Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/248

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Can the wretched fish be swallowed,

Or the hapless one may perish

In the pain of burning fire,

In the anguish of its glowing.’

“But a grey pike hurried forward,

And the salmon-trout 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,

Past the cliffs where flock the seagulls,

And the rocks where sport the seamews,

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 pain of burning fire,

In the anguish of its glowing.’”

Then the aged Väinämöinen,

Secondly, smith Ilmarinen,

Wove a net of bast constructed,

Which from juniper they gathered,

Steeped it in the juice of willow,

And of sallow-bark they made it.

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast

Sent the women to the drag-net;

To the net there went the women,

Sisters came to draw the drag-net;

And he steered, and glided onward

Past the capes and round the islands,

To the clefts where flock the salmon,

And along the powan’s island,

Where the red-brown reeds are waving,

And among the beauteous rushes.