Page 1 of 6 KALEVALA
Translated by
John Martin Crawford
Transcribed by
Echo of Snac
Page 2 of 6 RUNE I, PART V
BIRTH OF WAINAMOINEN
Still the daughter of
the Ether,
Swims the sea as
water-mother,
With the floods
outstretched before
her,
And behind her sky
and ocean.
Page 3 of 6 Finally about the
ninth year,
In the summer of the
tenth year,
Lifts her head above
the surface,
Lifts her forehead
from the waters,
And begins at last
her workings,
Now commences her
creations,
Page 4 of 6 On the azure
water-ridges,
On the mighty waste
before her.
Where her hand she
turned in water,
There arose a fertile
hillock;
Wheresoe'er her foot
she rested,
There she made a
hole for fishes;
Page 5 of 6 Where she dived
beneath the waters,
Fell the many deeps of
ocean;
Where upon her side
she turned her,
There the level
banks have risen;
Where her head was
pointed landward,
There appeared wide
bays and inlets;
Page 6 of 6 When from shore she
swam a distance,
And upon her back
she rested,
There the rocks she
made and fashioned,
And the hidden reefs
created,
Where the ships are
wrecked so often,
Where so many lives
have perished.
