When a child of little stature. 
Where then is my mother’s dwelling,
Where the castles of my father? 
Fire, I fear, has found the hamlet,
And the winds dispersed the ashes.” 
Then he fell to bitter weeping,
Wept one day and then a second,
Wept the third day without ceasing;
Did not mourn the ancient homestead,
Nor the dwellings of his father;
Wept he for his darling mother,
Wept he for the dear departed,
For the loved ones of the island. 
Then he saw the bird of heaven,
Saw an eagle flying near him,
And he asked the bird this question: 
“Mighty eagle, bird majestic,
Grant to me the information,
Where my mother may have wandered,
Whither I may go and find her!”
But the eagle knew but little,
Only knew that Ahti’s people
Long ago together perished;
And the raven also answered
That his people had been scattered
By the, swords, and spears, and arrows,
Of his enemies from Pohya. 
Spake the hero, Lemminkainen: 
“Faithful mother, dear departed,
Thou who nursed me in my childhood,
Art thou dead and turned to ashes,
Didst thou perish for my follies,
O’er thy head are willows weeping,
Junipers above thy body,
Alders watching o’er thy slumbers? 
This my punishment for evil,
This the recompense of folly! 
Fool was I, a son unworthy,
That I measured swords in Northland
With the landlord of Pohyola,
To my tribe came fell destruction,
And the death of my dear mother,
Through my crimes and misdemeanors.” 
Then the ministrel [sic] looked about him,
Anxious, looked in all directions,
And beheld some gentle foot-prints,
Saw a pathway lightly trodden
Where the heather had been beaten. 
Quick as thought the path he followed,
Through the meadows, through the brambles,
O’er the hills, and through the valleys,
To a forest, vast and cheerless;
Travelled far and travelled farther,
Still a greater distance travelled,
To a dense and hidden glenwood,
In the middle of the island;
Found therein a sheltered cabin,
Found a small and darksome dwelling
Built between the rocky ledges,
In the midst of triple pine-trees;
And within he spied his mother,
Found his gray-haired mother weeping. 
Lemminkainen loud rejoices,
Cries in tones of joyful greetings,
These the words that Ahti utters: 
“Faithful mother, well-beloved,
Thou that gavest me existence,
Happy I, that thou art living,
That thou hast not yet departed
To the kingdom of Tuoni,
To the islands of the blessed,
I had thought that thou hadst perished,
Hadst been murdered by my foemen,
Hadst been slain with bows and arrows. 
Heavy are mine eyes from weeping,
And my checks are white with sorrow,
Since I thought my mother slaughtered
For the sins I had committed!”
Lemminkainen’s mother answered: 
“Long, indeed, hast thou been absent,