An Anthology of Jugoslav Poetry; Serbian Lyrics Part 27

CL

EYEBROW LURE[49]

Oh, my girl, my sweetest flower, Curl not ends of eyebrow bower, Do not grieve your youthful laddies, As your way doth torment me: Leading horse, I wander barefoot-- Carrying boots, I wander barefoot-- Bearing bread, I cannot eat it-- Treading water, cannot drink it.

B. S. S.

CLI

GIRLHOOD[50]

Girlhood was my golden tsardom!

Tsar was I while girlhood lasted; Ah, if I could turn me backward, Well I know how I'd live girlhood.

B. S. S.

CLII

YOUTH WITH YOUTH[51]

On the river Sitnitsa Little green fir standeth!

Who's young and stripling, Youth with green youth sleepeth.

Ah, but see that youthful Jovo, All alone is he, Seeing that the youthful Mara Joins him secretly.

B. S. S.

CLIII

COME, MY LOVER, TO ME[52]

Full and thick is shadow, Come, my love, to meadow, For I've a verdant garden, Red roses for a warden; Golden kerchief will I make thee, Christmas gift of love from me, To carry so splendidly In the memory of thy darling.

B. S. S.

CLIV

SIGHS[53]

Oh my heart, I feel me sighing, Methinks that my lover calls me to him, But in truth my sweetheart's love hath ceased.

Cried out falcon from a fir branch lofty: "O girl lovely! Sinfully you are speaking, Only past night your love called you lovely, Drinking wine unto your bounteous pleasure: 'O my girl, my soul of me most dearest, I have made for thee a hiding, Half my bed and half my arm, Half a pillow, half a cover, Half a cus.h.i.+on, heart of mine in bosom.'"

B. S. S.

CLV

A BOUQUET OF LITTLE ROSES[54]

O girl of my soul, my soul, Take this bunch of rosebuds neat, Should thy bouquet fade and fail, Come once more, my soul, to me I will pluck again for thee.

B. S. S.

CLVI

DREAM INTERPRETATION[55]

Darling sweetheart on his free arm sleeping, Makes he motion to sound gong in waking: "Awake, my dear, dearer than mine own eyes, Last night I a strange dream was a-dreaming: My fez swept 'way on the troubled water, Pearls were strewing richly in my lap-robe, And my watch in pieces four was broken."

Sweetheart waking, calmly speaking this-wise: "Easy is it to interpret dreaming, That your fez was swept by troubled water Means you're to go forth to battle army; That pearls richly scatter'd in your lap-robe Must mean our tears, thine with mine are mingling; That your watch in pieces four was broken Means in truth that our hearts will be breaking When we're forced to take leave of each other."

B. S. S.

CLVII

WITH SWEETHEART NIGHTS ARE SHORTEST[56]

Cyclone downward rumbling, All the castle trembling.

In castle is a girl Crying, never ceasing: "Alas, how long nights are!

When sleeping near to papa; On nine soft mattresses, On nine softest cus.h.i.+ons, 'Neath nine fine coverlets."