THE GREAT GRAVE

Three Souls Three snow-white little birds came flying Up through Subotiv and they lighted Upon a torn and twisted cross On an old church.—“The Lord forgive us: We are now souls, no longer people! And from this height we’ll see more clearly How men will excavate the grave. The sooner that grave will be opened, The sooner may we enter heaven. For so the Lord has promised Peter: ‘You may admit them into heaven When the Moskal has all well plundered And has dug open the Great Grave.’” First Soul “When I was a mortal being, I was named Prisea. I was born in this same village And was reared right here. In this churchyard with my comrades I was wont to play. With Yuras, the hetman’s son, We played blindman’s buff. And his mother would come out And invite us in To the nearby house and then Raisins, figs, and fruit, She would often give to me. She was fond of me. And when guests came from Chihrin, Oft the hetman sent Unto me to come and join them, Clothes and shoes they gave me. And the hetman was my escort, And he used to kiss me. So here in Subotiv village, I was reared and blossomed Like a flower. All the people Loved and welcomed me, And to no one ever, ever Did I speak unkindly. And I was a black haired maiden Beautiful, I tell you. All the boys were wont to court me, Many sought my hand. For the moment I was ready With my towels woven And I soon would have consented, When misfortune came. “Very early, ’twas near Christmas, Yes, it was a Sunday, I ran out to fetch some water ... But I found the spring Was all muddy, ceased its flowing, And I kept on flying ... Then I saw the hetman’s party. And I got the water. With full pails I passed before them, For I had no knowledge That he went to Pereyaslav For an oath to Moscow!... It was very hard to carry To the house that water. Why had I not sense to shatter All the pails that held it? Father, mother, self and brother And the dogs I poisoned With that thrice accursed water! That is why I’m punished; That is why they keep me, sisters, From the gates of heaven.” Second Soul “This, my sisters, is the reason Why they barred me also, For I watered well the horse Of the Moscow ruler There in Baturin, when he Went back from Poltava. I was but a little maiden, When at night the Moskals Set in flames great Baturin And they murdered Chechel And they drowned the young and adults In the river Seyma. I fell down among the corpses In the very chambers Of Mazepa. And around me Mother and my sister, Murdered in each other’s arms, Lay there dead beside me. Then by force and violence From my stricken mother They removed me once for all. And I kept on begging From a Moscow captain that he Would kill me at once. But they did not. No, they sent me As a toy for Moskals. But I fled and found a refuge ’Mid the raging fire. There was but one house left standing In all Baturin. In that house they had determined That the tsar would stay On his way back from Poltava. And I went with water To the house.... And then he beckoned With his hand to me. And he bade me tend his horse. So I gave it water. I had no idea I’d wrought Such a grievous sin. I had scarcely reached the building When I fell down dead. The next day, when he departed, I was safely buried By grandmother, who was staying ’Mid the growing fire. For she laid me out with kindness In a roofless building. On the next day she died too And decayed right there, For in Baturin was no one Who could bury victims. But they well the house demolished And they burned the beams, Turned them into coals with curses. I must keep on flying Over the ravines and meadows And the Kozak steppes. But the reason why I’m punished, That I do not know. May be, ’twas because I aided Every one in need, And to please the tsar of Moscow Watered well his horse.” Third Soul “See, my birthplace was in Kaniv. I was but a baby, When one day my mother took me In her arms to see How the Empress Katerina Came there on the Dniper. Mother sat with me in silence On an oak-grown hill. I was weeping, but I know not Whether I was hungry Or if something hurt me badly On that very day. Then my mother tried to cheer me, Pointed to the Dniper, And she showed to me the gorgeous Golden galley towering Like a building.... And upon it Sat the princes, nobles, Leaders, and amid the throng The renowned tsaritsa. Then I looked, and then I smiled, And I lost my soul! Mother died. And on one morning Both of us they buried. That is why it is, my sisters, That I now am punished, That they still do not admit me For that grievous sin! Did I know, a little baby, That the empress was Ukraine’s bitter enemy And a hungry wolf? Tell me this, my sisters!” It grows dark. So let us hasten For the night to Chuta,— What is now the next to happen. There we can find out! So the spirits spread their wings To the forest flying, And together in an oak tree Rested for the night. Three Crows First “Caw! Caw! Caw! Goods Bohdan stole, Took them all to Kiev, And he sold to knaves All the goods he stole.” Second “I have drunk in Paris. With Potocki and Radziwill Three gold coins I squandered.” Third “O’er the bridge Satan comes. The goat is on the water. Woe is coming! Woe is coming!” So called the crows and they flew up From different sides and lighted On a dead tree upon a hill Amid the forest, three of them. With feathers upright as ’gainst cold, Each grimly eyed the other crows, Just as three stern and aged sisters, Who lived alone and lived alone, Until they were with moss o’ergrown. First “That’s for you, and that’s for you! I have just been flying To Siberia and stealing From a poor Decembrist Bits of gall. And so you see I have something still to eat. But in all your land of Moscow Is there food for you? E’en the devil knows there’s nothing.” Third “Sisters, no, there is abundance. I cawed out three royal orders On one road alone....” First “On which road? The road of fetters? No, you have done very well.” Third “And six thousand souls I strangled In one verst alone....” First “Do not lie, there were but five. It was with von Korff. Go on boasting for it shows you Taking praise for others. You are only pickled cabbage, And you, gracious lady, Take your banquets there in Paris! O you cursed pagans! You have shed a bloody river And have chased your nobles To Siberia—it’s proper And you talk about it. What a noble peahen you are!” Second and Third “What have you done better?” First “It is not for you to ask me! You were not yet born, When I poured the wine in plenty And shed lots of blood. Marvel how! You both have read Karamzin’s creations, And you think that you are like me! Get away, you blockheads, You have never been in fetters, Beggars featherless!” Second “No one dares to touch you. She did not rise early, Who was drunk till daylight But who drank and slept.” First “You have drunk enough without me With those priests of yours! Devil take you! I burned Poland, With its kings and all. Without you, you tongue unruly, I would still stand firmly. With the free Kozaks, my victims, What have I accomplished? Unto whom have I not sold them, Unto whom betrayed them? But they live forever, curses! I believed that with Bohdan I had buried them forever— But the rascals rallied With the foul upstart Mazepa. What was there accomplished! When I think of it, I shudder. Baturin I burned, And the Sula there at Romna I dammed with the leaders Of the Kozaks—With the others, With the simple Kozaks Finland’s fields I made to sparkle And I piled them high And I sent my children To Orel ... and in Ladoga Band on band I killed As they filled the awful swamps At the tsar’s command, And the famous Polubotok In the prison smothered. Oh, that was a holy feast! And when hell was sated, Blessed Mary there in Rzhavets Once again was sobbing.” Third “I have had a splendid living. I intrigued with the foul Tatars, With the Torturer I revelled, I have drank with dear Petrukha, And I sold them to the Germans.” First “You have done your work superbly; You have chained up all the Kozaks In the German fetters. Now lie down to sleep! Devil knows, what sort of person They will see in me. For I handed all to slavery And the power of the nobles I increased with uniforms, When I introduced these lice; All of them are nobles’ bastards! And the cursed Sich is loaded With the German spawn And the Moskal’s just as bad. He knows how to warm his hands! I am cruel and just the same I cannot see calmly What the Moskals do in Ukraine, Do unto the Kozaks. Such an order do they publish: ‘By the mercy of the Lord, You are Ours, all is Ours, Whether good or bad!’ Now they’ve come to excavate The ‘antiquities’ From the tombs ... for there is nothing In the house to take,— You have plundered all so nicely! But the devil knows full well What they’re seeking now again From the worthless grave! They should wait a little longer And the church would fall. Then they could describe two ruins In the journal Bee!” Second and Third “Why did you call us to come here? Just to see a grave?” First “Yes, a grave! Yet now two marvels Are about to happen; On this night in Ukraina Twins are to be born. One will scourge, as once did Gonta, All the hangmen evil! And the other—will be ours, Help the hangmen work. Ours pinches in the belly ... And I have read often When this Gonta is a man, All of ours perish. He will plunder all their goods, Not forsake a brother, And will scatter truth and freedom Through all Ukraina. So take care, my dearest sisters, What they are preparing. They are making fetters ready For our knaves and friends.” Third “I will close his eyes forever With a golden shower.” First “He, the cursed charlatan, Will not heed the gold.” Third “I will tie his hands with tokens Of the royal honors.” Second “I will bring from everywhere All the ills and torments.” First “No, my sisters, ’tis not needed. While mankind is blind, There is need to bury him Or there will be trouble. See there; high above our Kiev Is his broom uplifted. O’er the Dniper and Tyasmino Is the earth hard shaken. Do you hear? A groan is rising Over old Chihrin. And the whole of Ukraina Laughs and sobs again. Both the twins have now been born, And the crazy mother Laughing says that she will call both By the name of Ivan! Let us fly.” And so they flew off, And they sang, a-flying. First “Then will come our Ivan O’er the Dniper to Lyman With his Kuma.” Second “The dear lamb will run off So as to eat serpents By my side.” Third “When I seize him, when I catch him, Unto very hell I’ll fly Like an arrow.” Three Bards One was blind and one was crippled And the third was hunchbacked, Going to Subotiv singing Of Bohdan to people. First “What is this the crows have uttered? They have paved the way! Just as if the Moskals kindly Made a seat for them.” Second “And for whom? They will not seat Any man, I’m sure, Counting stars.” First “You tell the truth. Maybe they will place There a Moskal or a German. Either of them there Can find good support.” Third “Why do you talk utter nonsense? What are all the crows? And the Moskals and the seats? May the Lord protect us! Mayhap they will bid us lay eggs And hatch out some Moskals. For there’s rumors that the tsar is Seizing all the world.” Second “Maybe so! Upon the devil They will be on high For they are so lofty minded That they’ll reach the clouds To crawl out ...” Third “That’s really true. Or there’ll be a flood And the lords will crawl out there And will look and marvel How the peasants have to drown.” First “You are men with sense. But you have no whit of knowledge; For they have created All these phantoms just for this; That men may not steal River water and that never They will plough the sand That is there near Tyasma.” Second “Devil knows their purpose! You can’t guess. So don’t talk nonsense! Just suppose we sit Down beneath this tree before us. And we’ll pause a while. In my pack I have two pieces Of dry bread for us. Let us stop and take our rest Till the sun arise. (They sat down.) And who, my brothers, Will sing of Bohdan?” Third “I will sing to men of Yassy, And the Yellow Waters, And the town of Berestechko.” Second “They to-day won’t fail To bring to us splendid profit, For around the grave Is a crowd of people gathered, And a few of nobles. That will mean a lot to us. Let us try our songs As a sample.” First “Not at all! Let us rather rest! Take our sleep. ’Twill be a good day. And we’ll sing enough.” Third “So I say. Come, let us pray And we’ll go to sleep.” The bards beneath the tree soon slept. The sun still slept. The birds are still, But near the grave men have awaked And they have started out to dig. They dig one day, they dig a second, And up on the third with toil They dug until they reached a wall. Then they rested briefly But first they set a guard around, For the captain ordered Not to let a soul come near. To Chihrin he sent “For his chief.” That chief disgusting Came without delay, And he marvelled,—“Yes, we must Break the vault at once.” “’Tis the proper course.”—They broke it And they were all frightened. In the grave some bones were lying As if they were laughing That they saw the sun again. That’s the wealth of Bohdan. It’s a skull and rotted feedtrough, Bones encased in fetters. Had a uniform appeared, They could profit by it. All were laughing and the captain Was the jest of all. There was nothing fit to take And he had worked hard. Day and night he had been striving And it proved no good. If Bohdan had chanced to happen Into his stern hands, He would put him in the army, Till he knew he must not Fool officials! And he runs, Like a fool he cries, Hits the face of Yaremenko, Cursing in his Russian All the crowd; he turns in anger To my aged bards: “What are you here for, you rascals?” “Sir, we came just now So that we Bohdan can sing.” “I’ll give you Bohdan! Rascals, knaves, and parasites! You have made a song For that foul accursed knave!...” “We have learned them, sir!” “I will teach you! Thrash them well!” So they took and thrashed them And they steamed their insides out In a Moscow bath. Thus the singing of Bohdan Brought to them a profit. So the small grave in Subotiv Was cleaned up by Moscow. But the great grave that is there She has not located.