Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/94

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But the maid gave crafty answer,

“I perchance at length may join you,

If you’ll peel the stone I give you,

And a pile of ice will hew me,

But no splinter scatter from it,

Nor the smallest fragment loosen.”

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Did not find the task a hard one.

From the stone the rind he severed,

And a pile of ice he hewed her,

But no splinters scattered from it,

Nor the smallest fragment loosened.

Then again he asked the maiden

In the sledge to sit beside him.

But the maid gave crafty answer,

And she spoke the words which follow:

“No, I will not yet go with you,

If a boat you cannot carve me,

From the splinters of my spindle,

From the fragments of my shuttle,

And shall launch the boat in water,

Push it out upon the billows,

But no knee shall press against it,

And no hand must even touch it;

And no arm shall urge it onward,

Neither shall a shoulder guide it.”

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Answered in the words which follow:

“None in any land or country,

Under all the vault of heaven,

Like myself can build a vessel,

Or so deftly can construct it.”

Then he took the spindle-splinters,

Of the reel he took the fragments,

And began the boat to fashion,

Fixed a hundred planks together,

On a mount of steel he built it,

Built it on the rocks of iron.

At the boat with zeal he laboured,

Toiling at the work unresting,