The Song of the Blood-Red Flower

Produced by Riikka Talonpoika, Cathy Smith and PG Distributed
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Johannes Linnankoski
From the Finnish. Original Title: Laulu Tulipunaisesta Kukasta First Published in 1920.
The setting sun shone on the wooded slopes of the hill. He clasped the nearest trees in a burning embrace, offered his hand to those farther off, and gave to them all a sparkling smile.
There was joy on the hillside.
The summer wind told fairy tales from the south. Told of the trees there, how tall they are, how dense the forests, and the earth, how it steams in the heat. How the people are dark as shadows, and their eyes flashing with light. And all the trees in the wood strained their ears to listen.
The cuckoo perched in the red-blossomed pine, near the reddest cluster of all. It may be as lovely as lovely can be, cuckooed he, but nowhere does the heart throb with delight as in Finland forests in spring, and nowhere is such music in the air.
All the hillside nodded approvingly.
In a little glade half-way down the slope some newly-felled firs lay tumbled this way and that—their red-blossomed tops were trembling still.
On one of the stems a youth was seated.
He was tall and slender, as the trees he had just felled. His hat swung on a twig, coat and waistcoat were hung on a withered branch. His strong brown chest showed behind the white of the open shirt; the upturned sleeves bared his powerful, sunburnt arms. He sat leaning forward, looking at his right arm, bending and stretching it, watching the muscles swell and the sinews tighten under the skin.