Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/247

Runo XLVII]

Down he gulped the streak of fire,

And extinguished thus its brightness.

“Then retired the Lake of Alue,

And fell back from all its margins,

Sinking to its former level

In a single night of summer.

“When a little time passed over,

Fire-pain seized on the devourer,

Anguish came upon the swallower,

Grievous suffering on the eater.

“Up and down the fish swam turning,

Swam for one day and a second,

All along the powan’s island,

Clefts in rocks where flock the salmon,

To the points of capes a thousand,

Bays among a hundred islands.

Every cape made declaration,

Every island spoke in thiswise:

“‘Nowhere in these sluggish waters,

In the narrow Lake of Alue,

Can the wretched fish be swallowed,

Or the hapless one may perish

In the torture of the fire,

In the anguish of its glowing.’

“But a salmon-trout o’erheard it,

And the powan blue he swallowed.

When a little time passed over,

Fire-pain seized on the devourer,

Anguish came upon the swallower,

Grievous suffering on the eater.

“Up and down the fish swam turning,

Swam for one day and a second,

Through the clefts where flock the salmon,

And the depths where sport the fishes,

To the points of capes a thousand,

Bays among a hundred islands.

Every cape made declaration,

Every island spoke in thiswise:

“‘Nowhere in these sluggish waters,

In the narrow Lake of Alue,