Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/110

Ilmarinen’s wife illustrious
Then herself was brought to weeping,
And she spoke the words which follow:
“Ill thou dost, O wicked herdsman,
Driving bears unto the homestead,
To the yard these wolves gigantic.”
Kullervo, Kalervo’s offspring
Heard, and thus he made her answer:230
“Ill I did, a wicked herd-boy,
Not so great as wicked mistress.
In my cake a stone she baked me,
Baked a lump of rock within it,
On the stone my knife struck sharply,
’Gainst the rock my knife was shattered;
’Twas the knife of mine own father,
Of our race a cherished heirloom.”
Then said Ilmarinen’s housewife,
“O thou herd-boy, dearest herd-boy,240
Wilt thou alter thy intention,
And recall thy words of magic,
And release me from the wolf’s jaws,
From the bear’s claws now release me?
Better shirts will I then give you,
And will give you handsome aprons,
Give you wheaten-bread, and butter,
And the sweetest milk for drinking,
For a year no work will give you,
Give you light work in the second.250
“If you haste not to release me,
Come not quickly to my rescue,
Death will quickly fall upon me,
And to earth shall I be altered.”
Kullervo, Kalervo’s offspring,
Answered in the words which follow:
“If you die, so may you perish,
If you perish, may you perish!
Room there is in earth to hold you,
Room in Kalma’s home for lost ones,260
For the mightiest there to slumber,
For the proudest to repose them.”