Erdelska’s Banitza

Lo! Erdelska’s lady {84a} reared a fir-tree, And invoked the fir-tree—thus invok’d it: “Grow thou, fir-tree, to the height of heaven! To the green grass bend thy spreading branches; Let me mount upon thy branches, fir-tree! From those branches see the white-wall’d Buda, And in Buda see the Budan Jovan. Does he bear himself as once he bore him; Does the feather wave upon his Kalpak; {84b} Does his steed still bear his high head proudly?” Thus she spoke and thought that no one heard her; But the Ban of Transylvania heard her, Even her lord, the Ban, and thus address’d her: “Now, by heaven, thou Erdelskan Banitza; Why is Buda fairer than Erdelska? Why is Jovan nobler than thy husband?” Thus replied the Erdelskan Banitza: “Buda is not fairer than Erdelska, Jovan is not nobler than my husband. But my first, my earliest joy, was Jovan; My first joy—a cup with flowers full laden, Second joy—a cup with wine o’erflowing, My third joy—a cup fill’d up with wormwood.”