Classic Poem

Yesterday between the even
And the cock-crow went Yakimy,
Softly went he to the widow,
None was there to see.

Welcoming, she held in greeting
Both his hands — " How com'st thou, sweetheart?...
It is time, my Heart, my lover —
Go now, slay thy wife! "

To his wife then crept Yakimy,
But he found no heart to strike her —
" You were married at the altar,
Pretty little bird! "

With entreating words she pleaded,
Begging him to leave her living. . . .
" She was married at the altar, "
So the widow heard.

" She looked pretty as a swallow,
My true wife, my shlubnazhinka,
She doth beg so hard for life now,
How am I to kill? "

" Hearken not to her, Yakimy,
Listen not, young Yakimonko,
Take a sword and go behind her,
And behead her swift. "

So he stole behind and slew her.
Then he whispered to the widow:
" How to slay her you have shown me,
But — the deed to hide? "

" Make a fire in the oven,
Block the flue up very tightly,
So the smoke will not ascend there:
" She was crazy," say.

" Later leave her in the forest,
Say that she in foolish dreaming
Lit a fire to warm herself by,
Perished in the flame. "

Listening, Yakimy's neighbour
Heard his baby crying, crying:
" Where's your wife, O young Yakimy,
That your child cries so? "

" She just went now to the forest
To her sister for a visit,
She forgot her little baby,
She forgot her child! "
. . . . . . . .

Topmost on a forest nut-tree
Was the little Cuckoo calling:
" They take away the young Yakimy,
Fetters on his hands! "

At a little inn they rested.
Yakim drank to drown his sorrow:
" Through the widow, cursed widow,
I have lost my wife! "