Maiden’s Prayer

Beauty’S maiden thus invoked the Heavens: “Send me down a whirlwind! let it scatter Yonder stony tower—its halls lay open! Let me look on Gertshich Manoīlo. If the otter on his knee is playing— If the falcon sits upon his shoulder— If the rose is blooming on his kalpak.”

What she pray’d for speedily was granted: And a storm-wind came across the ocean; And the stony tower fell down before it: And she look’d on Gertshich Manoīlo: Saw the otter on his knees disporting: Saw the falcon sitting on his shoulder: Saw the rose upon his kalpak blooming.