Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/49

Runo XXVIII]

Where a safe retreat awaits me,

Where I from my crime can hide me.

O my mother who hast borne me,

Where do you advise my hiding?”

Answered Lemminkainen’s mother,

And she spoke the words which follow:

“No, I know not where to hide you,

Where to hide you or to send you.

As a pine upon the mountain,

Juniper in distant places,

There might still misfortune find thee,

Evil fate might rise against thee.

Often is the mountain pine-tree

Cut to pieces into torches,

And the juniper on heathland,

Into posts is often cloven.

“As a birch-tree in the valley,

Or an alder in the greenwood,

There might still misfortune find thee,

Evil fate might rise against thee.

Often is the valley birch-tree

Chopped to pieces into faggots,

Often is the alder-thicket

Cut away to make a clearing.

“As a berry on the mountain,

Or upon the heath a cranberry,

Or upon the plain a strawberry,

Or in other spots a bilberry,

There might still misfortune find thee,

Evil fate might rise against thee,

For the girls might come to pluck thee,

Tin-adorned ones might uproot thee.

“In the lake as pike when hiding,

Powan in slow-flowing river,

There misfortune still might find thee,

And at last destruction reach thee.

If there came a youthful fisher,

He might cast his net in water,

And the young in net might take thee,

And the old with net might capture.