Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/257

Runo XLVIII]

Then the aged Väinämöinen

Spoke aloud the words which follow:

“Fire, whom Jumala created,

Creature of the bright Creator,

Idly to the depths thou goest,

Aimlessly to distant regions.

It were better far to hide thee

In the hearth of stone constructed,

There thy sparks to bind together,

And within the coals enclose them,

That by day thou may’st be flickering

In the kitchen birchen faggots,

And at night thou may’st be hidden

Close within the golden fire-box.”

Then he thrust the spark of fire

In a little piece of tinder,

In the fungus hard of birch-tree,

And among the copper kettles.

Fire he carried to the kettles,

Took it in the bark of birch-tree,

To the end of misty headland,

And the shady island’s summit.

Now was fire within the dwellings,

In the rooms again ’twas shining.

But the smith named Ilmarinen

Quickly hastened to the lakeshore,

Where the rocks the water washes,

And upon the rocks he sat him,

In the pain of burning fire,

In the anguish of its glowing.

There it was he quenched the fire,

There it was he dimmed its lustre,

And he spoke the words which follow,

And in words like these expressed him:

“Fire whom Jumala created

And O thou, the Sun’s son, Panu!

Who has made ye thus so angry,

As to scorch my cheeks in thiswise,

And to burn my hips so badly,

And my sides so much to injure?