Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/107

Runo IX]

Thou thyself hast wrought the evil,

And hast done a deadly outrage.

Come thyself to see the mischief,

And to remedy the evil.

Come, before I tell thy mother,

And complain unto thy parents,

More will be thy mother's trouble,

Great the anguish of thy parents,

That their son had wrought this evil,

And their son had wrought this folly.

“Hear me, Blood, and cease thy flowing,

O thou Bloodstream, rush no longer,

Nor upon my head spirt further,

Nor upon my breast down-trickle.

Like a wall, O Blood, arrest thee,

Like a fence, O Bloodstream, stand thou,

As a flag in lakelet standing,

Like a reed in moss-grown country,

Like the bank that bounds the cornfield,

Like a rock in raging torrent.

“But thy own sense ought to teach thee

How that thou should’st run more smoothly.

In the flesh should’st thou be moving,

With thy current smoothly flowing.

In the body is it better,

Underneath the skin more lovely

Through the veins to trace thy pathway,

With thy current smoothly flowing,

Than upon the earth rush downward,

And among the dust to trickle.

“Flow not, milk, upon the flooring,

Soil thou not, O Blood, the meadows,

Nor the grass, O crown of manhood,

Nor the hillocks, gold of heroes.

In the heart should be thy dwelling,

And among the lungs’ dark cellars.

Thither then withdraw thou quickly,

There withdraw upon the instant.

Do not issue like a river,

Nor as pond extend thy billows,