SINGING OF THE WAVE

Juhani Siljo(1888-1918)

How a wave of the stream could stay

with you, flower of the shore -?

Its destiny is to wander away

always forth, into eternity.

Only a moment by you to linger

and caress your stem it can,

- to its bosom a note of longing sticks,

but a more eternal longing gave

the great home of the straying wave,

whose happiness hidden is

beyond a voyage bleak, alien,

beyond many desolate days.

- How could a wave of the stream stay

with you, flower of the shore -?

Your destiny to stay is, - and away,

away the destiny of the far waves.

Aallon laulua has been translated from the page 168 of the anthology Jo valkenee kaukainen ranta: Suomalaisia runoja(1989), which was edited by Hannu Sarala.

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