Drive from out their stalls the cattle,
Send the cattle forth to pasture,
After them she sent the shepherd,
That the slave should drive the cattle.
Runo XXXII.—The Death of Ilmarinen’s Wife
Argument
While Kullervo is in the pasture in the afternoon he tries to cut the cake with his knife which he completely spoils, and this goes to his heart the more because the knife was the only remembrance left to him of his family (1-98). To revenge himself on the mistress, he drives the cattle into the marshes to be devoured by beasts of the forest, and gathers together a herd of wolves and bears, which he drives home in the evening (99-184). When the mistress goes to milk them she is torn to pieces by the wild beasts (185-296).
Kullervo, Kalervo’s offspring,
Put his lunch into his wallet,
Drove the cows along the marshes,
While across the heath he wandered,
And he spoke as he was going,
And repeated on his journey,
“Woe to me, a youth unhappy,
And a youth of wretched fortune!
Wheresoe’er I turn my footsteps,
Nought but idleness awaits me;10
I must watch the tails of oxen,
And must watch the calves I follow,
Always tramping through the marshes,
Through the worst of level country.”
Then upon the ground he rested,
On a sunny slope he sat him,
And he then composed these verses,
And expressed himself in singing:
“Sun of Jumala, O shine thou,
Of the Lord, thou wheel, shine warmly,20
On the warder of the smith’s herd,
And upon the wretched shepherd,
