Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/266

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And the aged Väinämöinen

Struck a blow with lightning swiftness,

Struck a blow, and struck a second,

And he sheared, like roots of turnips,

Off he shore, like heads of flax-plant,

Heads of all the sons of Pohja.

Then the aged Väinämöinen

Sought for where the moon was hidden,

Likewise would release the sunlight

From the rocks of varied colour,

From the depths of steely mountain,

From the rocks as hard as iron.

Then he walked a little distance,

But a very little distance,

When he saw a copse all verdant,

In the copse a lovely birch-tree,

And a large stone block beneath it,

And a rock beneath the stone block,

And there were nine doors before it,

In the doors were bolts a hundred.

In the stone a crack perceiving,

In the rock some lines engraven,

Then he drew his sword from scabbard,

On the coloured stone he scraped it,

With the sharp point of his sword-blade,

With his gleaming blade he scraped it,

Till the stone in two divided,

And in three he quickly split it.

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Looked into the stone all pictured;

Many serpents ale were drinking,

In the wort the snakes were writhing,

In the coloured stone were hiding,

In the cracks of liver-colour.

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Uttered then the words that follow:

“Thus it is the hapless Mistress

Has so little ale acquired,

For the snakes the ale are drinking,

In the wort the snakes are writhing.”