Motionless are all the rivers,

Hard as stone becomes the water!”

And the young man answered, smiling:

“When I blow my breath about me,

When I breathe upon the landscape,

Flowers spring up o’er all the meadows,

Singing, onward rush the rivers!”

“When I shake my hoary tresses,”

Said the old man darkly frowning,

“All the land with snow is covered;