Vazha-Pshavela 150

“Don’t be afraid, my child, my dear. But where is it, can you show me?” his
mother asked him. “Look over there, don't you see its ears sticking up from the
woods, mama!” The child pointed to me with tears in his eyes.
“Ooh, oh my dear, dear child, that’s not a wolf, it’s a fawn, my child! Oh,
how beautiful it is!”
“Let's catch it, darling mama,” the small child said to his mother. And at the
same time, impatient, he was ready to run towards me.
“No, my dear child, it’s a sin, my child, you know it has a mother! She
would certainly cry about her child!”
I held my breath and listened, pleased to hear a word of pity for us. I even
wanted to listen more, but my mother returned, and ran up to me, saying:
“Hey, you silly child, do you really believe what they’re saying?! Why are
you looking over there? Let's go, quickly, follow me! They’ll go away, but
they’ll tell the hunters about our home and then they’ll make us say goodbye to life.”
My poor mother sensed beforehand that this is what would happen.
IV
My mother jumped up, and I did too, and we bounded up the hill. At the
very last moment, this was all I heard: “Ooh, its mother is there, too!”
We entered an area at the edge of the ridge that was overgrown with reeds
and covered with butterbur, whose roots were moistened by the cold springs.
Footprints of a small fawn like me were visible here and there on the mud. It
was frightfully hot. We were worried. We lay down in the butterbur, and its
wide leaves protected us from the rays of the burning sun. Suddenly, the clouds
lifted from the mountain peaks surrounding us, and gathered together. The sky
rumbled, thundered, and there was a flash of lightening.
Heavy rain fell on the opposite cliffs, and soon all around us the leaves of
the trees and the butterbur became so noisy it sounded as if the forest, the
mountains, and valley were all collapsing. Every living creature fell silent. The
birds no longer dared to chirp or hop around playfully. The loathsome jay, who
had frightened me so much earlier, now didn’t seem so completely terrifying. It
was sitting on a beech sapling, with its eyes closed and mucous running down
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