kantele was given,
other joys
and other sorrows?
I cannot count the stars of the sky,
neither the fishes of the sea,
not the flowers of the grasses.
So I sing of what a human is given to sing about.


Men should not sing knowledge, skills,
not bring forth them.
A hero is allowed
to sing only, how years change and weeks,
how sparks get lighted
and dimmen away again
and how goes the law of death and life.

All else is just glimmering of the sky,
fakegold,
splash of the waves.
A hero ought to sing like the sea,
as great, holy,
something to be afraid of,
tender like the resting night over the lands.

There are many songs, also many men of songs.
There is one song
above the others:
humans' ideal's, spirit's strict song.
Peoples disappear,
what does not disappear
is the might sung by a great one knowing the soul of one's people."

Eino Leino (My translation)

"Grave song

Restless is the river and waves roll,
sea alone is great and sea lovely.
Sleep river in the arms of the sea.

Wind wanders and leaf flies.
Happy the one who was in time in a valley.
Sleep leaf in the arms of the valley.

When the day rises, the star fades away.
One does not fade away for forever, the one who left from life.
Sleep star in the arms of the day."

Eino leino (My translation)

"I wander the paths of the forest

I wander the paths of the forest
on a summer evening thinking deeply by myself
and my chest enlargens of joy
and I sing, just sing.

There in the lush woods under a hill
it was strange a moment ago
so slight, wonderful
under the green leaves of trees.

I, a man, only know it,
only me and somebody else
and the lush wood's loving bird
and a tree in flower spreading it's scent."

Eino Leino (My translation)

"Nocturne

Dark wheat bird's song in my ears,
above the wheat seeds full moon;
summer nights happiness is mine,
to a mist dresses themselves the valleys.
I am not joyful, I am not sad or sighing;
but bring to me forest's dark colours,
the red of the clouds to which day vanishes,
faraway sight of a windy hill that sleeps,
the scent of tiny pink flowers and the shadows of lakes;
of these I weave my heart's song.

To you I sing miss, summer grass,
my heart's great silence,
my religion, sing as melodies,
an oak leaves head decoration lush, new.
I am no longer tracing vanishing fake lights,
in my hand happiness's gold,
life's sphere around me gets smaller;
time stops, wind indicator sleeps;
in my front a twilighty road
leads to an unfamiliar cottage."

Eino Leino (My translation)

"When my woman left

I did not get, my dear woman,
any other souvenir from you,
than only your foot print left on my home shore -
took the waves that too from me already."

Eino Leino  (My translation)


If one knows how to stay warm, knows the Finnish seasons and the Finnish wilderness, the old Finnish paintings in Ateneum Art Museum are a fine experience."

 20.7.2022   Of how one sings in the poem

"I wander the paths of the forest
on a summer evening thinking deeply by myself
and my chest enlargens of joy
and I sing, just sing."

One could think of feeling like singing since it is such a fine weather with some nature ( trees? ) around.