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From “Roumanian Poems”
I. DOWN there in the prairie | |
| Met two brothers from the army. | |
| Said one brother to the other: | |
| “Take this saddle from my horse | |
| And strike me on the head! | 5 |
| What shall we two do at home? | |
| Mother, father, both are dead; | |
| The cattle have grown old in the stable— | |
| Where the house stood, all is grass.” | |
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II. Mountain, mountain, hard rock, | 10 |
| Let the youths pass by! | |
| Let them go to be shepherds, | |
| So they may run away from the army. | |
| The army is a yoke of wood | |
| Which the boys pull until they die. | 15 |
| The army is a yoke of brass | |
| That they pull without ceasing. | |
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III. When a man goes to the army | |
| The house becomes so poor | |
| Children have not even a hearth. | 20 |
| If some day they grow up, | |
| They will not know they had a father. | |
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IV. Why are you leaning, pine of the woods, | |
| Without swaying and so sad? | |
| Why shouldn’t I bend so sadly | 25 |
| When near me stand three woodsmen with their axes? | |
| They’ve come to chop me down, | |
| And put me in three wagons | |
| And take me to their town, | |
| Just to make of me a prison. | 30 |
| Four stern walls they’ll make of me | |
| Where bravest men shall die. | |
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