Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79.

Turkey in Europe, and the Principalities: Sarajevo

The Dance

By From the Servian

Translated by J. Bowring

OMER’S court is near to Sarajevo;

All around it is a woody mountain:

In the midst there is a verdant meadow;

There the maidens dance their joyous Kolo.

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 addressed 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 uttered,

Ere a gun was heard from the green forest;

Damian, wounded, fell amidst the Kolo,—

Damian fell, and thus his love addressed 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?”