POEM THE SECOND

National epic poem of Finland and the world: The Kalevala, Translated by W.F. Kirby (1985). [With select edits e.g., where Finnish has no masculine or feminine pronouns]

Then did Väinämöinen, rising,
Set his feet upon the surface 
Of a sea-encircled island,
In a region bare of forest.

There he dwelt, while years passed over, 
And his dwelling he established 
On the silent, voiceless island,
In a barren, treeless country.

Then he pondered and reflected,
In his mind he turned it over: 
“Who shall sow this barren country,
Thickly scattering seeds around him?”

Pellervoinen, earth-begotten,
Sampsa, youth of smallest stature,
Came to sow the barren country,
Thickly scattering seeds around him.

Down he stooped the seeds to scatter,
On the land and in the marshes,
Both in flat and sandy regions,
And in hard and rocky places. 

~~

On the hills he sowed the pine-trees,
On the knolls he sowed the fir-trees,
And in the sandy places heather;
Leafy saplings in the valleys.

In the dales he sowed the birch-trees,
In the loose earth sowed the alders,
Where the ground was damp the cherries,
Likewise in the marches, sallows. 
Rowan-trees in holy places,
Willows in the fenny regions, 
Juniper in stony districts,
Oaks upon the banks of rivers. 

Now the trees sprang up and flourished. 
And the sapling sprouted bravely.
With their bloom the firs were loaded,
And the pines their boughs extended.
In the dales the birch was sprouting,
In the loose earth rose the alders,
Where the ground was damp the cherries, 
Juniper in stony districts, 
Loaded with its lovely berries; 
And the cherries likewise fruited. 

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast, 
Came to view the work in progress, 
Where the land was sown by Sampsa, 
And where Pellervoinen laboured: 
While he saw the trees had flourished,  
And the saplings sprouted bravely, 
Yet had Jumala’s tree, the oak-tree, 
Not struck down its root and sprouted. 

Therefore to its fate he left it, 
Left it to enjoy its freedom, 
And he waited three nights longer, 
And as many days he waited; 
Then he went and gazed around him, 
When the week was quite completed, 
Yet had Jumala’s tree, the oak-tree, 
Not struck down its root and sprouted.

Then he saw four lovely maidens; 
Five, like brides, from water rising; 
And they mowed the grassy meadow, 
Down they cut the dewy herbage, 
On the cloud-encompassed headland, 
On the peaceful island’s summit,
What they mowed, they raked together.
And in heaps the hay collected.

From the ocean rose up Tursas, 
From the waves arose the hero, 
And the heaps of hay he kindled, 
And the flames arose in fury. 
All was soon consumed to ashes, 
Till the sparks were quite extinguished. 

Then among the heaps of ashes, 
In the dryness of the ashes, 
There a tender germ he planted, 
Tender germ, of oak an acorn 
Whence the beauteous plant sprang upward, 
And the sapling grew and flourished, 
As from earth a strawberry rises, 
And it forked in both directions.

Then the branches wide extended, 
And the leaves were thickly scattered, 
And the summit rose to heaven, 
And its leaves in air expanded. 
In their course the clouds it hindered,
And the driving clouds impeded,
And it hid the shining sunlight,
And the gleaming of the moonlinght.

Then the aged Väinämöinen,
Pondered deeply and reflected:
“Is there none to fell the oak-tree,
And o’erthrow the tree majestic?
Sad is now the life of mortals,
And for fish to swim is dismal,
Since the air is void of sunlight,
And the gleaming of the moonlight.”

~~

But they could not find a hero,
Nowhere find a man so mighty,
Who could fell the giant oak-tree,
With its hundred spreading branches.
Then the aged Väinämöinen,
Spoke the very words which follow:
“Noble mothers, who have berthed me, 
Luonnotar, who me hast nurtured!
Send me powers from out the ocean:

Numerous are the powers of ocean
So that they may fell the oak-tree,
And destroy the tree so baneful,
That the sun may shine upon us,
And the pleasant moonlight glimmer.”

Then a woman arose from ocean, 
From the waves a hero started;
Not the hugest of the hugest,
Nor the smallest of the smallest:
As a man’s thumb was her stature,
Lofty as the span of woman.

Decked her head a helm of copper, 
On his feet were boots of copper,
On his hands were copper gauntlets,
Gloves adorned with copper tracings;
Round her waist her belt was copper;
In her belt her axe was copper;
And the haft thereof was thumb-long,
And the blade thereof was nail-long.

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,
Deeply pondered and reflected:
“While he seems a man in semblance,
And a hero in appearance,
Yet his height is but a thumb-length,
Scarce as lofty as an ox-hoof!”

Then he spoke the words which follow,
And expressed himself in this wise:
“Who are you, my little fellow,
Most contemptible of heroes,
Than a dead man scarcely stronger;
Or one perished scarcely fairer.”

Then the puny man from ocean,
Hero of the floods, made answer:
“I’m a man as you behold me,
Small, but mighty water-hero,
I have come to fell the oak-tree,
And  splinter  it  to  fragments.”

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,
Answered in the words which follow:
“You have hardly been created,
Neither made, nor so proportioned,
As to fell this mighty oak-tree,
Overthrow the tree stupendous.”

Scarcely had the words been spoken,
While his gaze was fixed upon him,
When the man transformed before him,
And became a mighty hero:
While his feet the earth were stamping,
To the clouds his head he lifted,
To his knees his beard was flowing,
To his spurs his locks descended,
Fathom-wide his eyes were parted,
Fathom-wide his trousers measured;
Round his knee the girth was greater,
And around his hip ‘twas doubled.

Then he sharpened keen the axe-blade,
Brought the polished blade to sharpness;
Six the stones on which he ground it,
Seven the stones on which he whet it.

Then the man stepped forward lightly,
Hastened on to do his mission;
Wide his trousers, and they fluttered
Round his legs as onward strode he,
And the first step taken, brought him
To the shore so soft and sandy;
With the second stride he landed
On the dun ground further inland,
And the third step brought him quickly,
Where the oak itself was rooted. 

With his axe he smote the oak-tree,
With his sharpened blade he hewed it;
Once he smote it, twice he smote it,
And the third stroke wholly cleft it.
From the axe the flame was flashing,
Flame was bursting from the oak tree,
As he strove to fell the oak tree,
Overthrow the tree stupendous.

Thus the third blow was delivered,
And the oak-tree fell before him,
For the mighty tree was shattered,
And the hundred boughs had fallen,
And the trunk extended eastward.
And the summit to the north-west,
And the leaves were scattered southward,
And the branches to the northward.

~~

He who took a branch from off it,
Took prosperity unceasing;
What was broken from the summit,
Gave unending skill in magic;
He who broke a leafy branchlet,
Gathered with it love unending.
What remained of fragments scattered,
Chips of wood, and broken splinters,
On the bright expanse of ocean,
On the far-extending billows,
In the breeze were gently rocking,
On the waves were lightly drifted,
Like the boats on ocean’s surface,
Like the ships amid the sea-waves.

Northward drove the wind the fragments,
Where the little maid of Pohja,
Stood on beach, and washed her head-dress,
And she washed her clothes and rinsed them,
On the shingle by the ocean,
On a tongue of land projecting. 

On the waves she saw the fragments,
Put them in her birch-bark wallet,
In her wallet took them homeward;
In the well-closed yard she stored them, 
For the arrows of the sorcerer,
For the chase to furnish weapons. 

~~

Then the oak at last had fallen,
And the evil tree was levelled,
Once again the sun shone brightly,
And the pleasant moonlight glimmered,
And the clouds extended widely,
And the rainbow spanned the heavens,
O’er the cloud-encompassed headland,
And the island’s hazy summit.

Then the wastes were clothed with verdure,
And the woods grew up and flourished;
Leaves on trees and grass in meadows.
In the trees the birds were singing,
Loudly sang the cheery throstle;
In the tree-tops called the cuckoo.
Then the earth brought forth her berries;
Shone the fields with golden bloddoms;
Herbs of every species flourished,
Plants and trees of all descriptions;
But the barley would not flourish,
Nor the precious seed would ripen.

The the aged Väinämöinen,
Walked around, and deeply pondered,
By the blue waves' sadley margin,
On the mighty ocean's border;
And six grains of corn he found there,
Seven fine seeds of corn he found there,
On the borders of the ocean,
On the yielding sandy margin.
In the marten's skin he placed them,
From the leg of summer squirrel.

Then he went to sow the fallows;
On the ground seeds to scatter,
Near to Kaleva's own fountain,
And upon the field of Osmo.

From a tree there chirped the titmouse:
"Osmo's barley will not flourish,
Nor will Kaleva's oats prosper,
While untilled remains the country,
And uncleared remains the forest,
Nor the firse has burned it over."

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,
Ground his axe-blade edge to sharpness
And began to fell the forest,
Toiling hard to clear the country.
All the lovely trees he levelled,
Sparing but a single birch-tree,
That the birds might rest upon it,
And from thence might call the cuckoo.

In the sky there soared an eagle,
Of the birds of air the greatest,
And she came and gazed around her:
"Wherefore is the work unfinished,
And the birch-tree still unfallen?
Wherefore spare the beauteous birch-tree?"

~~

Said the aged Väinämöinen,
"Therefore is the birch left standing
That the birds of air may rest there.

Said the bird of air, the eagle,
"Very wisely hast thou acted,
Thus to leave the birch-tree standing
And the lovely tree unfallen,
That the birds may perch upon it,
And that I myself may rest there."

Then the bird of air struck fire,
And the flames rose up in brightness,
While the north wind fanned the forest,
And the north-east wind blew fiercely.
All the trees were burned to ashes,
Till the were quite extinguished.

Then the aged Väinämöinen,
Took the six seeds from his satchel,
And he took the seven small kernels,
From the marten's skin he took them,
From the leg of summer squirrel,
From the leg of summer ermine.

Then he went to sow the country,
And to scatter seeds around him, 
And he spoke the words which follow:
"Now I stoop the seeds to scatter,
As from the Creators fingers,
From the hand of Him Almighty,
That the country may be fertile,
And the corn may grow and flourish.

Patroness of lowland country,
Old one of the plains; Earth-Mother!
Let the tender blade spring upward,
Let the earth support and cherish.
Might of earth will never fail us,
Never while the earth existeth,
When the Givers are propitious,
And Creation's daughters aid us.

Rise, o earth, from out thy slumber,
Field of the Creator, rouse thee,
Make the blade arise and flourish,
Let the stalks grow up and lengthen,
That the ears may grow by thousands,
Yet a hundredfold increasing,
By my ploughing and my sowing,
In return for all my labour!

Eukko, thou God the highest,
Mother, thou in heaven abiding,
Thou to whom the clouds are subject,
Of the scattered clouds the ruler!
All thy clouds do thou assemble,
In the light make clear thy counsel,
Send thou forth a cloud from eastward,
In the norh-west let one gather,
Send thou others from the westward,
Let them drive along from southward,
Send the light rain forth from heaven,
Let the clouds distill with honey,
That the maize may sprout up strongly,
And stalks may wave and rustle.

Ukko, then, of Gods the highest,
Father of the highest heaven,
Heard all the clouds assembled,
In the light made clear his counsel,
And he sent a cloud from eastward, 
In the north-west let one gather,
Others, too, he sent from westward,
Let them edge to edge together,
And he closed the rifts between them.
Then he sent the rain from heaven,
And the clouds distilled sweet honey,
That the maize might sprout up stronger,
And the stalks might wave and rustle.
Thus the sprouting germ was nourished,
And the rustling stalks grew upward,
From the soft earth of the cornfield,
Through the toil of Väinämöinen.

After this, two days passed over,
After two nights, after three nights,
When the week was full completed,
Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,
Wandered forth to see the progress;
How his ploughing and his sowing
And his labours had resulted.
There he found the barley growing,
And the ears were all six-cornered,
And the stalks were all three-knotted.

Then the aged Väinämöinen
Wandered on and gazed around him,
And the cuckoo, bird of springtime,
Came and saw the birch-tree growing:
"Wherefore is the birch tree left standing,
And unfelled the slender birch-tree?"

~~

Said the aged Väinämöinen:
"Therefore is the birch left standing,
And unfelled the slender birch-tree,
As a perch for thee, O Cuckoo;
Whence the cuckoo's cry may echo.
From thy sand-hued throat cry sweetly,
With thy silver voice call loudly,
With thy tin-like voice cry clearly,
Call at mourning, call at evening,
And at noontide call thou likewise,
To rejoice my plains surrounding,
That my woods may grow more cheerful,
That my coast may grow more wealthy,
And my region grow more fruitful!"