PAGAN SONGS[1]
Reading edition
PAGAN SONGS[1]
KUPALO[2]
(Fragment)
I
On Ivan-Kupalo
Ivan was bathing.
And he fell into the water
On the Day of Kupalo.
22II
Hai! On the Day of Ivan-Kupalo
A beautiful maid her fortune sought.
She plucked the flowers to make her garlands—
The Malva-flower and Lewbistok—
She strewed them on the river’s breast.
“Float, my wreath, with the wave’s swift flowing,
Straight to the window of my love—
Float to the heart of the one I love,
And bring good fortune with thee!”
The wreath is floating,
Carrying with it
The heart of the maid.
At the bend of the river,
’Tis swamped by the wave—
Kupalo, Kupalo,
No fortune gave!
That night the maiden
Trezilie[3] sought.
In the midnight hour
She dug them up.
23She made a brew
In the dead of night,
And ere the dawn
The poison drank.
SONG TO VESNIANKA (SPRING)
(Fragment)
O Lady Vesnianka,
Where didst thou spend the winter?
“In the forest, upon the oak,
I was spinning the thread for a shirt.”
· · · · ·
O Spring, the beauty! Vesnianka!
Fly to us with the sun.
VESNIANKA—CHILDREN’S SONG
Vesnianka came,
And brought Paradise.
All is blooming, everywhere.
Beauty in the meadows lies,
Joy is in the fields and air,
In the woods is Song.
24Let us garlands make
On Vesnianka’s Day.
Join hands, and in a ring
Interweaving, let us play
Jumping high, the while we sing
In the woods our Song!
All of beauty, life,
Goes when winter’s here.
Bloom will perish, birds grow dumb,
All things lovely disappear.
But the time has not yet come
To leave off our song.
HYEEVKA—SONG OF THE WOODS
What did she bring us, the beautiful Spring?
Fair tresses, maiden’s beauty.
A maiden’s beauty is as dew in summer
Washed in a spring, dried in an oven,
Set on a table, wrapped in paper.
Springtime! And now what is it she brings us?
She brought us Strength, beauty of boys.
Beauty of boys is as dew in summer
Washed in a rain-pond, dried on a fence,
Set on a table, wrapped in rags.
25