Taken from Alexander Bonkalo’s “The Rusyns” 1940:
POEM 1
Greetings to you emperor, my good emperor, my royal emperor!
We defeated the French and I long to go home.
Greetings to you emperor, my good emperor, you made me a soldier;
Do me the favor to enlist also my lover!
Help us, good lord, to beat the Turks.
And in that nice country to embrace the girls.
POEM 2
Don’t cry my rose, don’t cry
Because you will cry your eyes out.
Levoca is a far away place
Where they take me in haste.
A bloody creek flows
Near Uzhhorod with a splash,
My loving rose inquires if my skull was crushed?
No, it’s not blood of that sort.
It’s not from my head,
It’s from my enemy’s instead.
Cut in pieces by my sword.
Filed under: Carpathian Culture, Martial culture Tagged: | poem, soldier
