In my mind now stirs a purpose,
In my head a thought has entered:
I will now prepare for singing,
And for ancient Song make ready.
So that I may sing a Stem-song,
Sing a Race-song of our oldest.
In my mouth the words are melting,
Thronging fast upon each other,
Hastening to my tongue, and forward
10 O'er my teeth are stepping quickly.
Thou, my own beloved brother,
Friend grown by my side in childhood,
Give thyself with me to singing,
Lend thyself with me to Song-word,
Now that we have come together,
Met again from two directions.
Seldom have we thus united,
Rarely chanced to see each other,
In these sad and desert regions,
20 In these northern countries dreary.
Hand-in-hand then let us join,
Fingers closely interwoven,
So that we may sing the Good Song,
Bring the best ones to our hearers;
That the noble ones amongst us,
Best of friends, may lend their hearing.
To the youth that now is growing,
Springing up among us, youngest,
Song-words which we all have taken,
30 Oldest songs which we have gathered,
Far from Väino's ancient girdle,
Far from Ilmarinen's smithy,
Far from Kaukomieli's sword-point,
Far from Joukahainen's quiver,
Far from Pohja's distant meadows,
From the wilds of Kalevala.
These my father sung aforetime,
As he whittled fine his axehaft;
These my mother sung and taught me,
40 As she turned her flaxen spindle.
I, a child upon the house-floor,
Tumbled at her feet a baby,
Weak and little, but a "milkbeard,"
But a nursling in her keeping.
Words of Sampo were not wanting,
Magic words about old Louhi.
Sampo grew quite faint in story,
Louhi perished in the witch-word,
Wipunen in song had vanished,
50 Midst wild play young Lemminkainen.
Many songs besides are offered,
Magic words that they had taught me,
By the wayside picked and clustered.
From the heather had I plucked them,
Torn them from the forest bushes,
Drawn them from the tender saplings,
From the young and slender grass-blades,
Snatched them by the steepest pathways;
When as child I watched the cattle,
60 Followed herds throughout the wild-woods,
Over honey-covered mosses,
Over lands of golden hillocks,
With my jet-black Muurikki,
With young Kimmo, finely spotted.
Frost itself must yield me Song-words,
Rain itself my song must bring me.
Other songs the winds have fostered,
Waves of ocean brought profusely.
Song-words from the birds I gathered,
70 Form of song from golden tree-tops.
In one bunch I bound my song-words,
Tied them in a ball securely;
Put the ball upon my snow-sled,
On the little sled the bundle;
Brought them home upon my good sledge,
Safely drew them to the granary,
In the farmer's loft I placed them,
Hid them in a copper casket.
In the cold my song lived folded,
80 Hidden long time in the deepest.
Now will I from frost and darkness,
From the ice my song bring forward;
Take my casket to the cottage,
To the highest seat of honor.
Under far-famed oldest roof-tree,
Under glorious house-beams planted,
I will there the Singer's casket
Open, filled with ancient story;
Take my ball from its beginning,
90 Loose the knot that tied the bundle.
I will sing a song of beauty,
Echo forth good songs around me.
First with rye-bread still my hunger,
Treat me to some old rye ale-draught.
And if naught should be forthcoming,
Even home-brewed ale not offered,
I will sing with mouth all parched,
Be it but a drop of water,
For our pleasure in the twilight,
100 To the honor of this daylight;
Far into the hours of morning.
For our joy at early daybreak.
———
Thus the Song I heard aforetime,
Formerly when they began it.
All alone to us the night came,
All alone the day was lighted,
And alone came Väinemöinen,
Born in light the ancient Singer,
By the Highest Mother fostered,
110 Born by Ilmatar his Mother.
She to space belonged, fair maiden,
Beautiful 'mongst Nature's daughters.
Chaste, a virgin, she remained there,
Maidenhood maintained continuous
In the homes of widest spaces,
In the boundless realm of heaven.
Yet at last the maid grew weary,
Tired out, with this her living,—
Thus to dwell alone forever,
120 Live as maiden ever lonely,
In the home of endless spaces,
In these empty plains and deserts.
And she then begins descending,
Steps at last upon the waters,
Far upon the widest ocean,
On its broad and open surface.
Then there came a mighty wind-gust,
From the east the strongest storm-wind,
Drove the sea in wild upheaving,
130 Chased the foaming Ocean's billows.
Rocked by winds of space the maiden,
Wafted by the waves the virgin,
To and fro o'er blue expansion,
Moves 'mongst deep and foaming billows.
Here the wind brings her fruition,
Pregnant she becomes by Ocean.
And she bore her heavy burden
Faithfully, though heavy laden;
Through a round of seven hundred,
140 Years nine hundred of man's living.
But not yet was born an offspring,
No deliverance from her life-fruit.
There, a mother, on wide waters,
Swam she eastward, swam to westward,
Floated northward, then to southward,
Toward the vast horizon's border,
Midst her mighty birth-pangs carried
Deepest pains within her being;
Still could not be born her offspring,
150 She could not her life-fruit render.
Starting into wildest weeping,
She at last speaks thus, and utters:
"Woe is me, woe is my living,
Woe my wandering—ah, poor one!
I have fared out here most sadly,
Underneath the skies forever
To be rocked by storms the wildest,
To be dashed by ocean's billow,
Upon these the widest waters,
160 On the sea's broad surface tossing.
It had been for me far better,
Had I stayed up there as maiden,
Than to come for everlasting,
As sea-mother here to wander;
Coldness seizes here my being,
It is hard to live thus longer,
To exist midst heaving sea-waves,
And to roam upon the waters.
O thou Ukko, god the highest,
170 Thou who bearest all the heaven,
Now descend where thou art needed,
Come below where thou art called for.
Come, make free from pain a mother;
Wilt thou hasten and come quickly?
Soon thy presence here is wanted."
Then passed by a fleeting moment,
Some short time rolled by in silence,
When in steady course a sea-bird
Flapping wings in shortest motion,
180 Sought a place to build its bird-nest,
Foothold where to build a home-place,
Flew then eastward, then to westward,
Flew to northward and to southward.
No good place the bird discovered,
Nay, not meanest place was granted
Where the bird might build her home-nest,
For herself prepare a rest-place.
To and fro she slowly glided,
Thoughtfully reviews and ponders:
190 "If to winds my nest I trusted,
Made my home upon the sea-wave,
Sure the wind will crush my cottage,
Waves will sweep away my building."
Then the Mother of great waters,
Ocean's Mother, air's fair daughter,
Raiseth up her knee from sea-depth,
And her shoulder from the billow,
To the bird a place for homestead,
To the sea-bird for a dwelling.
200 And the glorious bird flies slowly
To and fro above the waters;
She perceives the knee uplifted
In the wide, soft bed of ocean,
Takes it for a mossy hillock,
Green and fresh with summer's verdure.
Slowly to and fro she moveth,
On the knee she then alighted;
Builds there home-nest, builds a dwelling,
Lays within the nest eggs golden,—
210 Six eggs, all of gold the purest,
But the seventh was of iron.
On the eggs the bird sits patient,
Warms the knee-top with her life-heat.
She sits one day, yet another,
Sits towards evening of a third day.
But the mother of the waters,
Ocean's mother, air's fair daughter,
Felt throughout her knee a burning,
In her flesh a fire consuming;
220 Thought her knee must fast be burning,
All her veins be surely melting.
Quick her knee makes sudden motion,
Prompt her limb she shakes with power,
And the eggs rolled into sea-depth,
They all sank deep in the waters,
And were crushed in smallest pieces,
Crumbled into merest fragments.
But not lost in bed of ocean,
Nor destroyed a single fragment;
230 Every fragment changed in beauty,
Smallest piece transformed in glory.
From the egg, the lowest portion,
Came the mother Earth, the lowest;
From the egg, the upper portion,
There came forth the highest heaven;
From the higher part, the yellow,
Came the sun, that shines by day-time ;
From the higher part, the white part,
Came the moon that lights the night-hour.
240 Parts that in the egg were colored
Were transformed to stars above us;
And the parts that were the darkest
Changed into the clouds of heaven.
Time again is gliding onward,
Further years roll on and vanish,
In the new -born beaming sunlight,
By the new moon's brightest lustre;
Still is floating Ocean's mother,
Maiden of the air, the mother,
250 On the sea's calm lighted surface,
On the water's mist-veiled billows;
Sees the great expanse before her,
Over her the clearest heaven.
Then when full nine years have ended,
Summers ten have safe passed by;
She, the maiden, lifts her forehead,
Lifts her head above the sea-wave,
Starts her work that she created,
Shapes all things in their beginning
260 Far upon the widest waters;
On the broadest endless surface.
Where she now her hand outreaches,
There she shapeth promontories;
Where the foot the sea-ground planted,
Dug she hollows for the fishes;
Where she sinks to lowest sea-depths,
Formed abysses in the water;
Where her side touched land and sea-shore,
There she made the smoothest beaches;
270 Where she stretched her foot to landward,
Made she place for salmon-fishing;
Where her head was turned to sea-shore,
There arose the broadest inlets.
Then she swam away from sea-shore,
Stopped upon a stretch of waters,
Shaping rocks far in the ocean,
Hidden shoals created by her,
Places where the ships are stranded,
Breakers where the seamen perish.
280 Islands were already finished,
Granite rocks were formed in ocean,
Pillars of the air erected,
Fields and grounds appeared by magic,
Many colored stones and varied,
Gorges deep in mountains riven.
But not yet was born the Väino,
Still unborn immortal Singer.
Väinemöinen, old and restful,
Wanders, folded by his mother,
290 Wanders there through thirty summers,
Through as many dreary winters,
On the calm and wide sea-waters,
On the mist-enveloped billows;
Thinks profoundly and considers,
What it is to live thus hidden,
In this dark and deep enclosure,
In this narrow hidden dwelling,
Where his eyes could see no moonlight,
Look upon no ray of sunlight.
300 Then at last his voice he lifteth,
Thus he speaks in words and utters:
"Moon, oh, free me; Sun, release me;
Come, thou Charles's Wain, and guide me
From these strange and hidden portals,
From these gates unknown and distant,
From this small and narrow dwelling,
From this home where space is wanting;
Let on earth mankind step forward,
Noble offspring come to freedom,
310 So that he may see the moonlight,
And rejoice in freest sunlight.
So that he may see the Wain bright,
Look upon the starry heaven."
But the moon does not release him,
And the sun will not deliver;
Then to him seems hard to live there,
Troublesome is such existence.
And his prison doors he opens,
Opens wide with unnamed finger.
320 Forces thus unyielding door-lock;
With a toe, the left foot presses,
Falling on his hands o'er threshold,
On his knees across the doorway,
Sank in waters, headlong falling
With his hands outstretched in ocean,
There remained he in the waters,
Hero there amongst the billows.
Here for five long years he drifted,
Five long years, a sixth year added,
330 Seven years and yet an eighth year.
Stopped at last in widest waters,
Stopped close by a nameless land-point,
On a firm land bleak and barren.
On his knee then quickly bending,
Swinging on his arm and rising,
Stood erect to see the moonshine,
To rejoice in sight of sunlight.
Look upon the Wain in heaven,
Contemplate the glorious star world.
340 Into life thus came the Väino,
Thus was born immortal Singer,
Nursed and fostered by the highest,
Ilmatar, his lofty mother.