Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/214

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Then he spoke the words which follow,

And in words like these expressed him:

“Enter, Jumala, my vessel,

Enter here, O thou most gracious,

Strengthen thou the hero’s weakness,

And the weakling do thou cherish,

On these far-extending waters,

On the wide expanse of billows.

“Breathe, O wind, upon the vessel,

Drive, O wave, the boat before thee,

That I need not row with fingers,

Nor may thus disturb the waters,

On the wide expanse of ocean,

Out upon the open ocean.”

Annikki, the ever-famous,

Night’s fair daughter, maid of twilight,

Long before the day had risen,

Early in the morn had wakened,

And had washed her clothes and spread them,

And had rinsed and wrung the clothing,

Where the red steps reach the furthest,

Where the planking is the broadest,

Out upon the misty headland,

On the shady island’s ending.

Then she turned and gazed around her,

In the cloudless air surrounding,

And she gazed aloft to heaven,

And from shore across the water,

And above the sun was shining,

And below the waves were gleaming.

O’er the waves her eyes were glancing,

To the south her head was turning,

To the mouth of Suomi’s river,

Where the stream of Väinöla opens.

On the sea a blotch she sighted,

Something blue among the billows.

Then she spoke the words which follow,

And in terms like these expressed her:

“What’s this speck upon the ocean,

What this blue upon the billows?