Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/121

Runo X]

“None despair, except old women,

Scamps may leave their task unfinished;

Not a man, how weak soever,

Not a hero of the laziest!”

For his forge he sought a station,

And a wide place for the bellows,

In the country round about him,

In the outer fields of Pohja.

So he sought one day, a second,

And at length upon the third day

Found a stone all streaked with colours,

And a mighty rock beside it.

Here the smith his search abandoned,

And the smith prepared his furnace,

On the first day fixed the bellows,

And the forge upon the second.

Thereupon smith Ilmarinen,

He the great primeval craftsman,

Heaped the fuel upon the fire,

And beneath the forge he thrust it,

Made his servants work the bellows,

To the half of all their power.

So the servants worked the bellows,

To the half of all their power.

During three days of the summer,

During three nights of the summer.

Stones beneath their heels were resting,

And upon their toes were boulders.

On the first day of their labour

He himself, smith Ilmarinen,

Stooped him down, intently gazing,

To the bottom of the furnace,

If perchance amid the fire

Something brilliant had developed.

From the flames there rose a crossbow,

Golden bow from out the furnace;

’Twas a gold bow tipped with silver,

And the shaft shone bright with copper.

And the bow was fair to gaze on,

But of evil disposition,