Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/127

Runo XXXV]

I have wronged my very sister,

And my mother’s child dishonoured.

“First I went and paid the taxes,

And I also paid the land-dues,

And by chance there came a maiden,

And I sported with the maiden,

And she was my very sister,

And the child of mine own mother.

“Thereupon to death she cast her,

Plunged herself into destruction,

In the furious foaming cataract,

And amid the raging whirlpool.

But I cannot now determine

Not decide and not imagine

How myself to death should cast me,

I the hapless one, should slay me,

In the mouths of wolves all howling,

In the throats of bears all growling,

In the whale’s vast belly perish,

Or between the teeth of lake-pike.”

But his mother made him answer:

“Do not go, my son, my dearest,

To the mouths of wolves all howling,

Nor to throats of bears all growling,

Neither to the whale’s vast belly,

Neither to the teeth of lake-pike.

Large enough the Cape of Suomi,

Wide enough are Savo’s borders,

For a man to hide from evil,

And a criminal conceal him.

Hide thee there for five years, six years,

There for nine long years conceal thee,

Till a time of peace has reached thee,

And the years have calmed thine anguish.”

Kullervo, Kalervo’s offspring,

Answered in the words which follow:

“Nay, I will not go in hiding,

Fly not forth, a wicked outcast,

To the mouth of Death I wander,

To the gate of Kalma’s courtyard,