Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Russia: Vol. XX. 1876–79. | | | | Kazan | | The Siege of Kazan | | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) |
| | Tartar Song, from the Prose Version of Chodzko |
|
BLACK are the moors before Kazan, | |
| And their stagnant waters smell of blood: | |
| I said in my heart, with horse and man, | |
| I will swim across this shallow flood. | |
| |
| Under the feet of Argamack, | 5 |
| Like new moons were the shoes he bare, | |
| Silken trappings hung on his back, | |
| In a talisman on his neck, a prayer. | |
| |
| My warriors, thought I, are following me; | |
| But when I looked behind, alas! | 10 |
| Not one of all the band could I see, | |
| All had sunk in the black morass! | |
| |
| Where are our shallow fords? and where | |
| The power of Kazan with its fourfold gates? | |
| From the prison windows our maidens fair | 15 |
| Talk of us still through the iron grates. | |
| |
| We cannot hear them; for horse and man | |
| Lie buried deep in the dark abyss! | |
| Ah! the black day hath come down on Kazan! | |
| Ah! was ever a grief like this? | 20 | | |
|
|
|
