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190
Kalevala
[Runo XLIII

And the wind still rocked the fragments,
And the lake-waves ever tossed them,
On the blue lake’s surface floating,
Tossing on the broad lake’s billows;
To the land the wind impelled them,
To the shore the billows drove them.
Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,
In the surf beheld them floating,290
Through the breakers shoreward driving,
Then on shore upcast by billows,
Saw the fragments of the Sampo,
Splinters of the pictured cover.
Very greatly did it please him,
And he spoke the words which follow:
“From these seeds the plant is sprouting,
Lasting welfare is commencing,
Here is ploughing, here is sowing,
Here is every kind of increase,300
Thence there comes the shining moonlight,
Thence there comes the lovely sunlight,
O’er the mighty plains of Suomi,
And the lovely land of Suomi.”
Then did Pohjola’s old Mistress
Speak aloud the words which follow:
“Still can I devise a method,
Find a method and contrivance,
’Gainst thy ploughing and thy sowing,
’Gainst thy cattle and thine increase,310
That thy moon shall cease its shining,
And thy sun shall cease its shining.
In the rocks the moon I’ll carry,
Hide the sun in rocky mountains,
And will send the Frost to freeze you,
That the frozen air destroyeth
What thou ploughest and thou sowest,
Thy provisions and thy harvests.
I will send a hail of iron,
And a hail of steel o’erwhelming,320
Over all thy finest clearings,
And the best among the cornfields.