Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/27

Runo I]

Rolled the eggs into the water,

Down amid the waves of ocean,

And to splinters they were broken,

And to fragments they were shattered.

In the ooze they were not wasted,

Nor the fragments in the water,

But a wondrous change came o’er them,

And the fragments all grew lovely.

From the cracked egg’s lower fragment,

Now the solid earth was fashioned,

From the cracked egg’s upper fragment,

Rose the lofty arch of heaven,

From the yolk, the upper portion,

Now became the sun’s bright lustre;

From the white, the upper portion,

Rose the moon that shines so brightly;

Whatso in the egg was mottled,

Now became the stars in heaven,

Whatso in the egg was blackish,

In the air as cloudlets floated.

Now the time passed quickly over,

And the years rolled quickly onward,

In the new sun’s shining lustre,

In the new moon’s softer beaming.

Still the Water-Mother floated,

Water-Mother, maid aërial,

Ever on the peaceful waters,

On the billows’ foamy surface,

With the moving waves before her,

And the heaven serene behind her.

When the ninth year had passed over,

And the summer tenth was passing,

From the sea her head she lifted,

And her forehead she uplifted,

And she then began Creation,

And she brought the world to order,

On the open ocean’s surface,

On the far extending waters.

Wheresoe’er her hand she pointed,

There she formed the jutting headlands;