This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
150
Kalevala
[Runo XXXIX

O’er the broad lake’s shining surface,
Out upon the open water,
In the stern a noble hero,
And a handsome man was rowing.
Said the lively Lemminkainen,
“What this boat may be I know not,
Whose may be this handsome vessel,
Which is hither rowed from Suomi,
From the east, with strokes of oars,
And its rudder to the north-west.”360
Then with all his might he shouted,
Shouted, and continued shouting,
From the cape the hero shouted,
Shouted loudly o’er the water,
“Whose the boat that cleaves the water,
Whose the vessel on the billows?“
From the boat the men made answer,
And the women answered likewise,
“Who art thou, O forest-dweller,
Hero, breaking through the thicket,370
That thou dost not know this vessel,
Whose from Väinöla this vessel,
Dost not even know the steersman,
Nor the hero at the oars?”
Said the lively Lemminkainen,
“Now do I perceive the steersman,
And I recognize the oarsman.
Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,
In the vessel’s stern is sitting,
Ilmarinen at the oars.380
Whither then away, O heroes,
Whither do you journey, heroes?”
Said the aged Väinämöinen,
“To the northward do we journey,
Journey through the foaming billows,
And above the foam-flecked billows.
Forth we go to seize the Sampo,
Gaze upon its pictured cover,
There in Pohjola’s stone mountain,
And within the hill of copper.”390