Florence Randal Livesay. Old Ruthenian Folk-song. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

Old Ruthenian Folk-song

By Florence Randal Livesay


From “Slavic Songs” Brother, whence comest thou?
From beyond Dunai?
What heardest thou in Ukraine?

Nothing have I heard,
Nothing have I seen	5
But horsemen on four sides.
The Russians have covered the mountain.
On that mountain a Turkish horse stands;
On the horse sits a Turk’s young son.
In his right hand he holds a sword;	10
From his left blood flows.

On that hill a crow is calling,
And a mother cries over her soldier son.

“Don’t cry, mother, do not grieve;
I am wounded, but not badly.	15
My head, in four pieces; my heart, in six;
My white hands in three pieces,
My white fingers in pieces,
My white body is as fine as poppy-seed.

“Look for a doctor, mother—	20
The doctor, the young carpenter.
Let him build for me a house
Without doors or windows,
For now am I at the end of my life.”