Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/283

Runo L]

Yet to swamps they did not lead thee,

Shattered not thy head on tree-trunks,

When thyself, in youthful folly,

Gave the child of thine own mother,

That thou thus mightst ’scape destruction,

And release thyself in thiswise.

“And again thou wast not carried,

And abandoned in the marshes,

When thyself in youthful folly,

Caused the young maids to be sunken,

In the depths beneath the billows,

To the black ooze at the bottom.”

Then the old man quickly crossed him,

Quick baptized the child with water,

As the king of all Carelia,

And the lord of all the mighty.

Then was Väinämöinen angry,

Greatly shamed and greatly angry,

And prepared himself to journey

From the lake’s extended margin,

And began his songs of magic,

For the last time sang them loudly,

Sang himself a boat of copper,

With a copper deck provided.

In the stern himself he seated,

Sailing o’er the sparkling billows,

Still he sang on his departure,

And he sang as he was sailing:

“May the time pass quickly o’er us,

One day passes, comes another,

And again shall I be needed.

Men will look for me, and miss me,

To construct another Sampo,

And another harp to make me,

Make another moon for gleaming,

And another sun for shining.

When the sun and moon are absent,

In the air no joy remaineth.”

Then the aged Väinämöinen

Went upon his journey singing,