Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/201

Runo XVII]

Vipunen, in songs most famous,

Spoke aloud the words which follow:

“Who among mankind can this be,

Who among the roll of heroes?

I have gulped a hundred heroes,

And a thousand men devoured,

But his like I never swallowed.

In my mouth the coals are rising,

On my tongue are firebrands resting,

In my throat is slag of iron.

“Go thou forth to wander, strange one,

Pest of earth, at once depart thou,

Ere I go to seek thy mother,

Seek thy very aged mother.

If I told it to thy mother,

Told the aged one the story,

Great would be thy mother’s trouble,

Great the aged woman’s sorrow,

That her son should work such evil,

And her child should act so basely.

“Still I hardly comprehend it,

Do not comprehend the reason,

How thou, Hiisi, here hast wandered,

Why thou cam’st, thou evil creature,

Thus to bite, and thus to torture,

Thus to eat, and thus to gnaw me.

Art thou some disease-created

Death that Jumala ordains me,

Or art thou another creature,

Fashioned and unloosed by others,

Hired beforehand to torment me,

Or hast thou been bribed with money?

“If thou art disease-created,

Death by Jumala ordained me,

Then I trust in my Creator,

And to Jumala resign me;

For the good the Lord rejects not,

Nor does he destroy the righteous.

“If thou art another creature,

And an evil wrought by others,