ELEGY.
RUSSIAN.
O thou field! thou clean and level field!
O thou plain! so far and wide around!
Level field, dressed up with every thing,
Every thing; with sky-blue flowerets small,
Fresh green grass, and bushes thick with leaves;
But defaced by one thing, but by one!
For in thy very middle stands a broom,
On the broom a young gray eagle sits,
And he butchers wild a raven black,
Sucks the raven’s heart-blood, glowing hot,
Drenches with it too the moistened earth.
Ah, black raven, youth so good and brave,
Thy destroyer is the eagle gray!
Not a swallow ’tis, that hovering clings,
Hovering clings to her warm little nest;
To the murdered son the mother clings,
And her tears fall like the rushing stream,
And his sister’s like the flowing rill;
Like the dew the tears fall of his love—
When the sun shines it dries up the dew!
Translated by Talvi.
TAKE THY OLD CLOAKE ABOUT THEE.[[14]]
This winter weather—itt waxeth cold,
And frost doth freese on every hill,
And Boreas blows his blastes so cold
That all our cattell are like to spill;
Bell, my wife, who loves no strife,
Shee sayd unto me quietlye,
Rise up, and save cowe Crumbocke’s life—
Man, put thy old cloake about thee.
He. O Bell, why dost thou flyte and scorne?
Thou kenst my cloake is very thin,
Itt is soe bare and overworne
A cricke he thereon can not renn;
Then Ile no longer borrowe nor lend,
For once Ile new apparelled bee;
To-morrow Ile to towne, and spend,
For Ile have a new cloake about mee.
She. Cow Crumbocke is a very good cowe,
She ha beene alwayes true to the payle,
Shee has helpt us to butter and cheese, I trow,
And other things she will not fayle,
I wold be loth to see her pine,
Good husbande, council take of mee,
It is not for us to goe so fine—
Man, take thy old cloake about thee.
He. My cloake, it was a very good cloake,
Itt hath been alwayes true to the weare,
But now it is not worth a groate;
I have had itt four-and-forty yeare.
Sometime it was of cloth in graine,
’Tis now but a sigh clout as you may see
It will neither hold nor winde nor raine—
And Ile have a new cloake about mee.
She. It is four-and-forty yeeres agoe
Since the one of us the other did ken,
And we have had betwixt us towe
Of children either nine or ten;
We have brought them up to women and men,
In the fere of God I trowe they bee,
And why wilt thou thyself misken—
Man, take thy old cloake about thee.
He. O Bell, my wiffe, why dost thou floute,
Now is now, and then was then;
Seeke now all the world throughout,
Thou kenst not clownes from gentlemen,
They are cladd in blacke, greene, yellowe, or gray,
Soe far above their owne degree—
Once in my life Ile do as they,
For Ile have a new cloake about mee.
She. King Stephen was a worthy peere,
His breeches cost him but a crowne,
He held them sixpence all too deere,
Therefore he call’d the tailor loon.
He was a wight of high renowne,
And thouse but of a low degree—
Its pride that putts this countrye downe—
Man, take thy old cloake about thee.
He. Bell, my wife, she loves not strife,
Yet she will lead me if she can;
And oft to live a quiet life
I’m forced to yield though I bee good-man.
Itt’s not for a man with a woman to threepe,
Unless he first give o’er the plea;
As we began sae will wee leave—
And Ile take my old cloake about mee.
Anonymous—16th century.