Wilt thou regret me bitterly, when thou shalt learn that I am dead ?--that I have disappeared from among the multitude of the living ?--that I no longer am one of the members of thy family ?" The father answered: "No, certainly I will not regret thee when I shall hear that thou art dead.

Another son perchance will be born to me--a son who will grow up better and wiser than thou." Kullervo, son of Kalervo, answered: "And I also will not be sorry if I hear that thou art dead.

Without any trouble I can find me such a father as thou--a stone-hearted father, a clay-mouthed father, a berry-eyed father, a straw-bearded father, a father whose feet are made of the roots of the willow tree, a father whose flesh is decaying wood." Why does Kullervo use these extraordinary terms?
It is a reference to magic--out of stone and clay and straw, a phantom man can be made, and Kullervo means to say that his father is no more to him than a phantom father, an unreal father, a father who has no fatherly feeling.

His brothers and sisters all questioned in turn if they will be sorry to hear that he is dead, make the same cruel answer; and he replies to them with the same angry words.

But it is very different when he speaks to his mother.
For to his mother he said--"Oh my sweet mother, my beautiful nurse, my loved protectress, wilt thou regret me bitterly when thou shalt learn that I am dead, that I have disappeared from the multitude of the living, that I am no longer one of the members of thy family ?" The mother made answer: "Thou does not comprehend the soul of the mother--thou canst not understand the heart of the mother.