The Dance

Omer’S court is near to Sarajevo; {181a} All around it is a woody mountain: In the midst there is a verdant meadow; There the maidens dance their joyous Kolo. {181b} In the Kolo there is Damian’s loved one; O’er the Kolo her fair head uprises, Rises gay and lustrous in her beauty. ’Midst the Kolo Nicholas address’d her: “Veil your face, thou Damian’s best beloved! For to-day death’s summons waits on Damian. Half thy face veil over, lovely maiden!” Hardly the prophetic words were utter’d, Ere a gun was heard from the green forest; Damian, wounded, fell amidst the Kolo— Damian fell, and thus his love address’d him: “O my Damian! O my sun of springtime! Wherefore, wherefore didst thou shine so brightly, Thus so soon to sink behind the mountain?” “My beloved! O thou rose all beauteous! Wherefore didst thou bloom so fair, so lovely, And I never can enjoy, nor wear thee?”