Bezrodna Nevesta
Is it a cuckoo weeping? No, it is a childless wife. Kolyou has ten
daughters-in-law. All of them have children except beautiful Radolinka,
the youngest. When Easter comes, their mother-in-law sends the nine out
to dance saying "Radolinka will tend your babies, since she has none."
The childless wife weeps.
Malo Selo
The little village goes to bed early, but they forget to lock the gate.
The horses get in and eat up the young girls' flowers.
Kalimanku, Denku
Denko, my godmother, I can't live without you! I'm burning up for you.
I've become a dry tree.
Ogreyalo Yasno Slantse br> Teasing song: If you don't want me, tell me, and I'll go and find another love more handsome than you who will buy me a fur trimmed jacket.
Izpoved
The forest blazes and goes out; my heart blazes and does not go out.
Mother, I can not marry the girl I love; bury me alive at the well,
where the girls go to get water.
Two Shope Songs
A young man speaks to his beloved: "If you love me, let me take you to
the market. I'll buy you a richly embroidered dress, so you can wear it
and I can look at you. In the second song, young wives and daughters
discuss at sunset who will go to the well for water. They argue, for
they fear the evil eye of the young man buried alive there.
Dilmano Dilbero
A song to the beautiful Dilmana, about growing bountiful green peppers
by using the rich fertilizer that comes from the body of a young man who
has been buried alive near a well where the girls go to get water.
Pilentse Pee
Beyond the broad field clipped clean of the girls' flowers by the horses
that got out in the night is a green forest where a nightingale (who is
actually the tormented soul of a childless mother who sinned with a
village wag who promised her a richly embroidered dress and then killed
her in a jealous rage when her handsome husband <who is himself like a
dry tree, trying to forget his real love for his godmother which must
remain forever unrequitted> bought her a fur trimmed jacket) sings in
an ancient tree, too knobby for anyone to compare his wife's body to, at
least not where she can hear him and box his ears: "Whoever has a
beautiful wife had better love her now, for troubled times are on the
way, and at that time it will be best if you simply have your mothers
bury you alive at the well where the girls go to get water."
O, ah, "ladies first," Mr. Manners.
