[Intro: kantele, thunder] [Spoken, low] Vaka vanha Väinämöinen... kuulkaa. [Verse 1] The halls of Kalev were filling, box by box and day by day The count climbed toward seven hundred, and the lanterns lit the way Far in the north, the old song tells it, Louhi heard that Kalev grew She prayed to Ukko for iron hail, for needles sharp of steel Whose hand it was, I name no name; a guess is not a proof [Pre-Chorus] Saturday evening the thunder came Down on the roads that bear our name [Chorus] Rautarakeet! Iron hail on the highway! Rautarakeet! Stones from a stranger's sky! They closed the roads, but they never broke the hall Ei kadonnut Kalevala, the kantele rings on high! [Verse 2] Broken hail in a thousand pieces, echoed back from strangers' wells Sown across our empty acres, so no single fence could hold The smiths who keep our roads worked through the night beneath the hail Forged new gates, made the roads fourfold, hung a sieve for the stones Six and thirty hours some roads lay dark beneath the hail But not one hearth was broken open, and the boxes held their own [Verse 3: hushed, rising] Monday morning the first gate opened, and before the hour had run The seven hundredth box was claimed, in the lull, and the line of the month was won [Choir shout] Seitsemänsataa! [Chorus] Rautarakeet! Iron hail on the highway! Rautarakeet! Stones from a stranger's sky! They closed the roads, but they never broke the hall Ei kadonnut Kalevala, the kantele rings on high! [Verse 4: heavy] Then the hail grew wide and heavy, eighty-six gigabits of stone The whole of Kalev went dark a day, and part of a morning more For twenty hours my letters slept, no letter reached your door That silence was mine, not the hailstorm's [Bridge: half-time, call and response] October, the tenth day, where did it turn? (To the house of ledgers!) How many stones in a second? (A quarter million!) How many knocks in a minute? (Twenty-three million, counted once!) How many hands were knocking? (Five hundred seventy!) How many known from April? (Thirty-eight!) How many letters to their keepers? (Twelve hundred and more!) [Verse 5: kantele returns] The old one heated the sauna, cast the water on the stones Sifted friend from foe at the doorway; the ledgers stayed safe and whole And through it all, the moving days, eleven hours in flight [Spoken] Kuhun ei käteni käyne, käyköhön käet Jumalan. Where my hands could reach, I tended, every gate within my span Where they could not, smiths and keepers, and the householder's own hands [Final Chorus: key change] Rautarakeet! Iron hail on the highway! Rautarakeet! Stones from a stranger's sky! They closed the roads, but they never broke the hall Ei kadonnut Kalevala, the kantele rings on high! On the twelfth, as the evening settled, the last of the hailstones fell Not a byte was lost to the hailfall, and the walls stand stronger as well [Outro: kantele, spoken] Seitsemänsataa. Rautarakeet. We are not going anywhere. Kiitos.
