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306 TRAVELS
«‘ The work is ended which is begun; there is time loft to fay,
«¢ what fhall I do?” ) |
“‘ The tool of the induftrious man is fharp; but the plough-
‘« fhare of the fool wanteth grinding.” :
The following comical tale is a fpecimen of Finnith improvi-
fation, by a young poet of the name of Vanonen, living between
Wafa and Uleaborg. For this piece I am indebted, as I mentioned
before, to the governor of Wafa, who was perfonally acquainted
with the poet, by whom, at the governor’s defire, it was dictated
to one who wrote it out. The governor fet a great value on the
original, and preferved it as a moft precious relic. I therefore
think myfelf much obliged by the communication. The poet, he
told me, was poor, becaufe he preferred the pleafures of imagina-
tion to the duties of a peafant and the labour of rural occupations.
This young man, who can neither read nor write, has a native
vein of humour, and is in his way very droll. He is of courfe
heartily welcome in the houfes of the peafants, whom he amufes
with his mirth and pleafantry.
The Patpamo confifts of about two hundred and forty-eight
lines. The fubje& isa ridiculous retaliation, by a trick played
upon a cuftom-houfe officer, by a Finnifh peafant. I have heard
people intimately acquainted with the pure import and gentus of
the Finnith language, in reading this poem, break forth with en- |
thufiafm in its praife, and burft into laughter almoft at every line.
The tranflation, though literal, and rendered word for word, re-
tains but little of thofe beauties and that humour, which confift
in the brevity, precifion and energy of the original language.
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