Jack of Many Trades

Seppä (The Smith)

Originally posted: 2010-12-29

from Finnish Folk Poetry: An Anthology in Finnish and English edited and translated by Matti Kuusi, Keith Bosley, Michael Branch

By night born, Ilmollini by day went to the smithy forged a hundred locks and a thousand keys No smith is better than he and no craftsman more careful though born on a charcoal hill brought up in a coal-black heath. That smith is a god: he has forged the sky beaten out the air's arches and there is no hammer-mark nor trace of where tongs have held where forked iron has guided. Yöllä šynty Ilmollini päivällä mäni pajahe, šoan on lukkuja takouve tuhannen avoamia. Ei ole šeppä šen parempi eikä ni tarkempi takoja još šynty šysimäjellä kašvoi hiilikankahalla. Še šeppä joka jumala joka on taivosen takonut ilman koaret kalkutellut: ei tunnu vasaran jälki eikä ni pihtien pitely hoararauvan hallitsenta.