Go now and tell them,
Tell your companions
That, O Heiduk,
I have cut off your hands.
Cut away, cut away,
For I did curse them
When, O Buljuk Pasha,
They trembled on the gun.
Go now and tell them,
Tell your companions
That, O heiduk,
I have pricked out your eyes.
Prick away, prick away,
For I did curse them
When, O Buljuk Pasha,
They failed along the gun.
Go now and tell them,
Tell your companions
That, O heiduk,
I have hacked off your head.
Hack away, hack away,
For I did curse it
When, O Buljuk Pasha,
It compassed not your end.
II.
O Mechmed,[23] my beloved son,
Have you come wounded back to me?
Where is your pipe and your heiduk garb?
—Ask me not, ask me not.
Ask me rather where are my comrades.
With six hundred I went to the mountains—
Six of them live and brought me hither,
Brought me though themselves were wounded.
A little time and I must die,—
Call everyone of those I love,
For I would take my leave of them.
When all were come young Mechmed said:
Mother, how long will you mourn for me?
—Till I step down to you in darkness.
Father, how long will you mourn for me?
—Till the raven's wing is white
And I see grapes on the willow-tree.
Sisters, how long will you mourn for me?
—Till we have babes to sing asleep.
How long will you mourn, my beloved?
—Till I go down among the flowers
And bring a nosegay back for him.