Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/21

Runo XXVI]

Floating overgrown with pond-weed,

O’er the raging cataract driven,

Down the stream in rushing waters.

Thou hast known the Falls of Tuoni,

Manala’s dread stream hast measured,

There would’st thou to-day be swimming,

But for thine unhappy mother!

“Listen now to what I tell thee.

When to Pohjola thou comest,

All the slope with stakes is bristling,

And the yard with poles is bristling,

All with heads of men surmounted,

And one stake alone is vacant,

And to fill the stake remaining,

Will they cut thy head from off thee.”

Answered lively Lemminkainen,

Said the handsome Kaukomieli:

“Let a weakling ponder o’er it,

Let the worthless find such ending!

After five or six years’ warfare,

Seven long summers spent in battle,

Not a hero would concern him,

Nor retire a step before it.

Therefore bring me now my mail-shirt,

And my well-tried battle armour;

I my father’s sword will fetch me,

And my father’s sword-blade look to.

In the cold it long was lying,

In a dark place long was hidden;

There has it been ever weeping,

For a hero who should wield it.”

Thereupon he took his mail-shirt,

Took his well-tried battle armour,

And his father’s trusty weapon,

Sword his father always wielded,

And against the ground he thrust it,

On the floor the point he rested,

With his hand the sword he bended

Like the fresh crown of the cherry,

Or the juniper when growing.