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Runo XXIX]
Lemminkainen’s Adventures
47

“Handsome hero, wretched Kauko,
If you will not think upon me,
Then I wish that as you travel,
May your boat on rocks be stranded.”
Rose he not before the cockcrow,
Nor before the hen’s child rose he,
From his sporting with the maiden,
Laughing with the wretched woman.
Then upon a day it happened,
And upon a certain evening,270
He resolved to rise and wander,
Waiting not for morn or cockcrow.
Long before the time he rose up,
Sooner than the time intended,
And he went around to wander,
And to wander through the village,
For his sporting with the damsels,
To amuse the wretched women.
As alone by night he wandered,
Through the villages he sauntered280
To the isle’s extremest headland,
To the tenth among the hamlets,
He beheld not any homestead
Where three rooms he did not notice,
There was not a room among them
Where he did not see three heroes,
And he saw not any hero,
With a sword-blade left unwhetted,
Sharpened thus to bring destruction
On the head of Lemminkainen.290
Then the lively Lemminkainen
Spoke aloud the words which follow:
“Woe to me, the day is dawning,
And the pleasant sun is rising
O’er a youth, of all most wretched,
O’er the neck of me unhappy!
Lempo may perchance a hero
With his shirt protect and cover,
Perhaps will cover with his mantle,
Cast it round him for protection300