Ah, black raven, youth so good and brave!
Thy destroyer is the eagle gray.
Not a swallow 't is, that hovering clings,
Hovering clings to her warm little nest;
To the murdered son the mother clings.
And her tears fall like the rushing stream,
And his sister's like the flowing rill;
Like the dew the tears fall of his love:
When the sun shines, it dries up the dew.
P.
Servian songs begin also frequently with a series of questions, the
answers to which form mostly a very happy introduction to the tale.
For instance:
What's so white upon yon verdant forest?
Is it snow, or is it swans assembled?
Were it snow, it surely had been melted;
Were it swans, long since they had departed.
Lo! it is not swans, it is not snow, there,
'T is the tents of Aga, Hassan Aga, etc.[6]
In Russian songs, on the other hand, a form of expression frequently
occurs, which we venture to call a negative antithesis. It is less
clear than the Servian, but just as peculiar. A preceding question
seems to be frequently supposed; as we have also seen in the piece
adduced above, "It is not a swallow," the poet says, "that clings to
her nest; it is a mother who clings to her son." In other songs we
hear;
Not a _falcon_ floateth through the air,
Strays a _youth_ along the river's brim, etc.
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