Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/188

168

Youthful Sampsa Pellervoinen

Further yet pursued his journey,

And he wandered, deeply pondering,

In the region to the southward,

Till he found an oak-tree standing,

Fathoms nine its boughs extended.

And he thus addressed and asked it:

“O thou oak-tree, shall I take thee,

For the keel to make a vessel,

The foundation of a warship?”

And the oak-tree answered wisely,

Answered thus the acorn-bearer:

“Yes, indeed, my wood is suited

For the keel to make a vessel,

Neither slender ’tis, nor knotted,

Nor within its substance hollow.

Thrice already in this summer,

In the brightest days of summer,

Through my midst the sunbeams wandered.

On my crown the moon was shining,

In my branches cried the cuckoos,

In my boughs the birds were resting.”

Youthful Sampsa Pellervoinen

Took the axe from off his shoulder,

With his axe he smote the tree-trunk,

With the blade he smote the oak-tree,

Speedily he felled the oak-tree,

And the beauteous tree had fallen.

First he hewed it through the summit,

All the trunk he cleft in pieces,

After this the keel he fashioned,

Planks so many none could count them,

For the vessel of the minstrel,

For the boat of Väinämöinen.

Then the aged Väinämöinen,

He the great primeval sorcerer,

Fashioned then the boat with wisdom,

Built with magic songs the vessel,

From the fragments of an oak-tree,

Fragments of the shattered oak-tree.