Said the aged Väinämöinen,
"If I push you in the water, 230
Will you make, unrowed, your journey,
Unassisted by the oars,
By the rudder undirected,
When the sails no breeze is filling?"
Answer made the wooden vessel,
Thus replied the boat with rowlocks:
"None of all my race so noble,
Nor the host of other vessels,
Speed along unrowed by fingers,
Unassisted by the oars, 240
By the rudder undirected,
When the sails no breeze is filling."
Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,
Answered in the words which follow:
"Can you speed if some one rows you,
If assisted by the oars,
By the rudder if directed,
When the sails the breeze is filling?"
Answered then the wooden vessel,
Thus replied the boat with rowlocks: 250
"Yes, my race would hasten onward,
All the other boats my brothers,
Speed along if rowed by fingers,
If assisted by the oars,
By the rudder if directed,
When the sails the breeze is filling."
Then the aged Väinämöinen
Left his horse upon the sandhills,
On a tree he fixed the halter,
Tied the reins upon the branches, 260
Pushed the boat into the water,
Sang the vessel in the billows,
And he asked the wooden vessel,
And he spoke the words which follow:
"O thou boat, of shape so curving,
O thou wooden boat with rowlocks,
Art thou just as fit to bear us,
As thyself art fair to gaze on?"
Answered thus the wooden vessel,
Thus replied the boat with rowlocks: 270
"I am fitted well to bear you,
And my floor is very spacious,
And a hundred men might row me,
And a thousand others stand there."
So the aged Väinämöinen
Softly then began to carol,
Sang on one side of the vessel
Handsome youths, with hair brushed smoothly,
Hair smoothed down and hands all hardened,
And their feet were finely booted; 280
Sang on other side of vessel
Girls with tin upon their head-dress,
Head-dress tin, and belts of copper,
Golden rings upon their fingers;
And again sang Väinämöinen,
Till the seats were full of people,
Some were very aged people,
Men whose lives were nearly over,
But for these the space was scanty,
For the young folks came before them. 290
In the stern himself he seated,
Sat behind the birchwood vessel,
And he steered the vessel onward,
And he spoke the words which follow:
"Speed thou on through treeless regions,
O'er the wide expanse of water,
O'er the lake do thou float lightly,
As on waves a water-lily."
Then he set the youths to rowing,
But he left the maidens resting; 300
Rowed the youths, and bent the oars,
Yet the vessel moved not onward.
Then he set the girls to rowing,
But he left the youths reposing;
Rowed the girls, and bent their fingers,
Yet the vessel moved not onward.