But the sportsmen seize her;
They deceive the songster,
In a cage confine her,
Give her to their loved one.
Nightingale will sing not—
Hangs its head in silence:
Then the sportsmen bear her
To the verdant forests.
Soon her song is waken’d;
“Woe! woe! woe betides us,
Friend from friend divided,
Bird from forest banish’d!”
THE DANCE.
Omer’s court is near to Sarajevo; [181a]
All around it is a woody mountain:
In the midst there is a verdant meadow;
There the maidens dance their joyous Kolo. [181b]
In the Kolo there is Damian’s loved one;
O’er the Kolo her fair head uprises,
Rises gay and lustrous in her beauty.
’Midst the Kolo Nicholas address’d her:
“Veil your face, thou Damian’s best beloved!
For to-day death’s summons waits on Damian.
Half thy face veil over, lovely maiden!”
Hardly the prophetic words were utter’d,
Ere a gun was heard from the green forest;
Damian, wounded, fell amidst the Kolo—
Damian fell, and thus his love address’d him:
“O my Damian! O my sun of springtime!
Wherefore, wherefore didst thou shine so brightly,
Thus so soon to sink behind the mountain?”
“My beloved! O thou rose all beauteous!
Wherefore didst thou bloom so fair, so lovely,
And I never can enjoy, nor wear thee?”
ELEGY.
Konda died—his mother’s only offspring.
O what grief was hers the youth to bury
Far away from his own natural dwelling!
So she bore him to a verdant garden,
And ’neath gold pomegranate trees interr’d him.
Every, every day she wandered thither:
“Doth the earth, sweet son, lie heavy on thee?
Heavy are the planks of maple round thee?”
From his grave the voice of Konda answers:
“Lightly presses the green earth upon me,
Lightly press the planks of maple round me.
Heavy is the virgins’ malediction;
When they sigh, their sighs reach God’s high presence;
When they curse, the world begins to tremble;
When they weep, even God is touch’d with pity.”
INQUIRY.
A maiden sat on th’ ocean shore,
And held this converse with herself:
“O God of goodness and of love!
What’s broader than the mighty sea,
And what is longer than the field,
And what is swifter than the steed,
What sweeter than the honey dew,
What dearer than a brother is?”
A fish thus answer’d from the sea:
“O maid! thou art a foolish girl.
The heaven is broader than the sea;
The sea is longer than the field;
The eye is swifter than the steed;
Sugar more sweet than honey dew;
Dearer than brother is thy love.”