Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/28

8

Wheresoe’er her feet she rested,

There she formed the caves for fishes;

When she dived beneath the water,

There she formed the depths of ocean;

When towards the land she turned her,

There the level shores extended,

Where her feet to land extended,

Spots were formed for salmon-netting;

Where her head the land touched lightly,

There the curving bays extended.

Further from the land she floated,

And abode in open water,

And created rocks in ocean,

And the reefs that eyes behold not,

Where the ships are often shattered,

And the sailors’ lives are ended.

Now the isles were formed already,

In the sea the rocks were planted;

Pillars of the sky established,

Lands and continents created;

Rocks engraved as though with figures,

And the hills were cleft with fissures.

Still unborn was Väinämöinen;

Still unborn, the bard immortal.

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Rested in his mother’s body

For the space of thirty summers,

And the sum of thirty winters,

Ever on the placid waters,

And upon the foaming billows.

So he pondered and reflected

How he could continue living

In a resting-place so gloomy,

In a dwelling far too narrow,

Where he could not see the moonlight,

Neither could behold the sunlight.

Then he spake the words which follow,

And expressed his thoughts in this wise:

“Aid me Moon, and Sun release me,

And the Great Bear lend his counsel,