Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/126

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That they did not fall upon me,

And when two nights old destroy me.”

With his knife he loosed the collar,

From the sledge the chains he severed,

On the horse’s back he vaulted,

On the whitefront steed he galloped,

But a little way he galloped,

But a little course had traversed,

When he reached his father’s dwelling,

Reached the grass-plot of his father.

In the yard he found his mother,

“O my mother who hast borne me,

O that thou, my dearest mother,

E’en as soon as thou hadst borne me,

In the bath-room smoke hadst laid me,

And the bath-house doors had bolted,

That amid the smoke I smothered,

And when two nights old had perished,

Smothered me among the blankets,

With the curtain thou hadst choked me,

Thrust the cradle in the fire,

Pushed it in the burning embers.

“If the village folk had asked thee,

‘Why is in the room no cradle?

Wherefore have you locked the bath-house?’

Then might this have been the answer:

‘In the fire I burned the cradle,

Where on hearth the fire is glowing,

While I made the malt in bath-house,

While the malt was fully sweetened.’”

Then his mother asked him quickly,

Asked him thus, the aged woman:

“O my son, what happened to thee,

What the dreadful news thou bringest?

Seems from Tuonela thou comest;

As from Manala thou comest.”

Kullervo, Kalervo’s offspring,

Answered in the words which follow:

“Horrors now must be reported,

And most horrible misfortunes.