Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/64

52

But he found no more his homestead,

And the walls he found not standing;

Where the house before was standing,

Rustled now a cherry-thicket,

On the mound were pine-trees growing,

Juniper beside the well-spring.

Spoke the lively Lemminkainen,

Said the handsome Kaukomieli,

“I have roamed among these forests,

O’er the stones, and plunged in river,

And have played about the meadows,

And have wandered through the cornfields.

Who has spoiled my well-known homestead,

And destroyed my charming dwelling?

They have burned the house to ashes,

And the wind’s dispersed the ashes.”

Thereupon he fell to weeping,

And he wept one day, a second,

But he wept not for the homestead,

Nor lamented for the storehouse,

But he wept the house’s treasure,

Dearer to him than the storehouse.

Then he saw a bird was flying,

And a golden eagle hovering,

And he then began to ask it:

“O my dearest golden eagle,

Can you not perchance inform me,

What has happened to my mother,

To the fair one who has borne me,

To my dear and much-loved mother?”

Nothing knew the eagle of her,

Nor the stupid bird could tell him,

Only knew that she had perished;

Said a raven she had fallen,

And had died beneath the sword-blades,

’Neath the battle-axes fallen.

Answered lively Lemminkainen,

Said the handsome Kaukomieli:

“O my fair one who hast borne me,

O my dear and much-loved mother!