Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/32

12

On the cloud-encompassed headland,

On the peaceful island’s summit,

What they mowed, they raked together,

And in heaps the hay collected.

From the ocean rose up Tursas,

From the waves arose the hero,

And the heaps of hay he kindled,

And the flames arose in fury.

All was soon consumed to ashes,

Till the sparks were quite extinguished.

Then among the heaps of ashes,

In the dryness of the ashes,

There a tender germ he planted,

Tender germ, of oak an acorn

Whence the beauteous plant sprang upward,

And the sapling grew and flourished,

As from earth a strawberry rises,

And it forked in both directions.

Then the branches wide extended,

And the leaves were thickly scattered,

And the summit rose to heaven,

And its leaves in air expanded.

In their course the clouds it hindered,

And the driving clouds impeded,

And it hid the shining sunlight,

And the gleaming of the moonlight.

Then the aged Väinämöinen,

Pondered deeply and reflected,

“Is there none to fell the oak-tree,

And o’erthrow the tree majestic?

Sad is now the life of mortals,

And for fish to swim is dismal,

Since the air is void of sunlight,

And the gleaming of the moonlight.”

But they could not find a hero,

Nowhere find a man so mighty,

Who could fell the giant oak-tree,

With its hundred spreading branches.

Then the aged Väinämöinen,

Spoke the very words which follow: