Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/249

Runo XLVII]

Eager now to make a capture,

Then he cast the net and sunk it,

But he cast the net out twisted,

And in wrong direction drew it,

And the fish they could not capture,

Though with eagerness they laboured.

In the water went the brothers,

To the net the men proceeded,

And they swung it and they pushed it,

And they pulled it and they dragged it,

Through the deeps, and rocky places,

Drew it o’er Kalevala’s shingle;

But the fish they could not capture;

Not the fish so greatly needed.

Came the grey pike never near them,

Neither on the placid water,

Nor upon its ample surface;

Fish are small, and nets not many.

Now the fish were all complaining;

Said one pike unto another,

And the powan asked the ide-fish,

And one salmon asked another:

“Can the famous men have perished,

Perished Kaleva’s great children,

They who drag the net of linen,

And of yarn have made the fish-net,

With long poles who beat the water,

With long sticks who move the waters?”

Old and famous Väinämöinen

Answered in the words which follow:

“No, the heroes have not perished,

Kaleva’s great race has died not,

When one dies, is born another,

And the best of staves they carry,

Longer sticks to sound the water,

And their nets are twice as fearful.”