1 kaj.
2 A woman and a man are living in the outskirts of the tsar's city in a dilapidated, rotten [and] bad hut.
3 One day the man says: "Let's go [and] build a fish weir!"
4 The man's name is kaj.
5 kaj and his wife got up and went out to build a fish weir.
6 They reached the place, where [they] wanted to build the fish weir [and they] built a fish weir and made a deadfall trap.
7 After [they] finished with both traps, [they] returned home.
8 The next morning kaj was getting ready to go check the fish weir.
9 kaj woke up his wife, but his wife did not get up.
10 He left his wife there [and] went alone to check the fish weir.
11 [He] walked along the tsar's riverbank to check the deadfall trap.
12 As he reached the tsar's riverbank he stopped.
13 He glances up the slope: on top of the slope the tsar's soldiers were walking up and down, but a little lower lied the tsar's gold-filled sacks.
14 kaj thinks: "If only I could get just one sack from here!"
15 He stood there helplessly for a time; [then] he continued on his way.
16 He arrived, raised his net: a burbot was in there.
17 He checked his trap: a wood grouse cock was got in there.
18 He picked up the wood grouse cock and put it into the net, he picked the burbot and put it in the deadfall trap.
19 With that he returned home.
20 When he returned home, his wife asked: "What did you catch?"
21 kaj told his wife: "I didn't catch anything! Tomorrow we will go together, with your luck maybe we will catch some kind of fish."
22 Evening came, [they] ate [and] drank, bound [their] heads and eyes [and] went to sleep.
23 Dawn came, [it] was time [for them] to check the traps, kaj woke his wife and [they] went to check the weir together.
24 They arrive and check the weir: a wood grouse cock is in it!
25 The wife says: "How did a wood grouse cock get in there?"
26 kaj says: "Do forest animals come to places like this?"
27 They check the deadfall trap: a burbot is in it!
28 The wife says: "How did a burbot get in there?"
29 kaj says: "Do fishes swim to places likes this?"
30 They grab their prey and return home.
31 Just [as they] arrive at the tsar's riverbank [they] stop.
32 kaj tells his wife: "You just stay here, I'll go up."
33 He grabbed one of the tsar's gold-filled sacks and took it with him.
34 [They] arrived home.
35 After [they] ate [and] drank, three soldiers barged into the house.
36 "Our Tsar Father, our God Father sent for you!"
37 kaj and his wife went to the tsar.
38 The tsar tells kaj: "Did you steal my gold-filled sack?"
39 kaj says: "We did not steal it."
40 As kaj was saying these words, the tsar pushed him aside.
41. They called for kaj's wife and the car asked her: "Did you steal my goldcoin-filled sack?"
42 kaj's wife said: "Today we went to check the weir and stole the gold-filled sack."
43 At this kaj said: "What does this fool [even] know to be questioned at all? She doesn't even know what she ate yesterday!"
44 The tsar asked kaj's wife again: "You checked the weir, what did you catch?"
45 She says: "In the net [we] caught a wood grouse cock, in the deadfall trap [we] caught a burbot."
46 Hearing these words the tsar shouted to his soldiers: "Go, throw them out!"
47 kaj and his wife were thrown out.
48 A new day dawned.
49 kaj and his wife had a calf.
50 [They cut down the calf, and] flayed it for its calfskin.
51 kaj cut out the calf's stomach and filled it with blood.
52 In the evening before they went to bed [he] tied it to his wife's chest.
53 In the morning kaj got up, took his knife and started cutting a rope for the net.
54 Az he sits there cutting rope, three men come in, kaj wakes his wife. "Get up, get up, guests came. Make tea and the like."
55 The wife just lies there, not getting up.
56 kaj calls her a second time: "Get up, get up! You slept enough!"
57 No, the woman keeps sleeping, like an ignorant person, at this kaj stabs his wife's chest with his knife.
58 The woman jumped up, ran up and down, covered in blood, carrying tea and firewood.
59 At this all three men who just entered said: "This knife of ours is really good! If only you would give it to us! Our women in the morning require strong spades to turn over [, thats how deep they sleep].
60 kaj says: "If you need it [then] take it. It's not in a good place with me."
61 The three men were given food and drinks, [then] they rose and left.
62 In the morning, two days after they left, from the village where the three men who were gifted the knife lived, a child comes by and brings the news: "Aye, aye, with the gift knife all three men killed their wives in the morning."
63 When kaj heard this, his skin was like as if ice cold water was poured on him.
64 He started wondering: "I have killed so many people, surely now I will be killed too. Something must be done!"
65 He sat for a while, went out and cut his boat into the shape of a coffin.
66 He returned to the house, [and] tells his wife: "Lay me into the boat as if I were dead. If someone comes to kill me, cry as much as you can (to exhaustion). Tell them: 'Today my husband has changed'".
67 His wife laid (heaved) kaj into the coffin.
68 It didn't take long before the three men barged into the house, kaj's wife cries [and] cries [till she is] exhausted and says: 'Today my husband has changed'.
69 The oldest man says: "We have to sink [him] through an ice hole."
70 [They] carved a large hole in the ice [and] the three men grabbed kaj to throw him through the ice hole.
71 The youngest man says: "We have to go to the tsar, so he orders to throw him into the water."
72 The three men went to the tsar.
73 After they left, kaj jumped up [and] looked towards the riverbank: a man is coming [towards them], [he] travels with three horses.
74 The man went there [and] asked kaj: "Where did you travel to?"
75 - "I travelled to the underwater city, there is a city of fine gold down there. Here lies the boat which travelled with."
76 The man said: "Listen, if it is [truly] so [then] I will go down [there] too. Let me into your boat and bind me!"
77 kaj laid the man into the coffin [and] tightened the lid well [onto it, then] kaj sat into the three-horse sleigh and sled out [so quickly] to the riverbank that the snow just swirled around.
78 The three men returned.
79 As [they] thrust the coffin through the ice-hole it sank (glub, glub) - with that kaj returned home.
80 Now [he] is living in happiness and prosperity.