Artwork details
Artist: Kamil Dow
Year: 2018
Size: 65×55 cm (25.6″×21.7″)
Materials: acrylic, gouache and ink on paper
Arabic calligraphy text in English:
“Come, O Ukko, to my rescue, / God of mercy, lend thy presence, / Give these vapor-baths new virtues, / Grant to them the powers of healing, / And restore my dying people; / Drive away these fell diseases, / Banish them to the unworthy, / Let the holy sparks enkindle, / Keep this heat in healing limits, / That it may not harm thy children, / May not injure the afflicted. / When I pour the sacred waters / On the heated blocks of sandstone, / May the water turn to honey / Laden with the balm of healing. / Let the stream of magic virtues / Ceaseless flow to all my children, / From this bath enrolled in sea-moss, / That the guiltless may not suffer, / That my tribe-folk may not perish, / Till the Master gives permission, / Until Ukko sends his minions, / Sends diseases of his choosing, / To destroy my trusting people. / Let the hostess of Pohyola, / Wicked witch that sent these troubles, / Suffer from a gnawing conscience, / Suffer for her evil doings. / Should the Master of Wainola / Lose his magic skill and weaken, / Should he prove of little service / To deliver from misfortune, / To deliver from these evils, / Then may Ukko be our healer, / Be our strength and wise Physician. / “Omnipresent God of mercy, / Thou who livest in the heavens, / Hasten hither, thou art needed, / Hasten to thine ailing children, / To observe their cruel tortures, / To dispel these fell diseases, / Drive destruction from our borders. / Bring with thee thy mighty fire-sword, / Bring to me thy blade of lightning, / That I may subdue these evils, / That these monsters I may banish, / Send these pains, and ills, and tortures, / To the empire of Tuoni, / To the kingdom of the east-winds, / To the islands of the wicked, / To the caverns of the demons, / To the rocks within the mountains, / To the hidden beds of iron, / That the rocks may fall and sicken, / And the beds of iron perish. / Rocks and metals do not murmur / At the hands of the invader. / “Torture-daughter of Tuoni, / Sitting on the mount of anguish, / At the junction of three rivers, / Turning rocks of pain and torture, / Turn away these fell diseases / Through the virtues of the blue-stone; / Lead them to the water-channels, / Sink them in the deeps of ocean, / Where the winds can never find them, / Where the sunlight never enters. / “Should this prayer prove unavailing, / O, Health-virgin, maid of beauty / Come and heal my dying people, / Still their agonies and anguish., / Give them consciousness and comfort, / Give them healthful rest and slumber; / These diseases take and banish, / Take them in thy copper vessel, / To thy eaves within the mountains, / To the summit of the Pain-rock, / Hurl them to thy boiling caldrons. / In the mountain is a touch-stone, / Lucky-stone of ancient story, / With a hole bored through the centre, / Through this pour these pains and tortures, / Wretched feelings, thoughts of evil, / Human ailments, days unlucky, / Tribulations, and misfortunes, / That they may not rise at evening, / May not see the light of morning.” / Ending thus, old Wainamoinen, / The eternal, wise enchanter, / Rubbed his sufferers with balsams, / Rubbed the tissues, red and painful, / With the balm of healing flowers, / Balsams made of herbs enchanted, / Sprinkled all with healing vapors, / Spake these words in supplication. / “Ukko, thou who art in heaven, / God of justice, and of mercy, / Send us from the east a rain-cloud, / Send a dark cloud from the North-west, / From the north let fall a third one, / Send us mingled rain and honey, / Balsam from the great Physician, / To remove this plague of Northland. / What I know of healing measures, / Only comes from my Creator; / Lend me, therefore, of thy wisdom, / That I may relieve my people, / Save them from the fell destroyer, / If my hands should fall in virtue, / Let the hands of Ukko follow, / God alone can save from trouble. / Come to us with thine enchantment, / Speak the magic words of healing, / That my people may not perish; / Give to all alleviation / From their sicknesses and sorrows; / In the morning, in the evening, / Let their wasting ailments vanish; / Drive the Death-child from Wainola, / Nevermore to visit Northland, / Never in the course of ages, / Never while the moonlight glimmers / O’er the lakes of Kalevala.” (Kalevala, rune 45. | Elias Lönnrot. Translated by: John Martin Crawford)
Arabic calligraphy text in Arabic (original):
“يا سيد الهواء، إلى الحرارة تقدم / إمحُ الشرر المقدس / واخفض البخار الفائض إلى الأرض / أطرد البخار الضار / لكيلا يحترق أولادك / لكيلا تفسد مخلوقاتك / وليكن ما أهرقه من ماء / فوق الحجارة الساخنة / ليكن عسلاً / كشراب عسلي يسيل / ولتتموج بركة من الشراب / من الموقد الحجري / لن يأكلونا من دون علّة / ولن يهلكونا من دون مرض / وكل من أراد أكلنا من دون علّة / فلترجع كلماته إلى فمه / وأمانيه الرديئة إلى رأسه / وإن لم أكن أنا رجلاً كافياً / فأوكو نفسه يكفي / فهو ضابط السحاب الساكن في الغيمة الصيفية / ومالك الغيم كله / أيها الإله الذي في الأعالي / هلمّ، فنحن محتاجون إليك / لتزيل عنّا هذي الشدّة / إحمل لي سيفاً من نار / لأحارب به الأشرار / وأبعث الآلام إلى طريق الهواء / أقذفها إلى أقبية حجرية / لتتألم الحجارة ويحلّ الوجع في الصخور / ألا فلتكن الأوجاع في هذا الحجر / وليُقهر ثمة الضرّ الضار / ولتندفع إلى داخله الآلام الصعبة / ولتكبس ثمة أيام الضيق / لكيلا تحاول الهجوم ليلاً / أو الإفلات من الحجر نهاراً / يا حاكم السماء / إبعث من المشرق سحابة / وسحاباً من الشمال الغربي / وابعث من المغرب غيمة / وأمطر العسل / وأمطر الماء / مرهماً للأوجاع / يا خالق تعال فقل القول / يا قادراً على الكل هلمّ تكلم، وانظر / إشف بالليل / وامنح العافية في النهار / كيلا يبقى مرض واحد في العالم.” (كاليفالا، النّشيد 45. | إلياس لونروت. ترجمة: سحبان أحمد مروة)
